Investigative report examines where fentanyl comes from, how it's made and how it is spread throughout the U.S.

Fentanyl ingredients travel thousands of miles before
crossing into the U.S. (El País graphic)

In trying to encapsulate how much harm fentanyl has done to Americans, the Spanish daily newspaper El País has produced a detailed report, "Fentanyl: The Portrait of a mass murderer," by Iker Seisdedos, David Marcial, Pérez Carlos Rosillo, and Guillermo Abril. Their investigation looks at where fentanyl ingredients come from, where it is made and how it enters the United States.

They write, "It's a big threat. A cheap, white powder — 50 times more powerful than heroin — which kills more than 70,000 people each year in the United States and countless others across the rest of the Western Hemisphere. El País, in a long-term investigation that spanned two continents and included interviews with anti-drug czars in the U.S. and China, visited the clandestine laboratories in Sinaloa, Mexico, where fentanyl is manufactured."

They use as an example how the crisis has affected people in Philadephia. El País reports, "Hundreds of people who are addicted to the powerful opioid live and die on these streets. . . .The fate of all of them begins about 2,500 miles away, next to a different set of train tracks: those that cross Culiacán, in the heart of Mexican drug trafficking territory."

State of Sinaloa within Mexico
(Wikipedia map)

In Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa, a drug cartel makes "cuts" of fentanyl, which is tested on human "guinea pigs" until it is deemed potent enough to ship to the U.S. But while a "cook" in Mexico has created the batch of fentanyl, its chief ingredients, called precursors, were made in China. "A kilo of Chinese precursors costs the cartel — about $800," El País reports. "From there, four kilos of fentanyl come out. The profit can be between 200 and 800 times what they paid. That is, from $160,000 to $640,000 per kilo."

El País reports, "Fentanyl that enters the United States from Mexico comes in powder or, increasingly, in the form of fake pills, which are camouflaged as commercial brands such as Xanax, Vicodin or OxyContin. Drug traffickers press them with machines that they also buy from China."

The point of entry is the hardest for fentanyl traffickers. "According to U.S. authorities, more than 90% of fentanyl enters the country via official ports of entry, hidden in private vehicles or cargo trucks, In 2018 — according to data from Customs and Border Protection — 600 kilos of the substance were intercepted. In 2022, the amount rose to 7,200 kilos."

To read more in-depth about how cartels infiltrate the U.S., and China's involvement in fentanyl trade, click here.