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Esteban Moctezuma said that Mexico and the US have a responsibility to combat fentanyl trafficking. He also vindicated the government’s work to curb it.
Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma, said Friday that the vast majority of fentanyl seized at the border is trafficked by U.S. citizens and stressed that the “responsibility” for combating it lies with both countries.
“We are seeing that in 85% of the seizures at the border made by CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) who are transporting the drug are not migrants, they are American citizens,” he said at a press conference in Washington with the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar.
Moctezuma said that both nations have a responsibility to combat it and vindicated the Mexican government’s work to curb the arrival of chemicals from Asia used in drug production.
Likewise, the ambassador also gave as an example the fact that the Navy is responsible for Mexican ports so that “there is greater control”, as well as the letter sent by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, asking for greater collaboration.
“The results are there for all to see, that is to say, there has been a much greater seizure of substances related to the production of methamphetamines and also of fentanyl itself, which has arrived from abroad”, he stated.
‘Most of the fentanyl seized is trafficked by Americans’: Esteban Moctezuma
Esteban Moctezuma said that Mexico and the US have a responsibility to combat fentanyl trafficking, he also vindicated the government’s work to curb it.
‘Most of the fentanyl seized is trafficked by Americans’: Esteban Moctezuma
Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma, assured this Friday that the vast majority of fentanyl seized at the border is trafficked by U.S. citizens and stressed that the “responsibility” to combat it belongs to both countries.
“We are seeing that in 85% of the seizures at the border made by CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) who are transporting the drug are not migrants, they are American citizens,” he said at a press conference in Washington with the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar.
Moctezuma said that both nations have the responsibility to combat it and vindicated the Mexican government’s work to stop the arrival of chemicals from Asia that are used for drug production.
Likewise, the ambassador also gave as an example the fact that the Navy is responsible for Mexican ports so that “there is greater control”, as well as the letter sent by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, asking for greater collaboration.
“The results are there for all to see, that is to say, there has been a much greater seizure of substances related to the production of methamphetamines and also of fentanyl itself, which has arrived from abroad”, he stated.
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid manufactured by Mexican cartels using chemicals from China and trafficked to the United States, where more than 70,000 people died last year from overdoses of the substance.
Democrat Joe Biden’s administration assured that Mexico should do more to stop this drug, but López Obrador doubts that fentanyl is produced in Mexican territory, despite the fact that federal authorities dismantle hundreds of clandestine laboratories of this substance.
At the press conference, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, explained that fentanyl “is a very difficult problem” for his country, which is why the United States launched a global coalition against this opioid, in which Mexico joins but China declines to participate.
“We are working hard against fentanyl and we know that the United States and Mexico have to include the participation of China because that is where the precursors come from and we are working hard with that,” he said.
The diplomat also claimed that the Biden administration responded to Mexico’s demand to curb U.S. arms trafficking to the Latin American country.
“With regard to arms trafficking, we are at a very historic stage. What we are doing has never been done before”, he commented, since the United States passed a law to consider arms trafficking as a “serious crime”.
