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“Socalj” for Borderland Beat
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According to Katarina Szulc, a recent CBC article hinted that the Hells Angels were behind certain labs, but her sources say the Sinaloa Cartel is the real one responsible for the superlabs and most of the fentanyl on Canadian streets. “So far, they have been keeping a low profile, under the radar,” she said.
“Superlab interdictions across B.C., Ontario and Alberta suggest that domestic supply is more than sufficient to supply the domestic market,” the note says.
With these warnings, this faction of the Sinaloa Cartel was distancing itself from the manufacture and trafficking of fentanyl, despite the fact that this business is one of its most profitable and has made them priority targets for the United States.
Almost a year after these announcements, reports have begun to emerge about the relocation of clandestine laboratories that produce this deadly synthetic drug.
Katarina Szulc, an independent journalist, has revealed that Canada has become the new ground zero for fentanyl production thanks to the infiltration of Mexican cartels, specifically the Sinaloa Cartel.
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Sinaloan Labs in Canada
For the past five years, members of the Sinaloa Cartel, particularly Los Chapitos, have settled on Canada’s west coast to run laboratories and large drug trafficking operations . Katarina Szulc recalls: “The Mexican cartels have completely infiltrated the Canadian drug trade without having to cross any borders.”
Former CBC contributor Katarina Szulc explains that the Mexican diaspora in Vancouver is increasingly evident, pointing to their lifelong residence in that city. Despite the presence and activity of local gangs such as Brothers Keepers, Red Scorpion and Hells Angels, the influence of Mexican cartels had been underestimated until now.
Local Asian drug traffickers also play a significant role in this fentanyl production and trafficking chain.
Katarina Szulc says that these suppliers , mainly of Chinese and Vietnamese descent, “help obtain the precursors, bringing them from Asia and supplying them to the laboratories run by the Mexican cartels to produce fentanyl.”
“I have been working here for 4 years: I pick up the things, when they send them to me I check that everything is okay, I am a distributor so to speak, I don’t sell retail, only wholesale. The issue is getting a little dangerous because they are making pills here and now and that attracts more government. They sent people from Sinaloa to do it here, closer to the states they want to reach and the Asians get the chemicals here,” said one of the drug lab operators in an interview.
The shift began roughly in 2019. In May of that year, the Chinese government listed fentanyl as a controlled substance and imposed more regulations on its production and export.
“It is believed this may have prompted the shift from fentanyl and fentanyl analogues being imported into Canada illegally toward domestic production in Canada,” the Health Canada briefing note reads.
“It is widely believed that excess product is being exported to lucrative international markets,” the note reads.
In 2022, Australian border officials seized 11 kilograms of fentanyl believed to have originated in Canada. Since the start of 2021, U.S. border officials have seized roughly 25 kilograms of fentanyl coming in from the northern border, a relatively small amount compared to seizures on the southern U.S. border.
California Lab Bust
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