The US is preparing to announce an agreement with Mexico to counter fentanyl crossing the southern border, with Mexico cracking down on labs and smuggling, while the US does more to stop the flow of US weapons to Mexico, two sources familiar with the strategy told NBC. News.
The Mexican military and police, with the help of US law enforcement, will focus on tracking down the raw materials for fentanyl being shipped to Mexico, finding and shutting down the labs that make the deadly synthetic opioid, and going after key players in the illicit fentanyl trade, according to the sources. saying.
In exchange, the Biden administration agreed to more strictly control and track firearms crossing from the US into Mexico.
The tentative agreement is the result of months of tense discussions between top officials in the Biden administration and the Mexican government, the sources said.
The White House and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in a speech this month that fentanyl is a US problem and that no drug is produced in his country.
“We don’t produce fentanyl here and we don’t have fentanyl consumption,” López Obrador said, suggesting that the US instead address its “social breakdown” problem.
In fiscal year 2022, Customs and Border Protection found and seized more than 50,000 pounds of fentanyl crossing the southern border. Mexican cartels often use the powerful drug to cheaply and deceptively heighten the impact of less deadly drugs such as cocaine or Adderall. Many users don’t know they are using fentanyl until after the drug has ended their lives.
According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 70,000 people in the US died from synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, in 2021, the latest year for which data are available.
During conversations between US and Mexican officials, the sources said, Mexicans routinely said that US guns were taking Mexican lives and that any talk about fentanyl taking American lives should also address that issue.
As a result, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has agreed to more closely monitor the flow of weapons from the United States to Mexico, the sources said.
Another part of the deal will include giving each country access to the other’s data on where fentanyl appears to better track distribution routes.
Part of the fight to stop the flow of fentanyl from Mexico is that Mexico is experiencing high levels of violence, absorbing the attention of its police and military. Four Americans were kidnapped and two killed this month in Mexico.
US federal law enforcement agencies work closely with the Mexican government to stamp out drug smuggling. Now the Mexican government has agreed to provide more personnel, while the United States is willing to commit more money to targeted drug operations, the sources said.
Depending on how much money the US commits, and how much Mexico accepts, the new strategy could be the strongest deal on the flow of drugs and firearms between Mexico and the US since the George W. Bush in 2004. In that initiative, the United States provided more than $1.5 billion to Mexico. It has not yet been determined how much financial aid the United States will give to Mexico as part of the latest plan, the sources said.
Ken Dilanian contributed.