Major Fentanyl Labs Move to Canada and California ~ Borderland Beat

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In October 2023, Los Chapitos hung drug banners in Culiacán and other cities in Sinaloa, announcing a ban on the sale, production and transportation of fentanyl.

The banners also warned against the sale or commercialization of chemical precursors needed to produce the drug. The message, attributed to Ivan Archivaldo, Jesus Alfredo and Joaquin Guzman, sons of drug trafficker Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, read: “We have never been involved in that business and never will be. Face the consequences.”

With these warnings, this faction of the Sinaloa cartel distanced itself from the production and trafficking of fentanyl, despite the fact that this industry is one of the most profitable and has made them priority targets for the United States.

Nearly a year after these announcements, reports began to emerge of the relocation of secret laboratories producing this deadly synthetic drug.

Katarina Szulc, an independent journalist, has revealed that Canada has become the new epicenter of fentanyl production thanks to the infiltration of Mexican cartels, particularly the Sinaloa cartel.

Sinaloan laboratories in Canada

Large-scale raids on secret laboratories are becoming more common in Canada. A recent intervention in Drummondville, Quebec, resulted in the seizure of hundreds of thousands of counterfeit pills containing powerful synthetic opioids.

Szulc says the Sinaloa cartel has been sending its operators to Canada, to states bordering the United States, which has increased the efficiency of trade and production. “They’re sending people from Sinaloa to Canada, close to the U.S. states that the cartel is trying to reach. That makes the trade easier and closer,” he said.

Over the past five years, members of the Sinaloa Cartel, particularly Los Chapitos, have established themselves on the west coast of Canada 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 visible, indicating their lifelong residence in the city. Despite the presence and activity of local gangs such as the Brothers Keepers, Red Scorpion and Hells Angels, the influence of Mexican cartels has been underestimated until now.

Local Asian drug dealers also play an important role in the fentanyl production and smuggling chain.
Katarina Szulc says these suppliers, mainly of Chinese and Vietnamese origin, “help obtain the precursors, bring them from Asia and supply them to the laboratories run by the Mexican cartels to produce fentanyl.”

“I have been working here for 4 years: I pick up the stuff, when it is sent to me I check if everything is in order, I am a distributor so to speak, I do not sell to individuals, only to wholesalers. The problem is becoming a bit dangerous because they are making pills here and now and that attracts more government. They have sent people from Sinaloa to do it here, closer to the states they want to reach and the Asians get the chemicals here,” one of the drug lab operators said in an interview.

The shift began around 2019. In May of that year, the Chinese government placed fentanyl on the list of controlled substances and imposed stricter regulations on its production and export.

“This is believed to have been the catalyst for the shift in illicit importation of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues to domestic production in Canada,” the Health Canada briefing said.

“It is a widespread belief that surplus produce is exported to lucrative international markets,” the note said.

In 2022, Australian border officials seized 11 kilograms of fentanyl believed to have originated in Canada. Since the beginning of 2021, U.S. border officials have seized about 25 kilograms of fentanyl originating from the northern border, a relatively small amount compared to seizures at the southern U.S. border.

California Lab Bust

The Buena Park Police Department’s Community Impact Team was investigating a suspected drug manufacturing and sales operation on Wednesday when they came across the lab in the 10600 block of Ellis Street in Fountain Valley. The lab was located in a warehouse.

Although they knew something might be at the location, the scale of the operation caught police by surprise. “I don’t think they realized it was going to be this big,” said Sgt. Jon Shadow of the Buena Park Police Department.

Shaddow said it was the largest drug lab raid in recent history for the department. The lab contained about 300,000 pills suspected to be fentanyl, the department said. Other drugs and machinery used to make drugs were also found.

Photos released by police show Ziploc bags full of orange pills, as well as bags filled with turquoise and white pills.

The department called in the Orange County Environmental Health Hazardous Materials Team to assist them in combating the deadly drugs.

Police arrested the 26-year-old but did not release his name due to the ongoing investigation.

Sources Infobae, CBC, LA Times

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