Mexico claims largest artificial drug lab bust so far

Troopers raided the lab Tuesday and located nearly 630,000 drugs that seem to comprise the artificial opioid fentanyl. Additionally they reported seizing 282 kilos (128 kilograms) of powdered fentanyl and about 220 kilos (100 kilograms) of suspected methamphetamines.

“That is the highest-capacity artificial drug manufacturing lab on file throughout this administration,” the military stated in a press release.

Mexican drug cartels produce the opioid from precursor chemical substances shipped from China, after which press it into drugs counterfeited to appear like Xanax, Percocet or Oxycodone. Folks typically take the drugs with out realizing they comprise fentanyl and might undergo lethal overdoses.

The bust got here on the identical day that the U.S. Senate International Relations Committee held a listening to on the the massive variety of U.S. fentanyl overdoses that happen yearly, at the moment round 70,000.

The committee’s chair, Sen. Bob Menendez , a Democrat from New Jersey, referred to as on Mexico to do extra.

“This implies asking Mexico to do extra to disrupt the felony organizations from producing and trafficking fentanyl, though a politicized judiciary and incidents of Mexican safety forces colluding with drug cartels will make that troublesome,” he stated.