How Mexican Cartels Test Fentanyl on Vulnerable People and Animals

Americas|How Mexican Cartels Test Fentanyl on Vulnerable People and Animals

The cartel operatives came to the homeless encampment carrying syringes filled with their latest fentanyl formula. The offer was simple, according to two men living at the camp in northwest Mexico: up to $30 for anyone willing to inject themselves with the concoction.

One of the men, Pedro López Camacho, said he volunteered repeatedly — at times the operatives were visiting every day. They watched the drug take effect, Mr. López Camacho said, snapping photos and filming his reaction. He survived, but he said he saw many others who did not.

“When it’s really strong, it knocks you out or kills you,” said Mr. López Camacho of the drugs he and others were given. “The people here died.”

This is how far Mexican cartels will go to dominate the fentanyl business.

Global efforts to crack down on the synthetic opioid have made it harder for these criminal groups to find the chemical compounds they need to produce the drug. The original source, China, has restricted exports of the necessary raw ingredients, pushing the cartels to come up with new and extremely risky ways to maintain fentanyl production and potency.

The experimentation, members of the cartels say, involves combining the drug with a wider range of additives — including animal sedatives and other dangerous anesthetics. To test their results, the criminals who make the fentanyl for the cartels, often called cooks, say they inject their experimental mixtures into human subjects as well as rabbits and chickens.