Cartel Strategy May Signal Scary New Phase of Drug War

It's like a work-study program, cartel-style. The New York Times reports that drug cartels in Mexico have been aggressively recruiting chemistry students from college campuses to ramp up their fentanyl game. The overriding goal is to figure out how to produce their own synthetic opioids from scratch and avoid importing from China. If the plan works, it would represent what US drug officials characterize as "a terrifying new phase in the fentanyl crisis," write Natalie Kitroeff and Paulina Villegas. In their reporting, they spoke with seven fentanyl cooks in Mexico, along with three chemistry students, and others involved in the recruitment effort.

The story lays out how cartels typically import the raw materials for fentanyl, chemical compounds known as precursors, from overseas. It doesn't take much skill to turn these precursors into the drug, but the new goal is for the cartel to learn how to make the precursors themselves. "It would make us the kings of Mexico," says one of the chemistry students, who has been cooking fentanyl for six months. Another twist: One chemistry professor in Sinaloa State says students are enrolling in chemistry courses for the sole purpose of learning how to synthesize drugs. Read the full story. (Or check out other stories about Mexican cartels.)