By J.M. Phelps (One News Now)
Massive amounts of precursor chemicals coming from China are being used to supply super-labs in Mexico for the production of methamphetamines and more – and America is being harmed in the process.
OneNewsNow spoke to a former head of the Special Operations Division (SOD) of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) about the global drug trade, which uses precursor chemicals in illegally manufacturing narcotics and psychoactive substances. According to Derek Maltz, China’s participation in the global drug crisis an “underreported story” and that “it’s been going on for years and the average person doesn’t even realize it.”
However, he does acknowledge that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the DEA “did an amazing job cutting off the ability for ‘mom and pop’ labs [in the U.S.] to produce meth.” During that period, importation of precursor chemicals into the U.S. to produce meth was targeted with great success.
As a result, the former DEA executive says, drug-dealing “kingpins” like Chapo Guzmán and others recognized the U.S. success as “a golden opportunity to make a killing — so … they started bringing in massive quantities of precursor chemicals from China and other countries in Asia.”
These precursor chemicals, he says, were brought into the ports of Mexico to be sent to a number of “super-labs” around the country.
“Cartels started dominating the methamphetamine production business inside of Mexico,” Maltz explains. “Cartels like the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel built super-labs in Mexico to produce massive amounts of methamphetamines, up to seven tons of meth every three days.” He adds that higher volumes of meth have been being produced in those super-labs for years.
While much of the focus has been on fentanyl, Maltz contends the meth problem in America is “exploding.” Although meth may not be killing people at the same rate, he contends the drug is a larger problem across America.
The cartels also realized the synthetic drug market was a way to increase their profits, Maltz states.
“[Cartels] started looking at this as a business opportunity,” according to the former SOD director. He points out that “K2” and “spice” became commonplace names of these kinds of drugs beginning about a decade ago. Today, similar chemical compounds are being shipped from China to Mexico.
“The Chinese are now seeing an opportunity to make massive amounts of synthetic drugs which will eventually be sold in America,” he continues. China has more than 150,000 chemical companies, and the country is making millions of dollars from the sale of “these poisons,” Maltz adds.
And there’s more …
Not only are the Chinese profiting from precursor chemicals and synthetic drugs, but “they are [also] making bigtime amounts of fentanyl – and the Mexican cartels are buying it directly,” he continues. Remarkably, he says China is also shipping some of these chemicals directly to customers through the U.S. postal system – and many of them are being sold from websites in China.
It doesn’t stop there. “The Chinese are dominating the money laundering services business for the cartels in America,” he asserts, explaining that it’s very difficult for law enforcement to penetrate the ethnic Chinese groups.
Law enforcement, says the former DEA exec, has plenty of informants who are Spanish-speaking, as well as undercover agents who can easily infiltrate Mexican-linked organizations.
“[But] law enforcement doesn’t have an unlimited cadre of informants and undercover agents that speak these [ethnic Chinese] languages,” he tells OneNewsNow. And as a result, law enforcement finds these Chinese organizations more difficult to penetrate, as drug traffickers continue to get paid through a very sophisticated, trade-based money laundering scheme orchestrated by China.
“America is a big adversary to China, so it’s not far-fetched to think the Chinese are purposely killing Americans and making millions of dollars while doing it” – and weakening their “adversary America” by destroying communities and families, he argues.
Maltz finds the alliance between Mexican cartels and China “fascinating” – and he deems it unfortunate that America is having to divert resources to the drug problem the Mexican cartels are creating in partnership with China.
“It’s amazing,” he concludes, “that no one is reporting this ongoing Chinese business arrangement with the cartels designed to make a lot of money and to hurt America at the same time.”
J.M. Phelps is a counter-terrorism specialist, suicide bombing expert, and freelance journalist, focusing on national security for OneNewsNow. He is also editor and publisher of the website Lantern of Liberty.
Originally published by One News Now on Friday, May 29, 2020.
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