Rainbow fentanyl: the new tactic of cartels in Mexico to promote the deadly opioid to kids

The United States Drug Control Administration ( DEA ) detected rainbow fentanyl, a black market drug to promote the deadly synthetic opioid as sweets, whose distribution points to the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG).

According to the report, the two transnational crime groups that operate from Mexico are the main ones responsible for flooding the streets of the United States with the narcotic that has generated hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years. This is why both factions have been mentioned in the new warning.

“The men and women of the DEA are working tirelessly to stop the trafficking of rainbow fentanyl and defeat the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl trafficked into the United States,” said Anne Milgram, chief of the drug enforcement agency.

In August 2022 alone, the DEA seized brightly colored fentanyl and pills of the same type in 18 of the 50 states that make up the North American country. This turned on the alerts again to warn minors.

This trend appears to be a new method used by drug cartels to sell highly addictive and potentially deadly fentanyl made to look like candy to children and youth.

The DEA called the availability of rainbow fentanyl an alarming emerging trend. These are pills and powders that are supplied in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.

To date, multicolored fentanyl has been seized in pills, powder, and blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk. No matter what size or appearance it is presented, the public should consider it to be an extremely dangerous drug, the agency said.

“Despite claims that certain colors may be more potent than others, DEA laboratory tests do not indicate this to be the case,” the report published on August 30 noted.

Until now, it had been detected that drug traffickers synthesized the pills in blue to simulate their relationship with oxycodone. Because of their size, they look like any tablet, but it is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Just two milligrams of fentanyl, which is equivalent to 10-15 grains of table salt, is considered a lethal dose.

Data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that 107,622 people in the United States died from drug overdoses and poisonings in 2021. But that figure is more alarming because 66 percent of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Drug poisoning is the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
The DEA has pointed out that cartel sales are increasing because the narcotic is cheap, widely available, highly addictive, and potentially fatal.

With the new market, they take advantage of synthesizing the drug in reduced packages. In addition to the fact that fentanyl is faster to produce and transport. Few substances generate greater profitability and their damages are exponential.

In Mexico, the Armed Forces have reported the seizure of more than 5,000 kilograms of fentanyl from December 2018 to the current month. The Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection presumes that this figure represents a historical increase of 923% in seizures of synthetic opioids, with respect to the same period of the last administration.

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