Breathe
By Stephanie Henaro
India is once again in the world spotlight, but now it is not because of its dominance of space, but because of the drug paradise it has become.
Now it is no longer just Mexico and China that are in the crosshairs when it comes to taking down the networks that make it possible for fentanyl to kill thousands of Americans, because India has entered the equation, and instead of helping to clear it up, it complicates it even more.
The connection with the country currently led by Narendra Modi dates back to 2018, when it was discovered that the Sinaloa Cartel had Jorge Solis as a representative in that country and that he connected his organization with manufacturers of precursors of this drug.
According to a report published in the Hindustan Times newspaper, Mohammad Sadiq, a renowned academic from Davi Ahilya University, and his accomplice Manu Gupta, synthesized doses of fentanyl that were sent to Mexico and the United States in a clandestine laboratory on the second floor of a building located in the city of Indore, in central India.
When the authorities in that country discovered them, thanks to an anonymous call they received from Mexico, they found 11 kilos of fentanyl in the clandestine laboratory, which with the academic's "recipe" would have killed 5 million people.
Three years later, in 2021, the DEA reported in a national risk report that the Indian mafia was beginning to compete with and displace the Chinese, as a result of China's border closures during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
India is a haven for any kingpin. It lacks local regulation of the production, sale, distribution and domestic use of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors. It also has corruptible authorities, weak institutions and ports connected to the entire world with proven routes.
This makes it difficult for authorities to have, at least at this time, more precise data on what quantities of precursors and fentanyl are leaving the country licitly and through drug trafficking. Because the intense daily rhythm allows the most important shipments to be confused among the less relevant ones.
According to the UN, India is the new global fentanyl threat in alliance with Mexico's major cartels. Now the Mumbai Mafia or Company D are the suppliers of precursor chemicals.
D Company is the name given to the Mumbai mafia by the local media in relation to its leader, Dawood Ibrahim, who in 2011 appeared on the FBI's list of the 10 most wanted fugitives.
It is known that the criminal organization has been operating since the seventies and that when Bollywood was in the doldrums and Indian banks did not want to lend their money to finance the increasingly expensive productions and salaries of the stars, Dawood Ibrahim became the patron of Indian cinema. At the same time he financed and logistically supported several of Al Qaeda's attacks in various parts of the world, as well as trying to destabilize India with his support for terrorist and radical Muslim groups. In return, Pakistan allegedly provides him with protection and allows him to live a life without hardship near the country's capital.
All this while shipments of fentanyl are arriving at the ports of Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo, and we - again - are talking about India.
Last one to leave, turn off the light.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
More than 150 opinions from 100 columnists await you for less than one book per month.
Comments ()