'Cartels are scrambling': Virus snarls global drug trade
By: Associated Press Posted at 4:17 PM, Apr 19, 2020 and last updated 4:17 PM, Apr 19, 2020
'Cartels are scrambling': Virus snarls global drug trade
NEW YORK (AP) —
Coronavirus is dealing a gut punch to the illegal drug trade, paralyzing economies, closing borders and severing
supply chains in China that traffickers rely on for the chemicals to make such profitable drugs as
methamphetamine and
fentanyl.
One of the main suppliers that shut down is in
Wuhan, the epicenter of the global outbreak....
...Virtually every illicit drug has been impacted, with supply chain disruptions at both the wholesale and retail level. Traffickers are stockpiling narcotics and cash along the border, and
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration even reports a decrease in money laundering and online drug sales on the so-called dark web....
...Cartels are increasingly shifting away from drugs that require planting and growing seasons, like heroin and marijuana, in favor of synthetic opioids such as
fentanyl, which can be cooked 24/7 throughout the year, are up to 50 times more powerful than heroin and produce a greater profit margin....
...Huge amounts of these mail-order components can be traced to a single,
state-subsidized company in
Wuhan that shut down after the outbreak earlier this year, said Louise Shelley, director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University, which monitors Chinese websites selling fentanyl....
...To be sure, narcotics are still making their way into the U.S., as evidenced by a bust last month in which nearly $30 million worth of street drugs were seized in a new smuggling tunnel connecting a warehouse in Tijuana to southern San Diego. Shelley said that bust was
notable in that only about 2 pounds of fentanyl was recovered, "much lower than usual shipments."...
... Capt. Chris Sandoval, who oversees special investigations for the Houston-based Harris County Sheriff's Office, said there's a new saying among his detectives: "Not even the dope dealers can hide from the coronavirus."