A Mexican drug gang known for making and selling fentanyl is getting closer to the border in southern Texas.
The Sinaloa Cartel, a powerful criminal group known for drug trafficking, is reportedly moving its activities nearer to Texas, according to Mexican officials.
The cartel has been relocating its labs to the Monterrey metropolitan area. reported Breitbart, where the Chapitos faction of the criminal group operates.
Mexico’s Navy and the Federal Commission for the Protection of Health Risks recently reported seizing over 120 tons of various chemical precursors from the cartel in the Sinaloa and Nuevo Leon regions. Meanwhile, U.S. authorities are working hard to prevent fentanyl from crossing the border. reported KXAN.
“We are moving into the next stage of our fight against fentanyl. We are targeting the plaza bosses, whose groups are responsible for most of what is smuggled into the U.S. via the southwest border,” said Troy Miller, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at a press conference earlier in April, as per KXAN.
“Sergio Valenzuela-Valenzuela is the first plaza boss that we target, but he won’t be the last,” he said.
Valenzuela is allegedly leading the drug trafficking operations for the Sinaloa Cartel in the Nogales, Mexico, and Nogales, Arizona, region, according to Miller. He was indicted in 2018 in California on charges of conspiracy to import and distribute controlled substances.
“DEA proactively investigates cartel members and associates, like Sergio Valenzuela-Valenzuela, who supposedly oversee the transportation and distribution of these deadly drugs while interagency partners, like U.S. Customs and Border Protection, intercept shipments at the border before they enter our country,” Anne Milgram, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration administrator, said before a House committee last summer, according to KXAN. “These partnerships ensure those responsible face justice for their crimes.”
The amount of fentanyl coming across the border has been steadily increasing. U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that in FY 2023, 27,000 pounds of fentanyl were confiscated, up 84% from 2022, when 14,700 pounds of fentanyl were seized, as reported by DX.
The DFW metroplex has also seen a surge in the deadly opioids being discovered and seized, according to Sgt. Benjamin Banes of the Fort Worth Police Department and Jesse Carr, senior public information officer with the Dallas Police Department.
Both departments are working to combat the influx of the deadly drug into the metroplex, even as DPD continues to suffer from a long-standing shortage of about 1,000 officers, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
