Mexican cartels adapted to COVID-19 security restrictions to flood New York with methamphetamine and fentanyl as DEA reveals seizures spiked in 2020
A Drug Enforcement Administration report found that Mexican drug cartels have taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic with an increased drive to push methamphetamine and fentanyl into the streets of New York.
According to Fiscal Year 2020 findings, the DEA's New York field office saw a 214% increase in methamphetamine and 59% spike in fentanyl seized, in comparison to 2019.
Operations led by the DEA across the state netted 767 kilos 1,690 of meth in 2020, an estimated value of $9,280,700, compared to the previous year when the agency removed 244 kilos off the streets.
Last year, agents discovered 404 kilos 890 of fentanyl worth $22,220,000 after seizing 254 kilos in 2019.
During a DEA operation in the Bronx on January 5, agents seized thousands of heroin and fentanyl glassines and cash. The federal agency found that Mexican cartel have taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by increasing its deliveries of methamphetamine and fentanyl to New York
Pictured is a sample of heroin and fentanyl confiscated during a May, 8, 2020, DEA drug raid in New York. A Fiscal Year 2020 report from the DEA shows that agency's New York field office saw a 214% increase in methamphetamine and 59% spike in fentanyl seized
A stash of heroin, cocaine, fentanyl and guns seized by Drug Enforcement Administration agents in New York on December 15, 2020
'When drug traffickers introduced fentanyl to the illicit drug market, they created a monster,' said DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan. 'Fentanyl has been a public health nuisance for several years and has taken too many lives too often. We have seen fentanyl mixed with heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and even marijuana.'
Donovan said the DEA's New York division learned firsthand how the COVID-19 epidemic impacted the way Mexican cartels produced, packaged, shipped and distributed and laundered money.
A pill press machine seized along with heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine pills by the DEA during a June 19, 2020, operation in Highbridge, a neighborhood in the Bronx
Kilos of fentanyl confiscated during a January 5 DEA operation in the Bronx
In the process, the criminal organization adapted and used courier services to transport smaller and frequent amounts of drugs like fentanyl to drug dealing networks associated with them in New York and throughout the northeast corridor.
'Mexican cartels took advantage of their ability to process fentanyl into pill forms for easier transport, concealment, and ultimate user popularity. Their trafficking foundation facilitated methamphetamine loads to New York,' the DEA said. 'New York has not been a major methamphetamine market in the past, but the increase in seizures indicates the Mexican cartels continue to push it into the Northeast.'
DEA investigators in New York discovered that the drug traffickers concealed methamphetamine in packages such as baby wipe containers to hide it when shipping via parcel delivery.
The agency regularly came across shipments mixed with produce delivered on tractor trailers departing from cities based along the southwest border and placed in hidden compartments inside vehicles.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, methamphetamine seizures on the southwest border increased 27% from Fiscal year 2019 to 2020.
Overall, the DEA New York Division confiscated at least $170 million in drug proceeds and assets, and more than $603 million worth of drugs.
Meth pills seized from a pill processing mill in the Bronx on June 19, 2020
The increase in the seizures of fentanyl and methamphetamine throughout New York City sparked a concern for the Centers of Disease Control Health Alert Network.
Donovan said the more than 60 per cent all drug overdose deaths in the five boroughs involve fentanyl, which like methamphetamine, is produced in so-called 'super labs' built by Mexican cartels which are often located in rural towns.
'Last month, the CDC Health Alert Network issued an advisory warning that drug overdose deaths significantly increased across the United States, especially deaths involving psychostimulants and synthetic opioids ,' Donovan said.
'There were an estimated 81,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States from May 2019 to May 2020 justifying a need to alert New Yorkers that drug overdose deaths lurk behind the public health crisis caused by COVID-19.'