By Natalie Kitroeff and Paulina Villegas for The New York Times
Reporting from Culiacan, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, a stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel and a center for fentanyl production.
Criminal groups turn Mexican college campuses into recruiting centers, luring chemistry students for big profits.
The cartel recruiter sneaked onto the campus disguised as a janitor and then zeroed in on his target: a sophomore chemistry student.
The recruiter explained that the cartel was gathering staff for a project and that they had heard good things about the young man.
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“‘They told us that you are good at what you do,’” the student recalled the recruiter telling him. “‘You say if you’re interested.’”
In their quest to build fentanyl empires, Mexican criminal groups are tapping into an unusual talent pool: not hitmen or corrupt police officers, but chemistry students studying at Mexican universities.
Those who make fentanyl in cartel labs, known as Cocineros (cooks), told the New York Times that they need workers with advanced chemistry skills to help make the drug stronger and “to pull in more people,” as one cook put it.
The cartels also have a more ambitious goal: synthesizing the chemical compounds known as precursors that are essential to making fentanyl, freeing them from having to import those materials from China.
If they succeed, U.S. authorities say, it would mark the beginning of a terrifying new phase in the fentanyl crisis, with Mexican cartels having more control than ever over one of the deadliest and most lucrative drugs in recent history.
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Source: The New York Times
