"Mexican Cartel's Brutality Extends to Homeless People and New Drug Experiments"

"China Devising Risky Methods Amid Raw Material Export Restrictions"

A report has emerged that Mexican drug cartels are using homeless people and animals as test subjects in the process of developing new drugs.

On the 26th (local time), the U.S. daily newspaper The New York Times (NYT) reported that a drug trafficking cartel operating a secret laboratory somewhere in Mexico is mixing additives including animal tranquilizers and anesthetics with fentanyl raw materials to create synthetic drugs, and is conducting experiments on rabbits, chickens, and even homeless people.

According to six drug manufacturers and two U.S. embassy officials contacted by the NYT, the Mexican cartel injects the mixed drugs into animals and if they survive for more than 90 seconds, the drug is judged to be a "weak drug unsuitable for sale in the United States." The NYT cited U.S. officials saying that animal carcasses have also been found during raids on Mexican drug labs.

U.S. and Mexican authorities have recently reported cases where experiments are being conducted on humans. Cartel members reportedly visit homeless camps and recruit volunteers by saying, "If you take the mixture, we will pay you 30 dollars."

Promotional material on the dangers of fentanyl abuse in the United States. Photo by AP Yonhap News

Pedro Lopez Camacho, who lives homeless in the northwestern region of Mexico, told the NYT, "I have volunteered several times to be injected with the drug," adding, "They (cartel members) observe the drug's effects and gauge its potency, but many people sometimes died."

An anonymous drug manufacturer explained to the NYT, "If a chicken injected with the drug dies within 1 to 1 minute 30 seconds, the drug is properly synthesized. If it does not die or takes too long to die, we add xylazine, an animal tranquilizer." Xylazine is a veterinary drug that has recently seen a sharp increase in misuse among drug addicts in the United States by mixing it with existing drugs.

The NYT pointed out that China, identified as a supplier of raw materials for fentanyl production, has restricted exports of these materials, leading drug cartels to devise dangerous methods to maintain fentanyl production and potency.