Mexican Cartels Lure
Chemistry Students to Make Fentanyl
Criminals
turn college campuses into recruitment hubs, recruiting chemistry students in Mexico
with big paydays.
The
cartel recruiter slipped onto campus disguised as a janitor and then zeroed in on
his target: a sophomore chemistry student.
The
recruiter explained that the cartel was staffing up for a project, and that he’d
heard good things about the young man.
“‘You’re
good at what you do,’” the student recalled the recruiter saying. “‘You decide if
you’re interested.’”
In
their quest to build fentanyl empires, Mexican criminal groups are turning to an
unusual talent pool: not hit men or corrupt police officers, but chemistry students
studying at Mexican universities.
People
who make fentanyl in cartel labs, who are called cooks, that they needed workers
with advanced knowledge of chemistry to help make the drug stronger and “get more
people hooked,” as one cook put it.
The
cartels also have a more ambitious goal: to synthesize the chemical compounds, known
as precursors, that are essential to making fentanyl, freeing them from having to
import those raw materials from China.
If
they succeed, U.S. officials say, it would represent a terrifying new phase in the
fentanyl crisis, in which Mexican cartels have more control than ever over one of
the deadliest drugs in recent history.
“It
would make us the kings of Mexico,” said one chemistry student who has been cooking
fentanyl for six months.
The
Times interviewed seven fentanyl cooks, three chemistry students, two high-ranking
operatives and a high-level recruiter. All of them work for the Sinaloa Cartel,
which the U.S. government says is largely responsible for the fentanyl pouring over
the southern border.
Those
affiliated with the cartel put themselves in danger just by talking to The Times,
and spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Their accounts
matched those of American Embassy officials who track cartel activities, including
the role students are playing in cartel operations and how they are producing fentanyl.
Times reporters spoke to a chemistry professor, who said the recruitment of his
students was common.
The
students said they had different jobs within the criminal group. Sometimes, they
said, they run experiments to strengthen the drug or to create precursors. Other
times, they say, they supervise or work alongside the cooks and assistants who produce
fentanyl in bulk.
It’s
unclear how widespread the recruitment of students has become, but the pursuit of
trained chemists seems to have been influenced in part by the coronavirus pandemic.
A
2020 Mexican intelligence assessment, leaked by a hacker group, found that the Sinaloa
Cartel appeared to be recruiting chemistry professors to develop fentanyl precursor
chemicals after the pandemic slowed supply chains.
Eager
to preserve cooperation on migration, the Biden administration avoided publicly
urging Mexico to do more to dismantle the cartels. President-elect Donald J. Trump
has promised a more aggressive approach, threatening to deploy the U.S. military
to battle the criminals, and vowing last month to issue a 25 percent tariff on Mexican
goods if the country doesn’t stop the flow of drugs and migrants across the border.
In
response to the tariff threat, Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said that
“international collaboration” was needed to prevent the shipment of precursors to
Mexico from “Asian countries.”
But
as the cartels gain greater control of the fentanyl supply chain, U.S. officials
say, it will become more difficult for law enforcement in both countries to stop
the industrialized production of synthetic opioids in Mexico.
Mass
producing fentanyl can be relatively straightforward if cartels are just mixing
up imported precursors, experts said, because it’s easy to find instructions for
producing the drug using those chemicals.
But
trying to synthesize the precursors from scratch is a much more difficult process
that requires a broader array of chemical techniques and skills, said James DeFrancesco,
a forensic science professor at Loyola University Chicago who worked as a forensic
chemist at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for 18 years.
Yet
the work pays more than many legal jobs in chemistry, and that’s often enough of
a sell. The second-year student said the recruiter who visited the campus had offered
him $800 up front, plus a monthly salary of $800 — twice as much as the average
pay for chemists formally employed in Mexico, according to government data.
The
Recruiter
Before
the Sinaloa Cartel ever approaches a recruit, it scouts out its prospect.
The
ideal candidate is someone who has both classroom knowledge and street smart, a
go-getter who won’t blanch at the idea of producing a lethal drug and, above all,
someone discreet, said one recruiter in an interview.
In
months of searching, he said, he’s found three students who now work for him developing
precursors. Many young people just don’t meet his standards.
Compared
to methamphetamine, a drug that requires more advanced equipment and expertise to
manufacture at scale, fentanyl is straightforward to produce if precursor chemicals
are available.
“It
takes four steps,” said one longtime cook, laying out
the process with the simplicity that might be found on the back of a box of cake
mix. “You shake it up, mix it, dry it, wash it with acetone.”
But
things got more complicated in recent years. China moved to restrict the export
of fentanyl precursors, Mexico cracked down on imports of the chemicals and the
coronavirus pandemic gummed up supply chains so that those ingredients became harder
to find.
The
recruiter and all three students interviewed said they hadn’t successfully produced
precursors yet.