Overview

• On August 9, federal authorities executed simultaneous raids in Chiapas and Guerrero under Operation Búsqueda, targeting a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory and a chemical precursor warehouse.
• The Chiapas operation yielded about 2.5 tonnes of methamphetamine and hundreds of drums containing precursors used for synthetic drug production.
• Authorities destroyed a major chemical concentration center in Las Milpas, Culiacán, on August 7 as part of the same interagency crackdown.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican forces have registered record fentanyl interceptions since 2019, but the Sinaloa Cartel has shifted to roughly 13-pound shipments hidden in advanced vehicle compartments.
• Recent legal reforms empower military-led narcotics prosecutions and deepen binational cooperation in the escalating effort to disrupt the Sinaloa Cartel’s synthetic drug networks.