How Africa Became a Key Link for Mexican Cartels in Fentanyl Production

The Sinaloa cartel is using South Africa as a gateway to the continent, where it has established bases to manufacture fentanyl, police said.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Shutterstock

JOHANNESBURG—The Mexican organized crime group accused of fueling the United States’ fentanyl crisis is now making the deadly drug in Africa, according to local and international law enforcement agencies.

The Sinaloa cartel has chosen South Africa as a major operational base, they said, largely because of its strong trade links to China, which produces the chemicals used to make the synthetic opioid.