How Precursor Chemicals Sustain Mexico's Synthetic Drug Trade
Since Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018, his morning press conferences have been a way for journalists to obtain an official version of national events and keep an eye on what was happening in the government.
This is why it was surprising when Alejandro Svarch, head of the Federal Commission for Protection Against Health Risks (Comisión Federal para la Protección de Riesgos Sanitarios - Cofepris), took the stage at the conference on June 7, 2022, and gave a troubling speech about Mexico's top health agency.
Cofepris is the state entity in charge of issuing import permits and the commercialization of chemical substances. It also watches over precursor and pre-precursor chemicals, which can be used to manufacture synthetic drugs, and monitors entities that have inventories of these substances. This makes Cofepris an essential actor in regulating the flow of precursor chemicals in Mexico.
*This article is part of a year-long investigation that tracked the supply chain of precursor chemicals that aid in the production of methamphetamine and fentanyl in Mexico. Read the other articles of the investigation here and the full report here.
Svarch did not appear to leave out key facts or try to shift the blame, as López Obrador and other officials have done when facing tough questions. Instead, Svarch stated that Cofepris had been an agency where "corruption went from top to bottom" for...
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