American authorities are increasingly suspicious of the intentions of Canadian criminal groups in terms of production and distribution of fentanyl, suggests a long report from Washington Post published Sunday.
In recent months, Canadian police forces have made various major seizures by dismantling clandestine laboratories, including seizing 2.5 million doses of fentanyl near Vancouver in October and more than 25 kg of fentanyl and 3.5 tonnes of products. chemicals in Toronto in August.
The proliferation of these fentanyl laboratories on Canadian soil could undermine the efforts of both Ottawa and Washington to fight against drugs at the heart of the opioid crisis which kills 7,000 people north of the border and 70,000 south each year.
American authorities are currently focusing on the border with Mexico to combat drug imports, but several elements suggest that Canadian laboratories could also supply the American market.
“It’s hard to believe it’s not happening. […] Most police chiefs I have spoken with believe that our production [de fentanyl] exceeds domestic demand,” the commander of the organized crime unit within the Vancouver police, Philip Heard, told the daily.
As of September 30, US customs officials had seized 27,000 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border, compared to just two pounds at the border with Canada.
“We do not see a flow of fentanyl from Canada to the United States,” assured a Homeland Security investigative agent, Robert Hammer, recognizing however that things could change.
The director of investigations at the Canada Border Services Agency, Daniel Anson, for his part acknowledged in an interview with the Washington Post that he believes Canada is becoming an exporter of fentanyl.
The dangerous drug, 100 times more powerful than morphine, comes primarily from China. Due to restrictions on its export, Chinese companies now send overseas chemical compounds used to create fentanyl, subsequently created in clandestine laboratories by criminal groups.