-Drugs like cocaine and heroin have been smuggled
across the U.S.-Mexico border for decades.
But in recent years,
synthetic drugs, like meth and fentanyl,
have emerged as major threats.
Originally produced for medical use,
they have fundamentally changed the illicit-drug market.
Just like in the hit drama "Breaking Bad,"
all you need now is a person
who knows how to mix the right chemicals
and a makeshift lab.
Synthetics are also now killing more people
than gun violence or car accidents.
-We don't have anything in our history
that was an immediate killer like fentanyl is.
It's terrifying.
-But to understand how the drug market has changed,
first you need to know the differences
between the production of plant-based and synthetic drugs.
Let's take a look at the production of cocaine,
which requires dozens to hundreds of workers,
large swaths of land, and months of production.
Cocaine derives its name from the leaves of coca shrubs,
which grow mostly in parts of the Andes mountain range
in Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia.
The moist climate and the high altitude,
which is between 1,500 to 7,100 feet,
are ideal conditions for growing.
To avoid aerial fumigation or anti-narcotic troops
destroying the crops,
growers plant in remote areas, far from local populations.
After months of cultivation,
the leaves are ready for harvesting.
The next step is crushing and drying the coca leaves,
then adding chemicals, like gasoline and kerosene,
and mixing it into a paste.
Workers in makeshift laboratories
then filter and purify the paste into the final product.
The drug is packaged
and then is often loaded onto small planes
capable of landing on rough runways.
Finally, smugglers link up
with traffickers in Central America or Mexico,
who then bring it to the U.S.
While drug trafficking remains a combination
of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and synthetics,
this elaborate supply chain is being left behind
for one focused on synthetic drugs.
-In many respects, for organized-crime groups,
they're easier to smuggle,
they're easier to make a big profit on.
-Traffickers rely on what are called "precursor chemicals,"
which are the main ingredients
for the manufacturing of synthetic drugs.
-[speaking native language]
-A report from Univision shows just how simple the process is.
First, a technician or cook mixes chemicals.
Additional substances are added,
and then cooked and mixed into the final product.
-You start by pouring 10 liters of acetate and mixing it.
-It requires far fewer people to produce fentanyl.
And unlike cocaine, that can take months to make,
synthetic drugs can be manufactured in days.
-The chemicals come from all over the world.
Many of them have dual uses, so they are necessary
for, you know, paint or soap or jelly or what have you.
Really, you're trying to go into what is global commerce
and detect and stop these substances.
-While many countries have regulated precursor chemicals
for fentanyl and meth,
smugglers have found alternatives.
This has led to many varieties of synthetic drugs.
With just fentanyl,
there are about 600 different chemical make-ups.
-Every week, there's a new compound that can be derived
by just tinkering with the molecular structure.
So, it becomes a much bigger and much more complicated problem
to deal with than plant-based drugs.
-Anything you take medications for?
-Those chemical combinations can make the most common fentanyl
up to 50 times stronger than heroin.
And unlike plant-based drugs,
just 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be fatal.
[indistinct conversations]
Experts estimate that only 3 to 5 metric tons of pure fentanyl
is needed to satisfy the entire US consumption for a year,
compared with 47 metric tons of heroin
and 145 metric tons of cocaine
consumed across the country in 2016.
While smaller producers can manufacture fentanyl,
drug-trafficking routes across the US-Mexico border
are mostly controlled by traditional cartels.
-When we started to put the constraints
on accessing prescription medications
10, 12 years ago,
we started to see the market shifted.
Individuals couldn't get access to prescription medications.
They were experiencing withdrawal.
So they ended up sourcing from the illicit market,
and in many cases, they started to source heroin.
[police radio chatter]
-By the end of 2022, U.S. authorities are on pace
to have seized more than 35 million fentanyl pills,
up from 289,000 in 2018.
Experts say the rapid surge of synthetic drugs
has opened a new front on the war on drugs --
one that is leaving thousands of bodies on its path.
♪♪