Mexico says recent operations in Sonora, including the seizure of a large amount of fentanyl, are part of a larger strategy to crack down on organized crime.
Mexico’s security secretary, Omar García Harfuch, told reporters that from Feb. 5 until last Sunday, authorities detained more than a thousand people as part of their border strategy.
García Harfuch said the goals of the effort, called “Operation Northern Border,” are to strengthen security and decrease drug and human trafficking, as well as firearms trafficking into Mexico.
President Donald Trump has told Mexico and Canada that tariffs from the United States partly depend on their ability to limit drug trafficking.
In addition to around 1,200 arrests, authorities also have confiscated more than 1,100 firearms and more than 40,000 pounds of drugs, including more than 100 pounds of fentanyl since the campaign started last month.
Much of that fentanyl was found and confiscated in Sonora, after a man was arrested for attempting to smuggle the synthetic opioid in a shipment of nopales, prickly pear cactus pads often eaten in Mexico. Authorities seized more than 70 pounds of fentanyl that was allegedly hidden in the shipment. They estimate that amount is worth more than $6 million.
