 | A kilogram of fentanyl in highly diluted form is worth about $3,000 in Mexico and triple that in the southwestern United States. The price soars to $18,000 per kilogram in the Northeast. Although the drug is fairly simple to make with the correct precursor chemicals, the purity of fentanyl produced in Mexican laboratories varies widely.
Kilograms of fentanyl seized by US law enforcement tend to have a purity level of around 7 percent. Even at that level of purity, the drug has to be cut to about 1 milligram in a 30-milligram pill to give users their “high” without killing them. Because the purity varies, the price is difficult to calculate. Theoretically, a kilogram of pure fentanyl could produce 1 million pills, each with 1 milligram of fentanyl. If each pill sold for $10, that would translate into $10 million street value. |