Monday, April 2, 2018

Mexican drug kingpin charged in NY with trafficking enough fentanyl to kill 10 million

The arrest of Francisco Quiroz-Zamora provides a window into how the Sinaloa cartel moves drugs from Mexico to the United States. The 41-year-old, known as “Gordo” or the Fat One, has been charged with operating as a major trafficker, first-degree sale of a controlled substance and second-degree conspiracy. Quiroz-Zamora arranged for 20kg of fentanyl to be shipped to New York – a haul of drugs that had the potential to kill 10 million people. He organized a pipeline that sent drugs from Mexico to Arizona and California through trucks, cars and drug couriers and authorized transactions between customers and dealers.
Mexican trafficking groups are turning New York into their distribution hub and fentanyl is now their main product. Quiroz-Zamora was planning for a lucrative payday. He negotiated a going rate of between $45,000 and $50,000 per kilogram of fentanyl.