The unexpected rise of the Chinese fentanyl industry in Mexico.
Illustration by Tim Marrs
In Guadalajara, Mexico, graffiti artists don’t paint murals of Gan Xianbing. Nor do locals pen elegiac Narcocorridos about his exploits, as they do for traffickers like Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. But for the years before his capture in 2018, Gan Xianbing’s success in the city’s drug trade signaled the emergence of a new power player on the scene: the Chinese national.
As Chinese-made fentanyl — a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin — has flooded the U.S. market in recent years, Chinese nationals and Mexican cartels have worked ever closer. Gan’s role, for instance, was to handle the considerable financials: from 2016 to 2018, authorities believe he laundered anywhere from $25 million to $65 million in illicit funds. The opaqueness of the Chinese banks involved in such schemes makes it extremely difficult for U.S. law enforcement to track, which is both why U.S. officials are having such a difficult time stopping the deluge of Chinese fentanyl and why it to
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