Some 90 countries are part of the newly formed Global Coalition to Address the Threats of Synthetic Drugs launched Friday by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a ministerial meeting in Washington.
The Global Coalition aims to “unite” governments to combat the illicit manufacture and trafficking of such substances, Todd D. Robinson, assistant secretary of the Department’s Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told reporters Monday. of US State.
Fentanyl, tramadol, methamphetamine, captagon and ketamine are some of the substances with the greatest presence in illegal trafficking markets around the world.
Robinson added that the ministerial meeting participants “underlined the importance of sharing data and increasing efforts to mitigate the health impact of synthetic drug use.”
In USAsynthetic drugs claimed the lives of about 110,000 people in 2022, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Coalition will be an effort of 12 to 18 months in which countries will assign efforts to combat trafficking, production and sale, “in accordance with national priorities and resources.”
“The United States has already been working with partners like Mexico, Canada, and other countries to push for urgent global action to disrupt this synthetic,” Robinson added.
The undersecretary detailed efforts that the US is carrying out in Latin America to prevent drug trafficking. In El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, he said that they support trafficking networks in investigations and persecution.
“We have experts on the ground from the DEA and the Department of Justice. We also work on training. There is an International Law Enforcement Academy sponsored by the government of El Salvador where we can train police officers and prosecutors in the region on different techniques and modernize the techniques to pursue these networks,” he noted.
With Mexico, the work would be focused on preventing trafficking through the southern borderwhile creating campaigns to “raise awareness” about synthetic drugs and what can be done to prevent addiction.
In Colombia, Robinson assured that both governments have “a long and deep relationship” in terms of security forces. “We are in constant conversation to find out how we can help them provide greater security and protection to communities in Colombia and, in doing so, help shut down networks that traffic drugs north into the US.”
These efforts to strengthen relations with Colombia, according to Robinson, are expected to also extend to countries like Peru. “We have excellent relationships with our partners in Peru and Colombia. I don’t expect that to change, but we will in the establishment of this coalition. We will ask you to do more to help globally.”
During the launch of the Coalition, Blinken assured that synthetic drugs are the first cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 49, specifically fentanyl.
“If we don’t act together with fierce urgency, more cities around the world will bear the catastrophic costs” witnessed in the United States, he said.
has been summoned to China as one of the main producers of the chemicals needed to make fentanyl, which is frequently smuggled across the US-Mexico border.
Following the establishment of the Global Coalition, the US will begin consultations with countries to establish “priority actions and measures” to deal with synthetic drugs.
The members of this group will meet again during the 78th edition of the UN General Assembly and the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in March 2024.
[Este reporte contiene información de The Associated Press]
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