Secretary Osorio Chong Rejects US Assertion That 90% of Heroin Is from Mexico Mexico News Daily
go to original November 1, 2017

The farmers union in the western hemisphere’s most prolific opium producing region has defied Mexico’s federal government, and pledged to continue to supply the raw material needed for heroin production to drug cartels. Opium farmers claim that lack of alternatives has forced them into producing opium, and that their communities would cease to exist without such cultivation. (PressTV)

The interior secretary has rejected a claim by United States President Donald Trump that 90% of the heroin in the U.S. comes from Mexico.

Trump made the assertion last week during an address from the White House in which he declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency.

“An astonishing 90% of the heroin in America comes from south of the border where we will be building a wall, which will greatly help in this problem,” Trump said.

But in an appearance before the lower house of Congress yesterday, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong responded by saying “there’s no way of confirming [his] remark, in any case, but we believe that the amount that comes from our country is a lot less.”

... The biggest opium poppy producer is Afghanistan, Osorio told lawmakers, a statement supported by a 2017 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report that said Mexico is the world’s third largest producer.

Osorio said that the Interior Secretariat would work to determine where any other heroin that is smuggled into the U.S. via Mexico comes from and where it enters national territory. He added that Mexico had made it clear it was “united as a country to confront this challenge.”

Military operations to eradicate poppy plantations domestically are ongoing.

Read the rest at Mexico News Daily

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!