As Beijing’s ban left a hole in the market, and the acquisition of precursors was easy (80 per cent of them were legal in Canada in 2022), Mexican and Canadian gangs quickly ramped up domestic production — between 2020 and 2021, Canadian border seizures of fentanyl precursors increased tenfold. The COVID-19 pandemic only intensified this trend by interrupting global trade.
Most Mexican fentanyl is intended for international resale — between 2019 and 2023, for example, annual seizures of the drug at the U.S./Mexico border ballooned by over 1,000 per cent (from 1,154 kg to 12,247 kg). Meanwhile, Canadian fentanyl was initially absorbed by the domestic market. But by 2021 there was such an oversupply that local prices dropped 30 per cent, pushing gangs to sell abroad.