In a Monday airing of "Vittert," journalist Leland Vittert, the show's host, announced that Mexican drug cartels are working with China to get fentanyl into the U.S. to poison Americans.
Vittert interviewed David Asher, a former State Department official, about the connection between the drug cartels and the Chinese.
"You got to understand that none of this could work without the Chinese government's involvement. So we're not just dealing with drug cartels and the Chinese Triad, which are the version of drug cartels in China,'' Asher said.
''We're dealing with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the United Front part of the Communist Party; they are organizing the fentanyl shipments to Mexico. At some level, they are involved in manufacturing, and doing it with the goal of killing American kids ... And then they're having Chinese students in the U.S. pick up the [drug] money."
According to El Pais, a disturbing trend is developing, with fentanyl seizures reaching record-high levels while a new version of the drug, rainbow fentanyl, is drawing concern among U.S. authorities.
As Michael Humphries, a senior Customs and Border Protection officer, says, the colorful drug "looks like candy." After a raid in mid-August, CBP found more than 250,000 pills in a vehicle entering the U.S. through Mexico. A day later, over 15,000 rainbow fentanyl pills were found wrapped around the legs of a person detained at the Nogales, Arizona, border crossing.
"This may signal a new tactic by transnational criminal organizations," Humphries said.
So far, the colorful pills have been found in California, Oregon and Washington state.
"Deputies are particularly concerned about rainbow fentanyl getting into the hands of young adults or children, who mistake the drug for something else, such as candy or a toy," a statement from the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office read after a seizure of some 800 fentanyl pills.
According to Asher, the drug money is being laundered by purchasing U.S. real estate.
Asher explained that after Chinese students pick up the drug money, "that money is being taken by China, [the Chinese] are buying fentanyl precursor chemicals, shipping them to Mexico, and then the Chinese are taking their take in the United States and buying real estate on the back end."
Essentially, Asher said, "the money launders itself."
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