Riviera Maya, Q.R. — “Let it be very clear that there is no fentanyl in Quintana Roo,” said Attorney General Raciel López Salazar Monday. His comment was made within the framework of the weekly Security Cabinet press conference.
He said that the international crisis derived from that drug was one of the main topics addressed during the Binational Summit of Attorneys General held in Playa del Carmen last week.
“The State Attorney General’s Office carries out searches almost daily,” he said. “We have not found any points of sale or drug dealing of fentanyl. It is a situation that all the authorities are very alert to in order to focus on these actions against any indication of the sale of this narcotic,” he said.
López Salazar acknowledged there are many tourists who bring narcotics drugs and pills, but not fentanyl. He says Quintana Roo continues to be an attractive hub for organized crime in the form of narcotics and human trafficking.
He said that during the international meeting of prosecutors held in Cancun, the challenges faced by the United States and Mexico due to the existence of international crime dedicated to human trafficking were addressed, as well as the need to strengthen surveillance and security protocols.
There are also challenges for prosecutors in terms of technology, especially because of the equipment that criminals use, he explained.
López Salazar reiterated that during searches, especially in the northern part of the State, they have not detected the existence of fentanyl. He said that last year, the municipal police seized 24 fentanyl tablets and that the person responsible was sentenced to six years in prison.
Earlier this year, two American students accused an Isla Mujeres hotel of drugging their water with fentanyl. López Salazar said the toxicology tests on the girls yielded “clean” results with no trace of fentanyl or any other drug.
“It is ruled out that they consumed fentanyl in their drink,” he said. According to the head of the FGE, their case was due to simple drunken intoxication. Shortly afterward, hotel surveillance video emerged showing both girls at their hotel pool bar drinking for several hours before being carried off to their rooms.
Last week, as part of the commitment of the Attorney General’s Office of the State of Quintana Roo to combat high-impact crimes and promote more effective justice, a training course was held in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Mexico.
On this occasion, the objective of the training, called “Safe Travel”, was to strengthen the capabilities of staff in building public-private strategic alliances within the tourism sector to prevent and detect human trafficking crimes.
During the training, UNODC experts provided tools and strategies to improve coordination between authorities and private sector actors, especially in the tourism sector, where human trafficking may be present. This initiative is part of a broader effort to raise awareness and train different institutions in the implementation of more effective preventive and intervention measures throughout the country.
The Attorney General of the State, Raciel López Salazar, stressed that the professionalization of operational personnel is a priority for early intervention and care for victims of trafficking, emphasizing the importance of cooperation with companies and organizations in the economic sectors of the State and the exchange of information in the fight against this crime with other security institutions at national and international level.
With this type of activity, the Attorney General’s Office reaffirms its commitment to the protection of human rights and the eradication of human trafficking, as well as to the creation of effective alliances between the public and private sectors, which are essential for building a safer and freer society.
