31 pharmacies shut after Mexican raids

MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities said Friday that they have raided and closed 31 pharmacies in Baja California’s coastal city of Ensenada, after they were detected selling fake or fentanyl-laced pills.

Marines and health inspection authorities seized 4,681 boxes of medications that may have been offered for sale without proper safeguards, may have been faked and may contain fentanyl.

Mexico’s health authorities are conducting tests on the seized merchandise. Ensenada is located about 60 miles south of the border city of Tijuana.

The announcement represents one of the first times Mexican authorities have acknowledged what U.S. researchers pointed out almost a year ago: that Mexican pharmacies were offering controlled medications such as oxycodone, Xanax or Adderall, but the pills were often fentanyl-laced fakes.

Authorities inspected a total of 53 pharmacies, and found the suspected fakes in 31 of them. They slapped temporary suspension signs on the doors of those businesses.

Sales of the pills are apparently aimed at tourists.

In August, Mexico shuttered 23 pharmacies at Caribbean coast resorts after authorities inspected 55 drugstores in a four-day raid that targeted establishments in Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

In March, the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning about sales of such pills, and the practice appears to be widespread.

In February, the University of California, Los Angeles announced that researchers there had found that 68% of the 40 Mexican pharmacies visited in four northern Mexico cities sold oxycodone, Xanax or Adderall, and that 27% of those pharmacies were selling fake pills.

UCLA said the study, published in January, found that “brick and mortar pharmacies in Northern Mexican tourist towns are selling counterfeit pills containing fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine. These pills are sold mainly to U.S. tourists, and are often passed off as controlled substances such as Oxycodone, Percocet, and Adderall.”