Inside Mexico’s drug cartels

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kate Adie introduces dispatches from Mexico and the USA, Bangladesh, Syria and the Faroe Islands.

Donald Trump has threatened Mexico with sanctions if it does not do more to halt the flow of deadly fentanyl into the US. Quentin Sommerville gained rare access to a Mexican drug smuggling operation, meeting the foot-soldiers of a prominent cartel as it prepares to send fentanyl north of the border.

Bangladesh is homes to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people, who have been living in refugee camps since fleeing pesecution in Myanmar back in 2017. The Rohingya’s survival has been dependent on foreign aid – but that lifeline is now at risk, following cuts to the US aid budget. Samira Hussain visited one of the refugee camps.

US negotiators proposed an immediate 30 day ceasefire in Ukraine this week. While President Zelensky accepted the proposal, President Putin said questions remain about the nature of the truce. Frank Gardner assesses the chances for a lasting peace.

Back in 2014, swathes of north-east Syria came under the control of Islamic State - though when its fighters reached the city of Kobane, they met strong resistance from Kurdish forces. With the help of international allies, IS was eventually driven out, but local Kurds still worry that IS may one day return, reports Jiyar Gol.

In the autonomous Danish territory of the Faroe Islands, locals have been keeping an eye on what’s been going on in another Danish territory – Greenland. Donald Trump’s proposal that the US might look to buy it has sparked fresh conversations over Faroese independence – and a growing sense of local pride, finds Amy Liptrot.

Series Producer: Serena Tarling Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison & Sophie Hill

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello. Today we're in Bangladesh, where President Trump's foreign aid cuts are beginning to bite.
0:12.4	A ceasefire may be on the table between Russia and Ukraine, but how close are they to an agreement really?
0:19.0	We're in northeast Syria, where the Islamic State once ruled,
0:23.5	but a decade after their defeat, we find a Kurdish community still on edge. And finally,
0:29.8	we're at a literary festival in the Faroe Islands, where tongues are wagging about American
0:34.5	aspirations to acquire neighbouring Greenland.
0:44.2	But first to Mexico, which is currently under pressure from the US to halt the cross-border flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl. Mexico's new president, Claudia Schaenbaum, has made
0:51.7	progress since coming to power five months ago, with Mexican law enforcement
0:56.7	recording its biggest ever fentanyl seizure, as well as making hundreds of arrests. Quentin
1:03.6	Somerville gained rare access to a smuggling operation on the Mexico-US border, meeting the
1:10.1	foot soldiers of a prominent drug cartel.
1:14.0	There was a surprise waiting for us as we entered the cartel safehouse on the Mexican side of the border.
1:20.3	The night air was thick, with a winter mist and smog from nearby factories.
1:25.7	We drove into what I can only describe as a very ordinary neighbourhood,
1:29.9	right by the border fence. There was a dental surgery on the corner and we passed floodlit football
1:35.6	pitches where games were being played despite the fog. The heavy iron gate of the safe house opened
1:41.7	and we were told to drive in quickly and it slammed shut firmly
1:45.8	behind us. We had expected to meet two men from a cartel whose name I was asked not to mention.
1:52.5	They were there loading up a car with 5,000 illicitly made fentanyl pills, the opioid which has
1:58.9	killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and made billions of
2:03.0	dollars for Mexico's crime syndicates. They were a taciturn pair and wouldn't say much about
2:09.2	their deadly trade, except that they were in it for the money. If they didn't do it, someone else would.
	...

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