It's the leading cause of death among 18-45-year-olds in the United States: Fentanyl, or rather M30, a blue tablet 20-to-40 times more potent than heroin. It's a drug that kills, but earns the people who produce it billions of dollars.

For two years, Bertrand Monnet plunged into the heart of Mexico's most powerful cartel for Le Monde: the Sinaloa Cartel. Camera in hand, Monnet documented, for the first time, every stage of the narcos' business model, from the manufacture of fentanyl in the garages of Culiacan to the laundering of dirty money in the skyscrapers of Dubai.

The images and interviews obtained provide a better understanding of how these ultra-efficient, violent criminal organizations operate, and their new target market: France.

The cooperative of death

In this second episode, Le Monde investigates the organization of the cartel, from punteros, the motorcycle lookouts, to the various clans, all protected by sicarios, or hitmen.

They export millions of M30 tablets to the United States, a painstaking task that takes us on the trail of New York drug dealers and American fentanyl consumers. In 2022, 130,000 people died from fentanyl in the United States alone.

Watch part 2 of Narco Business now:

Editor's note: voices and names have been anonymized.

Watch part one here: Inside the labs that manufacture fentanyl

Episode 3 will be available in December.

Book your ticket for the public preview of the third episode in French, attended by Bertrand Monnet and Le Monde journalist Thomas Saintourens, on November 30 in Paris.

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