1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:18,480 Beyond the palm trees, in part years at this popular beach destination, something truly 2 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:23,520 unsettling lies underneath the surface. In March of 2023, we tried to get to the bottom of it. 3 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:28,880 In some of the most coveted beach towns in Mexico, where Americans flock for vacation, 4 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:32,480 corrupt pharmacies are selling fake pharmaceuticals cut with dangerous drugs. 5 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:37,920 My name is Adam Ochter, and with the help of a brave team, we went to over 150 pharmacies to try 6 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:44,560 and expose this problem. It was eye-opening, bizarre, and even terrifying at times. The risk 7 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:49,040 was staggering and immediately apparent, but what was at stake felt drastically more important. 8 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:54,640 We went to visit a woman named Sandra Bagwell. She lives in deep south Texas, right on the border 9 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:59,440 of Mexico. Tragically for Sandra, this problem hit extremely close to home. 10 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:05,680 They were coaching me as far as, okay, you need to give him CPR and all of that, but I knew he was 11 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:13,840 gone. Like there was, you know, I just, I knew he was gone. He had been gone for hours. He and a friend 12 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:23,760 went to Mexico just, um, just for fun and, um, purchased pills at a pharmacy that he thought were Percocet 13 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:32,560 and, um, came home that night in a great mood. We don't know at what time he took that pill, 14 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:43,600 but he did not wake up the next day. The DA tested the pills and, um, the amount of one pill 15 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:50,720 was five times the lethal limit. So that one pill could have killed five to six people. 16 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:52,720 And it was fentanyl? 17 00:01:52,720 --> 00:02:00,080 It was fentanyl, yes. Um, it was a white little bottle labeled Percocet. Everything was in English 18 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:02,480 except for the expiration date. 19 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:08,320 The news of late pharmaceuticals and seemingly legitimate pharmacies was extremely concerning, 20 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:12,560 and we knew something had to be done. It soon dawned on us that we were the ones who had to do it. 21 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,120 Whether we liked it or not, we were better suited to investigate this threat than most. 22 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,680 Since 2011, we have been researching and manufacturing drug checking kits, 23 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:26,080 helping countless people stay safe by detecting whether or not their drugs contain deadly adulterants 24 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:31,760 like fentanyl. We documented this process in a previous documentary film called What's in My Baggy. 25 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:34,800 It's basalts, John. It's basalts? It's basalts? 26 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:37,680 Yeah, it's probably for mech from what it looks like. It's not... 27 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:41,360 Yeah, this kid's got fucking basalts. He tried to feed his basalts. 28 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:48,000 Given our history and capabilities, the decision to go to Mexico felt like an obligation, 29 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:51,520 a necessity. Yeah, when I saw that article come out with the study, I was like, 30 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:57,440 okay, now I know that there's something going on. And I know that it goes way deeper than what's in 31 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:03,280 this study and in this article. But I saw that and I was like, man, like they don't really realize 32 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:08,880 the depth of what's going on here. And so somebody has to go down there and uncover that. So I mean, 33 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:14,000 I had this idea and this individual who I'd worked with, he was like, hell yes. 34 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:20,320 So we went down there to investigate ourselves and try and inform the public. And it turned out 35 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:23,440 that it was actually much worse than even I had imagined. 36 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:30,720 In April 2023, Tyler Armstrong and I flew down to Mexico. We visited tourist heavy cities where 37 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:36,960 these predatory pharmacies are common. Tijuana, Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, Tulum, Cancun, and Cozumel. 38 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:42,560 It was astonishing how many of these pharmacies there were. They were too many to count. The number 39 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:52,160 was truly staggering. So I was really struck when I went to the Mayan Riviera by the immense frequency 40 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:59,680 of these pharmacies. In places like Playa del Carmen and Tulum, the pharmacies are highly saturating 41 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:08,000 the major international tourist areas with the presence of these pharmacies almost every 50-100 42 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:15,440 yards. I mean, certainly way beyond what local people could be utilizing for their medical needs. 43 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:21,760 We recorded videos secretly on hidden cameras, one of which was in a pen I wore in the pocket of my shirt. 44 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:23,760 A typical interaction went something like this. 45 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:28,000 Hello. 46 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:29,040 Hello, amigo. 47 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:31,280 Uh, how about English? 48 00:04:31,280 --> 00:04:32,800 Let's see. 49 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:36,080 Uh, Xanax? 50 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:36,960 Xanax. 51 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:40,640 What standard do you need? 52 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:41,600 One milligram? 53 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:42,640 The one milligram? 54 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:42,960 Yeah. 55 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:44,880 What about the two milligrams? 56 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:45,840 Just two milligrams? 57 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:46,320 Yeah. 58 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:46,960 Pharmaprem? 59 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:50,960 Yeah, but we have only, but you want to buy the singles or? 60 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:53,520 Yeah, I mean, I'd like to try one and then I'd like more. 61 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:58,720 Yeah, but it's only, it's three dollars for two. 62 00:04:58,720 --> 00:04:59,120 Okay. 63 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:00,080 I'll take one to start. 64 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,200 No, it's only five, but they're ten pills or more. 65 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:04,160 Ten pills or more? 66 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:06,160 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 67 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:06,560 Okay. 68 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:12,400 We asked about Xanax, Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Adderall, and steroids, 69 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:14,160 and then we would often ask if they were real. 70 00:05:15,200 --> 00:05:15,760 These are real? 71 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:16,880 Yeah. 72 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:17,120 Yeah. 73 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:21,440 And you're pretty sure these are real? 74 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:22,560 Yes, yes, yes. 75 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:23,360 Yeah, okay. 76 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:27,680 Right. 77 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:30,000 Biotrex. 78 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:35,040 But sometimes the pharmacist would even admit their pills weren't legal. 79 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:38,960 I'm pretty sure about their progress because I have clients that come back all the time, 80 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:39,840 so that's mine. 81 00:05:39,840 --> 00:05:40,400 Oh, really? 82 00:05:40,400 --> 00:05:40,800 Yeah. 83 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:41,680 Okay, all right. 84 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:45,040 And you tell me the rucksies are very good as though. 85 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:45,760 Oh, are they? 86 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:47,200 Okay, I did these little ones, huh? 87 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:48,880 Uh-huh, yes, they're very powerful. 88 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:49,840 It's called a Roxy? 89 00:05:49,840 --> 00:05:51,760 Uh-huh, here they're called Roxy. 90 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:52,800 Okay, all right. 91 00:05:52,800 --> 00:05:53,120 Well... 92 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:59,680 It's an easy way not very, you know, for say, the Oxycodone system is not legal, 93 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:00,960 so they say Roxy. 94 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:02,080 Oh, I gotcha. 95 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:02,720 Okay. 96 00:06:02,720 --> 00:06:07,840 One of the strangest experiences we had was when one pharmacist advised us on how to prepare 97 00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:09,600 veterinary ketamine for snorting. 98 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:26,320 And then we would ask how many pills they were willing to sell us. 99 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:27,600 Is there a limit? 100 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:29,040 Like, how many can I get? 101 00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:30,240 Doesn't matter. 102 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:31,520 Okay, that's pretty good. 103 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:33,280 Uh, how many of those can I get? 104 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:36,000 Whatever. 105 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:37,680 I mean, how many boxes can I purchase? 106 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:42,720 If I wanted, say, a hundred boxes, could you do that? 107 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:43,760 One hundred boxes? 108 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:45,120 I don't know. 109 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:49,680 Dollars. 110 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:51,040 Twenty thousand dollars? 111 00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:51,520 Yeah. 112 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:52,080 Okay. 113 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:53,840 No, all right. 114 00:06:53,840 --> 00:06:54,320 Xanax? 115 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:56,000 I do have ten milligrams. 116 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:56,320 Okay. 117 00:06:56,320 --> 00:06:57,600 Milligram and ten milligrams. 118 00:06:57,600 --> 00:06:59,680 Okay, um, how much is the one milligram wants? 119 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:01,360 One milligram, $1.50 each. 120 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:02,400 $1.50 each? 121 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:02,720 Okay. 122 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:04,800 Um, how many can I get? 123 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:11,760 Um, I think they do five thousand, ten thousand. 124 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:12,560 Ten thousand? 125 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:13,760 Oh, shit, dude. 126 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:14,560 All right, all right. 127 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:16,720 Many of these interactions left us speechless. 128 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:19,600 We wondered who would possibly need ten thousand pills, 129 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,800 other than someone who was planning to sell them illegally in some capacity. 130 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:25,280 We pushed the boundaries even further, 131 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:28,160 thinking up stories of why we would need pills at this quantity 132 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:31,280 and why we would need them for the cheapest possible price. 133 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:32,960 Uh, how many of those can I get? 134 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:35,040 Really? 135 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:36,080 Okay. 136 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:36,720 The Xanax? 137 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:37,200 I don't know. 138 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:38,720 It's like a little expensive. 139 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:40,240 How much did you get it for me? 140 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:42,000 I mean, I don't know. 141 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:44,560 I'm bringing them back to the States and like, 142 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:46,880 I have to sell them for a certain amount, right? 143 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:48,720 So, how many bottles a plane I'm taking? 144 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:52,000 I mean, like a hundred. 145 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:53,200 A hundred bottles? 146 00:07:55,440 --> 00:07:57,360 Yeah, I mean, are you driving back or are you walking? 147 00:07:57,360 --> 00:07:58,320 Mail. 148 00:07:58,320 --> 00:07:59,200 Huh? 149 00:07:59,200 --> 00:07:59,440 Mail. 150 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:00,640 Oh, mail. 151 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:01,920 No, but I'm the way to the States. 152 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:03,280 Are you driving or walking? 153 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:04,080 I'm mailing it. 154 00:08:04,080 --> 00:08:05,520 Oh, you're mailing from here to over there? 155 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:05,760 Yeah. 156 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:06,560 Yeah. 157 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:08,080 I don't know if it works like that, but... 158 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:10,320 It does, depending on how you do it. 159 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:13,120 Yeah, I think the bugs are lost. 160 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:17,200 I think it was 140 bucks if you wanted to take some right now. 161 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:17,920 I don't know. 162 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:18,640 Okay. 163 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,920 Even after openly claiming to smuggle drugs back into the US, 164 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:25,120 and proceeding to disclose fake plans to illegally sell them, 165 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:27,200 the so-called pharmacist barely blinked. 166 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:29,920 As problematic as this already was, 167 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:33,680 an even larger concern was whether or not the pills were legitimate to begin with. 168 00:08:33,680 --> 00:08:35,200 Oh, shit, dude. 169 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:36,000 All right, all right. 170 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:40,240 Well, I need to make sure that they're real though. 171 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:40,960 Yeah, they're real. 172 00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:42,720 They come in the blister. 173 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:43,520 You can see the... 174 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:43,920 Do that? 175 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:44,640 You pop them out. 176 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:46,800 Despite seeing the pills and blister packaging, 177 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:48,480 we weren't convinced that they were genuine. 178 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,560 Putting pills in blister packs would not have been difficult. 179 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:53,840 Yeah, I don't know. 180 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:56,080 There's like so many people selling fake ones around here. 181 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:57,040 Mm-hmm. 182 00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:02,880 Yeah, not only Xanax. 183 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:03,120 Yeah. 184 00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:04,240 Also Oxys. 185 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:05,840 That's crazy, bro. 186 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:07,280 Fake Oxys are shaking around here? 187 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:09,120 Yeah, but you can notice the... 188 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:10,880 Have you ever heard of fentanyl? 189 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:11,520 Yeah, dude. 190 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:12,320 Yeah, that's crazy. 191 00:09:12,320 --> 00:09:13,440 You gotta be careful of that. 192 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:14,640 They're selling it at pharmacies here? 193 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:17,280 Uh, well, there may be. 194 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:18,800 We don't deal with that. 195 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:20,560 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 196 00:09:20,560 --> 00:09:24,320 I'd been looking at the counterfeit pills for a while. 197 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:30,880 I'd heard a lot of anecdotal reports of teenagers dying from counterfeit pills. 198 00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:39,360 And so the first study that my colleagues actually did was looking at adolescent overdose trends 199 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:42,320 and how they essentially doubled one year to the next. 200 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:44,240 And that was mostly due to counterfeit pills. 201 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:48,320 And then there was a lot of discussion about, you know, could this be counterfeit? 202 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:54,800 Is it possible that a Mexican pharmacy would be selling counterfeit drugs? 203 00:09:55,360 --> 00:09:56,480 A lot of people said no. 204 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,040 You know, even I had... 205 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:01,280 I was like, no, there's just no way. 206 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:04,800 You know, because people talk a lot of smack about Mexico in general. 207 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:08,000 But having lived there, a lot of what people say is untrue. 208 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:14,080 You can live a high quality life, you know, a safe existence in that country. 209 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:16,880 And so I just didn't buy it. 210 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:29,920 And yet, when we peeled back the curtain and started to look and pulled in a whole team of researchers, 211 00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:41,120 you know, and went all across the country, sure enough, these pills were positive for fentanyl and heroin. 212 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:47,680 So I went into some of these pharmacies and said that I had a very bad toothache. 213 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:52,240 Wait, and I said, what can you sell me for it? 214 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:57,760 And the pharmacist would pull out something claiming antibiotics as well as a bottle of a painkiller. 215 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:04,400 And I said, look, I don't have a prescription, but I really have terrible toothache. 216 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:06,720 They said, oh, don't worry, no need for a prescription. 217 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:10,320 And they sold me this bottle. 218 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:15,360 And I would say, hmm, you know, the toothache is really bad. 219 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,800 Can you give me something stronger for the pain like Percocet? 220 00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:24,400 And they would pull out the bottle that didn't say Percocet and said, this is it. 221 00:11:24,400 --> 00:11:26,480 I said, oh, really, it doesn't say it's Percocet. 222 00:11:26,480 --> 00:11:28,320 And they said, oh, well, it's Percocet anyway. 223 00:11:28,320 --> 00:11:36,480 And the price would be about $85 or the equivalent of $85 in pesos. 224 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,000 I said, well, I don't have this money. 225 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:42,640 I cannot pay for this with a credit card. 226 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:43,760 I need to get cash. 227 00:11:44,560 --> 00:11:49,040 And I said, but I'm really concerned about bringing this to the United States 228 00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:51,360 because I don't have a prescription. 229 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:54,640 And they said, oh, no worries, we can just mail it to you. 230 00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:57,200 So this happened in about three pharmacies, 231 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:02,320 after which I started being followed and aborted the research. 232 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:04,800 Is there any way that you can know if there's fentanyl enough? 233 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,440 Uh, because of how it looks. 234 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:08,160 How it looks. 235 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:10,080 How you can search of the pill. 236 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:13,680 I mean, if it's the M30 branch, just look in the internet. 237 00:12:13,680 --> 00:12:14,720 I mean, M30. 238 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:15,360 Okay. 239 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:18,240 Uh, uh, pill. 240 00:12:20,160 --> 00:12:21,520 And you can go to... 241 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:26,560 Look, here's a little difference. 242 00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:27,600 This is the real one. 243 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:33,680 You can see the color is lighter and the mark are a little bit, you know, light. 244 00:12:33,680 --> 00:12:34,080 Right. 245 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:37,600 This one's like off center and it's chipped on the sides a little bit. 246 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:38,960 You can, you can know it. 247 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:40,880 You just need to know, yeah. 248 00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:43,200 Like a good, like a good look, you know? 249 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,320 I think they sell like a test kit that you can use, like, I don't know. 250 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:50,240 Of course, our plans were to do just that. 251 00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:53,360 After Tyler and I secured a variety of pills from a number of pharmacies, 252 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:56,800 we went back to our hotel room and tested them using bunk police test kits. 253 00:12:58,240 --> 00:12:59,440 The results were shocking. 254 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:04,880 Of the 15 pills we tested purporting to be oxycodone, eight were legitimate. 255 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:06,320 Three were unidentifiable. 256 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:10,400 Three had fentanyl and one had fentanyl and xylozine. 257 00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:14,560 Of the seven pills we tested purporting to be hydrocodone, five were legitimate. 258 00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:17,920 One had fentanyl and one had fentanyl and xylozine. 259 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:22,320 Of the nine pills we tested reporting to be Adderall, none were legitimate. 260 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:23,760 Two were unidentifiable. 261 00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:27,280 Six contained methamphetamine and one contained Aminorex, 262 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:31,840 which was removed from the U.S. market in 1972 for causing pulmonary hypertension. 263 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:35,760 We were astounded and the results were worse than we feared. 264 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,480 These were not drug dealers selling adulterated pills. 265 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:42,640 These were licensed pharmacies selling pills that would have likely been fatal if consumed. 266 00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:46,000 This was happening openly, publicly, and frequently. 267 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:47,680 And no one was doing anything about it. 268 00:13:47,680 --> 00:13:51,840 What kind of advancement has DEA made in the investigation? 269 00:13:51,840 --> 00:13:54,640 Uh, there really hasn't been anything. 270 00:13:54,640 --> 00:14:02,640 Um, they're, you know, they were ready to close their case, the Ryan's case. 271 00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:11,920 Uh, because really there really isn't anything that they can do, per se, dealing with the 272 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:15,520 Mexican government and cooperation. 273 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:19,280 But in the end, you know, the result is still the same. 274 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:22,800 And we're left here to, to pick up the pieces. 275 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:24,320 And it's, it's hard. 276 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:28,480 It really is hard for my daughter, for my husband. 277 00:14:28,480 --> 00:14:32,560 And, you know, nobody understands. 278 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,880 Nobody understands, except the other moms. 279 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:43,360 The DEA should have released a health alert immediately when they became aware of this. 280 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:51,920 The fact that this shocked me, or other very informed, substance use professionals 281 00:14:51,920 --> 00:14:53,760 with bi-national experience. 282 00:14:55,040 --> 00:15:01,280 If you can shock me with, you know, the fact that a pill out of a Mexican pharmacy might be counterfeit, 283 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:08,160 but please imagine what tourists coming in off cruise ships, or, you know, partying in Cabo, 284 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:13,600 or, you know, these, you know, there's these very tourist, very party-heavy cities. 285 00:15:14,320 --> 00:15:22,960 Because if we think back to 2010, 2011, when the American government really clamped down on opioid prescribing, 286 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:29,440 it was a little bit slow, but it started to push people into the black market. 287 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:33,520 If people who cannot get their Adderall or their Vyvanse through their pharmacies, 288 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:38,720 and especially if they live along the border, or they're visiting, or they work in Mexico, 289 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:42,480 and you see that there is Adderall available at the pharmacies. 290 00:15:43,440 --> 00:15:45,440 Oh, well, you know, I have insurance. 291 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:46,160 I have a doctor. 292 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:50,320 I tried to get it, but there's this shortage now that's going into its second year. 293 00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:54,640 Why not just get it at the Mexican pharmacies? 294 00:15:54,640 --> 00:16:01,200 If we restored opioid prescribing tomorrow to the 2006 levels, it would save lives. 295 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:03,440 It would save lives. 296 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:05,840 But we're never going to do that. 297 00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:08,720 These are not shoddy street shacks. 298 00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:14,720 This is not the dealer or a cabbie approaching you, or someone from a hotel approaching you, 299 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,400 to sell illicit drugs. 300 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:25,120 These are small-sized buildings, but nonetheless, they are real, actual buildings. 301 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:26,800 They look very polished. 302 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:30,400 They're also enormously explicit in their advertisement, 303 00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:35,040 just right outside, in plain sight of authorities, in plain sight of everyone, 304 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:42,160 that they are selling drugs like anabolic steroids, cialis, antibiotics, percorone. 305 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:50,960 So the level of complicity or at minimum tolerance by authorities is substantial, 306 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:52,720 and it's hard to imagine this could happen. 307 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:55,920 We were curious about potential cartel involvement, 308 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:58,000 and what experts in the industry believed. 309 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:06,400 There is no question that the people responsible for mixing methamphetamine and fentanyl 310 00:17:07,120 --> 00:17:13,680 into Adderall, Xanax, Percocet, are primarily the Sinaloa cartel, 311 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:18,960 which is the most powerful cartel in the world presently, 312 00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:22,720 and then also the Jalisco New Generation cartel. 313 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:27,920 And one of the outstanding issues, of course, is how linked these pharmacies are to major criminal 314 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:31,920 groups, such as the Sinaloa cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation, 315 00:17:31,920 --> 00:17:38,960 in a place like Tulum, which is really considered a narco pueblo, 316 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:43,120 where the contestation between Sinaloa cartel and Jalisco is very intense, 317 00:17:43,120 --> 00:17:46,640 and both groups have substantial presence, the same in Cancun, 318 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,680 although in kind of dividing the territories. 319 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:58,160 I think it's very unlikely that these pharmacies could operate without some involvement, 320 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:03,040 and I would say some substantial involvement of the major cartels, for several reasons. 321 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:09,120 The cartels are very adept at changing their tactics. 322 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:15,840 In the past, what they would do is they would concentrate on tourist areas in Mexico 323 00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:21,840 to sell, you know, for example, heroin, cocaine, marijuana. 324 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:28,400 But now, a lot of people are aware, because of public awareness programs, 325 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:37,600 that benthanol and methamphetamine are being mixed with other drugs, which could be lethal. 326 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:48,400 So, a lot of the tourists in Mexico, or people that reside there, are not going to buy from street dealers. 327 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:59,120 So now, the cartels have moved into the realm of trying to be legitimate by having pharmacies, 328 00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:05,840 forcing pharmacies, I'm sure, to sell the drugs that are laced with these deadly drugs. 329 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:10,880 Yeah, I think there's certainly both possibilities, and we could have multiple existing at the same time, 330 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:22,960 that some of the pharmacies selling them are simply being delivered these drugs by a criminal group. 331 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:26,080 And they might be coerced to sell the drugs. 332 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:33,360 Well, I'm sure the cartels are going to a lot of these pharmacies and telling them, you know, 333 00:19:33,360 --> 00:19:38,800 you're either going to sell these drugs for us out of your pharmacy, or we're going to kill you. 334 00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:42,640 The level of coercion by the cartels over businesses is so enormous, 335 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:44,640 this is just part and parcel of the extortion. 336 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:50,400 If you don't do what we tell you, we will kill your staff, we will kill you, we will burn down the building. 337 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:55,600 Not that different than extorting OXO in Mexico. 338 00:19:56,320 --> 00:20:03,600 But another possibility is that the pharmacies are actually underwritten with drug money 339 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:11,520 and owned by some shell companies belonging to the cartels, at least some of them. 340 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:15,200 I mean, the frequency of these pharmacies is just extraordinary. 341 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:24,080 This is pretty scary that the cartels are moving into this kind of quasi-legal gray area with these pills. 342 00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:28,960 For one thing, not a lot of people use heroin. 343 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:32,160 Not a lot of people use fentanyl or meth. 344 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:36,160 But when you get to something like cocaine, that's more common. 345 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:42,240 And when you get to something like pills, you know, tons and tons of Americans use pills. 346 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:45,680 And this is a huge untapped market for the cartels. 347 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:53,920 And once they really get a big segment of it, we could see the death toll rise even higher. 348 00:20:54,800 --> 00:21:04,400 This looks like a very systematic operation and effort by the cartels to entice a wide set 349 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:07,600 of new customers as well as supply traditional customers. 350 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:15,120 And there is really enormous danger to these pharmacies because they have the potential 351 00:21:15,120 --> 00:21:19,920 to be replicating, at least to some extent, what's said of the opioid epidemic. 352 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:25,040 The notion that people had that they were buying medication that would help with their pain, 353 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:26,560 but that would not cause harm. 354 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:29,040 That would not proceed to substance use disorders. 355 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:35,760 And they are targeting the wide set of tourists from North America, but also from other parts 356 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:42,160 of the world coming to the Riviera and, for that matter, coming to places like Puerto Vallarta 357 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:48,560 or Puerto Escondido or Acapulco, other major tourist areas, Los Cabos, obviously. 358 00:21:49,280 --> 00:21:56,240 So they can expose European tourists to opioid use and opioid disorders. 359 00:21:56,240 --> 00:22:01,120 In our quest to unravel this story, to truly expose the corruption in this tourist-facing system, 360 00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:06,720 our methods got riskier and we began pushing the envelope as much as possible, almost to our detriment. 361 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:12,800 I mean, yeah, I wanted to get them on camera saying this fucked up shit, you know, like, 362 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:17,600 and so I took that too far. 363 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:24,960 This woman gets a phone call from the cartel, I suppose, and she's like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. 364 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:29,440 And then she looks right at the hidden camera, and then she asks for my ID. 365 00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:32,800 I was like, no, you can't have my ID. 366 00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:38,000 But in that moment, it didn't really occur to me that she had taken that phone call, 367 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,000 looked at my camera, and then asked for my ID. 368 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:41,040 I didn't catch that. 369 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:50,480 The next morning, I got up, and the first or second pharmacy that I went to, 370 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:55,120 I was walking in, and the guy was acting very strangely. 371 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:56,640 Can I help you? 372 00:22:56,640 --> 00:22:58,400 Uh, yeah, do you have Xanax? 373 00:22:58,400 --> 00:22:59,360 I don't. 374 00:22:59,360 --> 00:22:59,920 You don't? 375 00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:00,320 Okay. 376 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:04,960 So I asked him for that first, and he just had this really, like, cold reaction. 377 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:05,840 He's like, no. 378 00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:11,840 He's like, okay, and I could tell something was up, and I was like, so I assume that doesn't, 379 00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:13,840 that means you don't have anything else that I'd want either. 380 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:15,840 Just trying to, like, get out of there or whatever. 381 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:20,000 All right, I'd imagine you probably don't have other things as well then. 382 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:21,120 Gotcha. 383 00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:21,680 Thank you, sir. 384 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:26,640 Yeah, so then as I'm walking out, he says, they're going to cut your fucking head off 385 00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:28,560 as I'm walking the other direction. 386 00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:31,360 Yeah. 387 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:32,960 Head off. 388 00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:34,080 What do you mean? 389 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:37,440 Why would you say that? 390 00:23:41,360 --> 00:23:42,640 Bruce is going to chop my head off. 391 00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:43,760 What? 392 00:23:44,960 --> 00:23:46,640 You said somebody's going to chop my head off? 393 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:47,280 What? 394 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:49,120 I didn't say anything. 395 00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:51,120 That's what she just said. 396 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:53,600 Huh. 397 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:57,200 That dude just told me that they're going to chop my head off. 398 00:23:57,760 --> 00:23:58,000 Really? 399 00:23:58,720 --> 00:23:58,960 Yeah. 400 00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:00,320 Let's get the fuck out of here. 401 00:24:00,720 --> 00:24:01,280 Let's go back. 402 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:08,240 And we walk to the end of the street, get in an Uber, take that to our hotel, shave both of our 403 00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:14,080 beards off, go straight from there to the airport, and stay in the airport until we get a flight out. 404 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,120 Fortunately, we made it back relatively unscathed. 405 00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:21,840 After we got home and the dust settled, we started traveling around the country, talking to experts 406 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:23,200 about how to address this problem. 407 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:33,520 I mean, I just testified in July 20th, 2023, in a congressional hearing that shutting down these 408 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:40,720 pharmacies should be elevated to one of the very high priorities for U.S. diplomatic engagement with 409 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:41,280 Mexico. 410 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:46,240 This should be one of the primary tasks that we are asking them to do. 411 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:51,920 Quite apart from the flows of drugs to the United States, Mexican criminal groups, the Narcos, 412 00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,000 are eating Mexico alive. 413 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:59,520 They are taking over after legal economy, after legal economy. 414 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:04,560 They are putting tremendous pressure on Mexican institutions, infiltrating them, co-opting them, 415 00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:05,360 coercing them. 416 00:25:05,360 --> 00:25:09,040 They are controlling territories and they are controlling people. 417 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:19,280 And that's why it's so important to have harm reduction programs and have Narcan, which can reverse 418 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:28,000 opioid overdoses and then test strips so that the drug addicts can test their drug of choice 419 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:31,760 to ensure that it doesn't have fentanyl. 420 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:36,960 If we just produced legitimate safe pharmaceuticals, people would continue to take legitimate safe 421 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:42,720 pharmaceuticals and not end up dead from a fentanyl overdose or accidentally addicted to meth 422 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:44,720 because they bought too many Mexican Adderall. 423 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:44,960 What? 424 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:50,880 We continue to pursue these efforts in hopes that stories like Ryan Bagwell's will not be repeated. 425 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,200 And we can't help but wonder if things have been different. 426 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:54,880 Maybe Ryan would still be around today. 427 00:25:55,440 --> 00:26:00,800 I have this memory of him and he would do it to me every single time. 428 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:02,080 He was my grocery buddy. 429 00:26:05,120 --> 00:26:11,360 And I guess he wanted to make sure that he got whatever he wanted, you know, cereal, chips, 430 00:26:11,360 --> 00:26:17,120 whatever it was. And so we'd go through the aisle where they have 431 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:24,720 that brand naked where it's like nut juices and all this other stuff, right? 432 00:26:25,840 --> 00:26:30,400 And never fails. He'd be like, mom, mom. And he's pointing to me. He's like, mom, 433 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:35,520 can I get naked? And I'd be like, oh my God, kid. 434 00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:51,840 You know, but he just had that sense of humor, very witty. 435 00:26:51,840 --> 00:27:08,600 Like me. 436 00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:09,440 Yeah. 437 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:10,400 Yeah. 438 00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:12,720 Yeah. 439 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:14,080 Yeah. 440 00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:17,600 Yeah. 441 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:41,800 What you just watched is only a small portion of the story. 442 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:46,060 The full details of our journey include smuggling samples through a half dozen Mexican airports, 443 00:27:46,060 --> 00:27:50,600 as well as a life-threatening motorcycle accident about halfway through filming, and quite a bit more. 444 00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:54,580 Join our Patreon to hear the details and for additional hidden camera footage, 445 00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:59,120 as well as extended interviews with myself, Tyler, my right hand during the trip, 446 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:01,300 and the experts featured in Poison Pills. 447 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:05,100 If you believe in Transparency's mission to lower drug-related fatalities 448 00:28:05,100 --> 00:28:07,780 and to spread awareness within the drug and pharmaceutical space, 449 00:28:08,140 --> 00:28:11,000 then please also consider donating to our non-profit organization 450 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:14,460 or investing in our ongoing work developing at-home substance test kits. 451 00:28:14,980 --> 00:28:15,920 You can find a link below. 452 00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:20,440 We are also seeking qualified volunteers and job applicants to learn and grow with us 453 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:22,460 as we move forward into the future of this initiative. 454 00:28:23,120 --> 00:28:26,860 If you have another minute to spend with me, I'd like to share a bit about what we have planned. 455 00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:32,220 Poison Pills is only the first of many episodes in what we're calling the Transparency DocuMatrix. 456 00:28:33,120 --> 00:28:36,440 We will be exploring the many intertwined networks that surround black, gray, 457 00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:38,520 and clear-market drugs and pharmaceuticals. 458 00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:41,180 We can't share the exact subject matter with you yet, 459 00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:44,360 but the issue we'd like to tackle next is far-reaching, to say the least, 460 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,560 affecting up to 25% of the American population every year. 461 00:28:48,300 --> 00:28:49,740 Along with our documentary series, 462 00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:52,640 Transparency has a number of related initiatives in the works. 463 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,580 We will be offering affordable, highly accurate, 464 00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:59,540 and easily accessible mail-in laboratory analysis for any substance starting in July. 465 00:28:59,540 --> 00:29:03,940 We're also in the final stages of manufacturing our next-gen substance test kits 466 00:29:03,940 --> 00:29:05,740 in the form of our patented pen test. 467 00:29:06,780 --> 00:29:11,580 Using our pen test technology, we'll be offering test kits for a laundry list of pharmaceuticals, 468 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,260 hormones, and steroids, as well as recreational drugs. 469 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,480 Beyond that, please check out our new iPhone and Android app, 470 00:29:17,900 --> 00:29:19,060 Transparency Harm Reduction, 471 00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,160 as well as our art-driven reference book called Chromatic Reactions, 472 00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:23,700 The Art of Testing Drugs. 473 00:29:23,700 --> 00:29:27,560 I'd like to thank all the brave and intelligent people that helped us get here. 474 00:29:28,060 --> 00:29:28,840 You know who you are. 475 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:30,620 Thanks for watching.