"The world must unite, it is no longer just Mexico and the United States. Governments in Europe are seeing what is happening with fentanyl," Salazar told reporters.
President Biden's confidant described as "historic" the bilateral meeting Thursday in Washington on the fight against drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, and arms trafficking in the opposite direction.
At the end of this meeting, the US authorities announced Friday sanctions against networks implicating China in the trafficking of fentanyl.
Americans' deadly addiction to opiates © Gal ROMA / AFP/Archives
Two Chinese companies, accused of supplying the cartel with chemical compounds, are targeted by sanctions from the Treasury Department.
The Justice Department also indicted 28 people, including three children of Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who is serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison.
One of Guzmán's three sons, Ovidio, was arrested on 5 January in Mexico in an operation that killed 29 people (10 military personnel and 19 alleged offenders). The United States requested his extradition in February.
Others were arrested in Colombia, Greece, Guatemala and the United States, said U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Director Anne Milgram.
Soldiers deployed on a street in Culiacan during an operation to arrest Ovidio Guzman, son of Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, on January 5, 2023 in Mexico © Juan Carlos CRUZ / AFP/Archives
On April 6, Beijing denied the existence of "illegal trafficking of fentanyl between China and Mexico."
"The United States should face its own problem and take steps to ... reduce demand," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.
She was being asked about a letter from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping asking for help in the fight against fentanyl trafficking between China and Mexico.
© 2023 AFP