The arrest of a chemical engineer, a wannabe “Brazilian Walter White” like the fictional character from the television series Breaking Bad, suggests that methamphetamine production in the region may be expanding.

On January 17, Brazilian authorities captured Guillermo Fabián Martínez Ortíz, alias “Fantasma,” a Mexican national accused of being the top methamphetamine manufacturer in São Paulo state and one of the pioneers of local production in the city.

The arrest was part of Operation Heisenberg, named after the alias used by Walter White in the series about a high school teacher turned methamphetamine producer and trafficker. The Brazilian operation aimed to dismantle a network of methamphetamine producers and traffickers linked to criminal organizations run by Mexican and Chinese groups.

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Martínez Ortíz previously worked at the state-owned oil company Pemex before moving to Brazil, where, according to the Narcotics Investigation Department (Departamento de Investigações sobre Narcóticos – DENARC), he transformed the local drug market. Methamphetamine, which was previously imported at $80 per gram, dropped to $12 per gram under his operation. Other reports indicate that he had ties to Nigerian and Chinese mafias in São Paulo to supply local demand.

InSight Crime Analysis

These early signs suggest that methamphetamine production may be expanding beyond Mexico, a country that has long dominated the market.

Specifically, the emergence of local production in Brazil appears to have reshaped São Paulo’s methamphetamine market in a very short period of time, driving down costs and reducing reliance on foreign suppliers.

Brazil is not the only country where methamphetamine markets are shifting. On January 10, Chilean prosecutors dismantled a Mexican-run meth lab in a rural area of the O’Higgins region, central Chile, seizing 884 kilograms of the drug. Authorities stated that the shipment had arrived from Manzanillo, Mexico, for processing in Chile before being sent to Europe and Oceania. Meanwhile, in July 2024, Colombian authorities intercepted a methamphetamine shipment at the port of Buenaventura on the Pacific coast.

SEE ALSO:Methamphetamine Traffickers in Mexico Become Global Wholesalers

The case in Chile suggests that Mexican networks are diversifying their trafficking routes. This pattern resembles the use of third-party countries as links in drug trafficking supply chains, a tactic also observed in the smuggling of chemical precursors into Mexico. The Colombia case reinforces the idea that criminal networks are exploring new corridors to move the drug while evading law enforcement controls.

Mexico has been a methamphetamine production hub for decades, with rising drug manufacturing fueling increased domestic consumption and exports to its primary markets: the United States and Europe.

However, so far, there is no clear evidence that consumption is rising in other South American countries, according to reports from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). While methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant, the South American market remains dominated by cocaine, which has an established consumer base.

Featured Image: Methamphetamine seized by Brazil’s anti-narcotics police in São Paulo during Operation Heisenberg.

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