Mexico to share 'evidence' of fentanyl smuggling from China

Mexico will provide China with evidence of illegal fentanyl shipments from the Asian nation to Mexican drug cartels, its president has said, after Beijing denied there was any such smuggling.

A container that recently arrived in Mexico from China was found to contain the synthetic opioid blamed for hundreds of overdose deaths every day in the United States, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday.

"We already have the evidence," said Lopez Obrador, who in March wrote to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, asking for help curbing fentanyl flows.

China's Foreign Ministry said in response that there was no illegal fentanyl trafficking between the two countries.

Speaking at his daily news conference, Lopez Obrador said that Mexico would ask "very respectfully" for China to inform it when the contraband leaves its ports, and if possible seize it.

Republican pressure on Mexico cartels

According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, criminal groups export chemicals from China to Mexico where they are used to produce fentanyl that is smuggled across the US border.

Mexico has denied that fentanyl is manufactured in its territory.

Lopez Obrador's appeal follows calls from Republican senators in the United States to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organisations and even send troops to fight them.

The US Justice Department last month singled out two Chinese companies for sanctions for allegedly selling chemical ingredients to the notorious Sinaloa cartel to produce fentanyl.