'Pink cocaine' warning as Mexican cartel adds fentanyl to deadly drugs mix

A Mexican cartel has added one of the most lethal substances in the to one of the  it peddles, and people have now been issued a warning over so-called “pink cocaine”.

The US  says the notorious Sinaloa Cartel (CDS) is producing several variants of the drug tusi. Tusi is a drugs cocktail that contains the likes of ketamine and cocaine, and now the cartel has added fentanyl to boost its potency. A new report by the DEA has highlighted some of the drug threats faced by the US in 2025, including from the Sinaloa Cartel.

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Robert Murphy, acting administrator for the DEA, said in the report: “The Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel, now designated as foreign terrorist organizations, are the primary groups producing the illicit synthetic drugs driving US drug poisoning deaths and trafficking these drugs into the United States.

“The cartels are not only fueling the drug poisoning deaths in the United States but also committing egregious acts of violence, threatening the security and stability of our partners across the Western Hemisphere.

“The cartels produce fentanyl and methamphetamine in clandestine laboratories in Mexico using precursor chemicals and pill presses sourced from companies in . 

"Much of the fentanyl is pressed into pills resembling legitimate medication and sold to customers in the United States through social media platforms and messaging applications.”

The Sinaloa Cartel has smuggled huge quantities of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and marijuana into the United States, mainly through California and New Mexico, and around the globe for decades. It also engages in a wide range of violent activities including murder, torture and kidnap to intimidate civilians, government officials, and journalists.

The report said of the substance known as tusi: “The cartel has also become involved in the manufacturing and trafficking of “tusi,” a pink-colored drug cocktail consumed mainly in the club scenes of major metropolitan cities in North and South America.

“Originally a slang term for the synthetic hallucinogenic drug 2C-B, CDS has exploited the branding of tusi to create new mixtures that are combinations of ketamine and other drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and/or fentanyl. CDS is capable of importing large quantities of ketamine from China to facilitate tusi production in Mexico.

“Additionally, CDS engages in many other crimes, including money laundering, extortion, theft of petroleum and natural resources, weapons trafficking, human smuggling, prostitution, and illegal wildlife trade.

"The illicit proceeds of these peripheral crimes provide resources that make CDS more resilient and increase their ability to expand.”