00:01Officials at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and State Department have known for more than three years that some pharmacies in Mexico are selling counterfeit medications laced with illicit fentanyl, and that American tourists are overdosing and dying from them.
00:15A California medical examiner first alerted federal authorities in the spring of 2019, when 29-year-old Brennan Harrell died of a fentanyl overdose after he and a friend bought pills at a drugstore in Cabo San Lucas.
00:34Afterward, his family cooperated with the DIA during a months-long investigation they say ended with the agency promising to take action that did not materialize.
00:45Last month, a Los Angeles Times investigation found that some pharmacies in northwestern Mexico, including several in Cabo, are not only passing off fentanyl pills as legitimate oxycodone but also selling methamphetamine tablets as Adderall.
01:02It's impossible to tell how many people have been harmed by this practice, because Mexican fatality data are notoriously unreliable and the U government has been tight-lipped about the problem.
01:15To Chelsea Shover, a UCLA researcher and senior author of a recent study that paralleled the findings of the Times investigation, the government's reticence to act is particularly troubling in light of Harrell's death.
01:28This case could have been a canary in the coal mine and could have prevented Moe.
01:34We knew when we detected counterfeits that there would be people who died, but it's deeply concerning that there was compelling evidence of this a few years ago, and yet there wasn't any kind of public information campaign about it.
01:46Neither the DEA nor the State Department provided direct answers to detailed questions.
01:54The DEA declined to comment.
01:56A State Department spokesperson referred back to an earlier statement in which the department said it, will not go into detail about any U citizens impacted by counterfeit medication due to privacy considerations.
02:13Repeated requests for comment from the Baja California Surstate Police and Prosecutor's Office went unanswered. Los Cabos Municipal Police did not provide comment.
02:30Shortly after Harrell's death, officials in Cabo San Lucas told Mary Harold that her young, healthy son had suffered a heart attack.
02:37The family learned what really happened weeks later, when they tracked down a medical examiner in California willing to conduct an autopsy and more thorough toxicology testing.
02:52In the end, determining Harrell's actual cause of death required money, a lawyer and a trip to Mexico. Resources and options many families don't have.
03:01U. Government inaction and the fact that many Mexican toxicology screenings don't include fentanyl have combined to create a serious but unquantifiable problem that's poised to claim more American lives.
03:20It's a frustration Mary Harold knows all too well after her efforts to spur a robust federal response went nowhere.
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