Narco-kitchens: Cartels in Sinaloa go from ‘narco-labs’ to mobile ‘kitchens’

Faced with siege from Mexican authorities, the cartels have transformed their synthetic drug production methods, particularly in Sinaloa, ending the era of super-labs, which covered large areas with fixed reactors and permanent structures.

This has given way to mobile, easily concealed micro-kitchens capable of producing up to 100 kilos of methamphetamine in six hours, which have also fragmented the process.

Production is no longer concentrated; it is dispersed. Each point is an independent cell, difficult to track, and includes the use of trailers or houses adapted with refrigerators and mini-splits.

“This shows the speed with which these glass kitchens operate,” explained Porfirio Fuentes Vélez, commander of the 9th Military Zone in Culiacán.

“They can move them from one place to another. After working, if they think they can be located, they dismantle their lab themselves and take it to another location. There are others who have them mounted on trailers, work for two, three, four hours… and they are moving them.”

Since October 2024, when Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration began, and through the first four months of 2025, the Army has located 45 clandestine laboratories and at least 400 drug concentration areas, according to data from the Ministry of National Defense.

This means that for every clandestine laboratory detected, there are on average almost nine drug concentration points.

According to the military command, the production process can be completed in just four to six hours, with the capacity to generate 100 kilos of methamphetamine.