Two U.S. companies have halted sales of certain chemicals after a report by Bloomberg showed the products were being diverted by drug cartels to make and sell narcotics. Tetra Technologies has stopped selling calcium chloride in South America, a product that reportedly found its way in to cocaine laboratories in Colombia, following an earlier move by Avantor Inc. to cease sales of the essential heroin-making chemical acetic anhydride in Mexico, according to Bloomberg.
Former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors reportedly called curbing the product sales a smart corporate move as the companies could otherwise be in legal jeopardy. According to the article, “without chemicals, it’s impossible to produce cocaine from coca leaves or to make heroin from poppies.”
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