Meth precursor

Like the U.S., Mexico has tightened laws and regulations on pseudoephedrine, though some labs are still able to obtain large amounts from China and India. To fill the void, cartel chemists have turned to an old recipe known as P2P that first appeared in the 1960s and 1970s in some parts of the western U.S.

That recipe uses the organic compound phenylacetone. Because of its use in meth, the U.S. government made it a controlled substance in 1980, essentially stopping that form of meth in the U.S. But in Mexico, the cartels can get phenylacetone from other countries, DEA experts said.

In the third quarter of 2011, 85 percent of lab samples taken from U.S. meth seizures came from the P2P process — up from 50 percent a little more than a year earlier, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said.

Is phenylacetone easier to smuggle?

 “Manufacturing methamphetamine requires relatively little in the way of sophisticated equipment; it can be manufactured in a bathtub in someone's home,” said Greitens. “That’s one reason why it was relatively easy to privatize (or partially privatize) production inside North Korea.” 
 “Evidence from my interviews with people involved in the manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine made inside North Korea,” said Greitens, “consistently indicates that the precursor chemicals are coming from China via cross-border illicit trading and smuggling networks.”

Chinese groups are moving the precursor to Mexico.

Two Hong Kong triads have linked up with one of Latin America's largest and most notorious drug cartels to supply the burgeoning global market for methamphetamine, the Sunday Morning Post has learned. 
 Members of the 14K and Sun Yee On triads are supplying Mexico's Sinaloa cartel with the raw materials needed to produce methamphetamine, or "crystal meth", as demand skyrockets.

There is the chain, from precursors in China, labs in Mexico, management in SoCal, and dead kids in Kentucky.