Main content

Inside Mexico's drug cartels

How narco networks move fentanyl to the USA; Rohingyas in Bangladesh face food aid cuts; the Syrian Kurds who fought off IS now fear Turkey; Faroese views on Greenland's future

Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from Mexico and the USA, refugee camps in Bangladesh, a Kurdish stronghold in northeast Syria and the Faroe Islands.

Donald Trump has threatened Mexico with sanctions if it does not do more to halt the flow of deadly fentanyl into the US. Quentin Sommerville gained rare access to a Mexican drug smuggling operation, meeting the footsoldiers of a prominent cartel as it prepared to send fentanyl north of the border.

Bangladesh is currently home to more than a million Rohingya people, who have been living in refugee camps since fleeing persecution in Myanmar back in 2017. They have depended on foreign aid to survive – but following cuts to the US and global aid budget that lifeline is now at risk. Samira Hussain visited the coastal city of Cox's Bazar to see the consequences of the cuts for food and medical aid.

Back in 2014, swathes of north-east Syria came under the control of Islamic State - though when its fighters reached the city of Kobane, they met strong resistance from Kurdish forces. IS was eventually driven out, and the Assad dictatorship is gone, but local Kurdish armed groups' overseas alliances have fractured, reports Jiyar Gol.

In the autonomous Danish territory of the Faroe Islands, locals have been keeping an eye on what’s been going on in another Danish territory – Greenland. Amy Liptrot found that Donald Trump’s proposal that the US might look to buy it has sparked fresh conversations over Faroese independence – and a growing sense of local pride.

Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production coordinator: Katie Morrison

Image: Mexican cartel members say there is strong demand for fentanyl in the USA Picture Credit: Darren Conway/³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Available now

23 minutes

Last on

Mon 17 Mar 2025 21:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 15 Mar 2025 17:06GMT
  • Sun 16 Mar 2025 04:06GMT
  • Sun 16 Mar 2025 09:06GMT
  • Mon 17 Mar 2025 00:06GMT
  • Mon 17 Mar 2025 20:06GMT
  • Mon 17 Mar 2025 21:06GMT