THE SINALOA DRUG CARTEL IS FIRMLY IN CONTROL OF THE NORTH AMERICAN DRUG TRADE

Sarah,

Over the last six years, Mexican authorities have waged a war on the drug cartels that dominate Mexico.  50,000 people have been killed and depressingly little has changed.  The Sinaloa Cartel, Mexico’s biggest and most powerful cartel, remains firmly in control.  Here is some background on the organization.

A Very Quick History:

In the 1970’s, Colombian drug cartels dominated the drug trade.  They shipped drugs through the Caribbean and up through Florida.  After the United States authorities beefed up security along the Caribbean route, the Colombians started using Mexican gangs as middlemen.  They would fly the drugs into Northern Mexico and employ the Mexicans to bring drugs over the border into California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

With this new income, the Mexican gangs began investing in their own operations.  By the 1980’s, the Guadalajara Cartel began to rival the power of the original Colombian cartels.  When the leader of the Guadalajara Cartel died, the organization splintered into three rival cartels: the Tijuana Cartel, Juarez Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.

The Sinaloa Cartel has since risen to prominence and is headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.  El Chapo is now 55 and worth over a billion dollars, making him one of the richest men in the world.

Scope:

The scope of the El Chapo’s operation is breathtaking.  The Sinaloa Cartel and their allies account for about half of all drugs brought into America.  Although estimates as to the Cartel’s yearly income vary greatly, authorities figure that the Cartel can buy a kilo of cocaine in Peru for $2,000 and sell it in the United States for over $100,000 once it is broken down into grams.  In terms of volume, the figures are equally incredible.  Recently, 252 TONS (504,000 pounds) of the chemical used to manufacture meth were found on a Chinese ship that was impounded at a Mexican port.

Methods:

The cartel’s methods can be grouped into innovation and bribery.

Innovation: The cartel uses submarines, tunnels, and even catapults to bring drugs into the country.  They grow marijuana in National Forests in the US and import heroin by hiding it inside individual chili peppers.

Bribery: Bribery is present in all levels of Mexican government.  Although El Chapo was briefly incarcerated, most of the prison was on his payroll and when the time was right, he was smuggled out of jail in a laundry basket.  In 2008, a top Mexican drug official was charged with accepting $450,000 in bribes per month.

Rivals:

Most of the violence plaguing Mexico can be traced to rivalries between the Sinaloa Cartel and its rivals.  In addition to fighting the Juarez and Tijuana Cartels that formed after the dissolution of the Guadalajara Cartel, El Chapo is also up against a new group of psychopaths called the Zetas.  The Zetas are former cartel bodyguards that struck out on their own and operate in extortion and kidnapping as well as drug trafficking.  It was this extraordinarily violent group that dumped 49 mutilated bodies on the side of a highway last year.  Currently, there is conspiracy that the Mexican government favors the Sinaloa Cartel because they are slightly less violent and their emerging dominance is the only thing that can bring relative calm back to Mexican cities.

Bottom Line: Don’t buy drugs.

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all  (this article is unreal)