In the midst of the pandemic, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and other Mexican drug trafficking groups were never affected by their criminal and political influence. In fact, they have adapted to adverse conditions to continue their global drug trafficking activities despite the health, social and economic conditions brought on by COVID-19, says a report prepared by the Investigation Service of the United States Congress.
“The pandemic does not appear to have diminished the extensive criminal and political clout of Mexican criminal organizations. (…) Changes could affect the extent to which Mexican-based transnational criminal organizations, commonly described as cartels, pose a threat. for national criminal organizations. United States security, “warns the text consulted by MILLENNIUM.
This is in accordance with the warnings of the Ministry of Homeland Security (DHS) last October when the National Threat Assessment 2020 where he viewed the Mexican cartels as a major threat to the United States due to their ability to control territory and smuggling routes along the border and to co-opt officials at various levels of government.
According to the document with the title “Cartels and Mexican Drug Trafficking: Operations in the Middle of Covid-19” drug traffickers “adapted to the operating environment of Covid-19” and decided to save resources to deal with the blockades and sanitation restrictions.
This, according to the Capitol disclosure, includes cash alongside chemical precursors and drugs as the cartels are wary of the pandemic’s impact on law enforcement operations against them on both sides of the border.
It also warns that the pandemic has motivated cartels to diversify and expand their use of submarines, drones, ultralight aircraft, tunnels and cryptocurrencies.
“Neither the risk of infection nor the mobility restrictions imposed by the government during the pandemic appear to have significantly deterred the activity of the cartels,” emphasizes the report.
The text prepared by the Research service of the Capitol explains that several high-profile seizures made by anti-narcotics agencies last year, when the global pandemic was declared and the number of infections hit its highest, point to possible miscalculations on the part of human traffickers.
However, those seizures also indicate that drugs and money continue to flow through the trade corridors between them United States and Mexico. In addition, opium cultivation and heroin production in Mexico have not been much affected by the events associated with Covid-19, ”the legislative report reads in abundance in this regard.
It also shows that given the shortage of chemical precursors mainly comes from China and the India The slowdown in maritime trade and port activities has affected criminal organizations producing and trafficking drugs, such as fentanyl and methamphetamine, which use these precursors as raw materials, so this has had an impact on the final price of your product.
“Some observers speculate that the cartels are using the pandemic as a pretext to cooperate and set prices,” abounds in this regard, “pero also warns that the pandemic “may motivate Mexican-based drug manufacturers to find an alternative precursor and further develop national manufacturing capabilities.”
The document highlights that it has had access to reports that cartels are distributing aid packages to the population amid the pandemic marked with their organizations’ insignia and lockdown measures related to the coronavirus.
“Such activities, reinforced on social media, appear to be intended to gain community support for their criminal ventures and attract recruits (…) the aid packages reinforced the perception of a weak Mexican government incapable of to exercise territorial control amid an expected economic contraction of about 9 percent by 2020, ‘the text emphasizes.
The report also notes the strategy of the current government of the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador against the cartels is regularly criticized.
“Although Mexican President Andrés López Obrador maintains high approval rates (more than 60 percent in early 2021), his dealings with Mexican criminal groups and his inability to reduce violence are regularly criticized,” he says.
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