The criminal capture of the cattle business

The Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel imposed a scheme to capture the cattle business in Jalisco, with which it controls the volume of cattle produced, the logistics of its transportation and the final destination of the cattle.

“The message is that they are going to control all the cattle that move towards the border, but it is not very clear that they are doing so; some ranchers comment that the real destination of the calves are fattening sites located in the country. This is due to the agreement against inflation that the Mexican government assumed, and to the fact that the price per kilogram has risen at a national level until it is almost equal to what is paid for exports,” said an experienced rancher to The Economist.

The privileges that the State has given to the field in tax matters make it conducive to criminal businesses.

This is how the criminal capture scheme of the livestock business works:

1. Market analysis

All the records of the cattle producers are obtained at the farm level and with details of each calf produced in the year. The information is provided by local livestock associations, where federal information systems operate, such as Senasica (National Service for Food Health, Safety and Quality) and Siniiga (National Livestock Individual Identification System).

2. Logistics control

In those same local associations, transport guides and “valued forms” are issued, essential to be able to legally move cattle.

The valued forms are substitutes for an invoice, with details of the buyer, the seller and the animals traded. They must be accompanied by the transport guide to show to a road authority.

3. Certification processes

The north of Jalisco has export privileges as it is a zone free of brucella and tuberculosis. That quality must be certified by herd each year. This process is also identified and susceptible to control by the mafia.

4. Imposition of illegal contributions

With the complicity via threat or corruption of these public servants and up-to-date information, the criminal group, which controls the territory, announces that ranchers must pay a special “tax” per kilogram of export, and forces notable ranchers to collaborate with they.

5. Collaboration of authorities

The capture of the process is completed with the absence of State forces that put in predicament the impunity with which the businesses of these criminal networks operate.

• Read the report The cartel captures the income from export cattle from the north of Jalisco by Agustín del Castillo at this link.