Mexican cartels cooperate with European criminals in drug smuggling to Europe

Mexican cartels and criminal groups from the European Union collaborate in the trafficking of methamphetamine y cocaine from Latin America to Europe, according to a report published this Wednesday by Europol and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

According to the report, the first joint initiative of its kind involving both parties, criminal gangs based in Mexico and their European counterparts corrupt public and private sector officials to help them smuggle drugs.

Criminals also infiltrate shipping and trading companies to hide shipments, or create their own companies with the help of individuals who hide their identity.

Europol and the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) had warned in May that Europe was increasingly becoming a center of cocaine production and a transit point for shipment to other regions of the world, due to increased production in South America and growing processing capacity for cocaine. raw drugs on the European continent itself.

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According to the report, the cartels send the drug to Europe by sea or air, usually hidden in food, construction materials and basic products such as water filters and wooden door frames. Once they arrive in the EU, they are moved by local criminal networks to final destinations in Europe and beyond.

In the case of methamphetamine, the destination is often outside the EU, which becomes merely a transit point, before the drug is shipped to more profitable markets in Oceania and Asia, according to the report.

Some indications point to the involvement of Mexican criminal groups in the exploitation of cocaine conversion laboratories on EU territory,” the report said, adding that there is also a risk that illicit cooperation could be extended to other drugs.

The main cartels in Mexico, such as the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, have wide areas of influence within the country and use brutal violence to control drug routes.

In February 2020, Italian authorities uncovered a drug trafficking operation by members of Sinaloa and their partners based in the European Union. The Netherlands, Belgium and Spain have also dismantled illicit production facilities involving Mexican citizens in recent years, according to the report.

A greater presence of the cartels on EU soil could mean more violence and greater profits for Mexican criminal networks, the report maintains.