They warn of expansion of the CJNG and Sinaloa in Europe

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Europol identified the increase in operations of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), in countries of the European Union (EU) such as Spain , Italy, Holland, Croatia, Slovenia and Belgium.

In recent years, methamphetamine and cocaine seizures linked to Mexican criminals have become a prominent feature of the EU drug landscape.

“Mexican criminal actors and EU-based criminal networks have been working together to traffic these two types of illicit drugs from Latin America to the EU,” said the document “The participation of Mexican criminal actors in the drug market in the EU”, prepared by the American and European security agencies.

The report also warned that the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels have used violence to command the trafficking of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and marijuana to the United States.

clandestine laboratories

The report detailed that there is great cooperation between Mexican criminal actors and those based in the EU, “sharing experience, supporting the establishment of production laboratories based in the EU and reinvestment of methamphetamine and cocaine profits.”

He added that the laboratories of the Mexican cartels established in the EU “are able to recycle and reduce the chemical residues generated during the production cycle, finally achieving higher profits and higher yields of a very powerful product.”

“Mexican cooks are important to methamphetamine production sites in the EU, due to their unique knowledge and ability to produce larger and more profitable methamphetamine crystals. (…) Some indications point to the fact that Mexican criminal groups are involved in the operation of cocaine conversion laboratories in the territory of the EU”, he highlighted.

The law enforcement analysis mentioned that to maintain their drug trafficking operations, and to avoid falling under the radar of law enforcement, Mexican criminal groups and their partners in the EU resort to a number of facilitators.

“Both the Mexican cartels and the EU drug traffickers have networks of corrupt officials in the public and private spheres to increase the probability of success in drug smuggling through transport hubs in Latin America and the EU,” he stated.

In turn, the report warned that criminals could try to expand their offer with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl in the future, although there are still “no concrete indications” of this.

Money laundering

According to the joint DEA-Europol document, EU-based traffickers and Mexican cartels have front or fictitious businesses created with the help of front men.

“To protect their actions and avoid detection by law enforcement, drug traffickers often use multiple companies.

“They infiltrate transportation and commercial companies to hide drug shipments by air, sea vessels, or by land using vehicles and tractor-trailers. Mexican cartels use illicit financial services provided by criminal service providers based inside and outside the EU, repatriating millions of euros in drug proceeds to Mexico.

“Cartels use a variety of techniques to facilitate illicit money trafficking, including the use of cryptocurrency, trade-based money, money laundering, and underground banking systems. Drug proceeds are also laundered through criminal infiltration of companies, where illicit funds move through different jurisdictions,” he explained.

forfeitures

The report mentioned that in recent years tons of synthetic drugs have been seized in the European Union linked to Mexican cartels.

He exemplified that in 2021, 2.5 tons of methamphetamine were intercepted in Spain; 1.5 tons of methamphetamine trafficked from Croatia to Slovakia in 2020 and 1.9 tons of methamphetamine seized in Rotterdam in 2019.

“It is likely that most of the methamphetamine trafficked from Mexico to the EU only transits the EU on the way to more profitable markets in Oceania and Asia given the higher wholesale and retail prices for methamphetamine in those regions,” he concluded.

jorge.monroy@eleconomista.mx