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El Chapo Guzmn's role in the global cocaine trade is becoming clearer

Published by Business Insider on Sun, 16 Aug 2015


Joaquin El Chapo Guzmns Sinaloa cartelin Mexico is the largest drug-trafficking organization in the world,and its deep ties to Colombia are becoming more apparent.According to a recent reportfrom fromColombian newspaper El Tiempo, Sinaloacontrols 35% of the cocaine exported from Colombia the largest producer of the drug in the world.Now that El Chapo has escaped from a Mexican prison, Colombian generals whoworked to bring down thenotorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar are reportedly huntingdown the notorious Sinaloa cartel leader, too.Born in the mountains of Sinaloa state on Mexicos west coast, El Chapo's cartel has expanded throughout the country and around the world over the last several decades.According to Spanish newspaper El Pas, the cartels marijuana and poppy fields in Mexico cover more than 23,000 miles of land, an area larger than Costa Rica. It has operatives in at least 17 Mexican states and operations in up to 50 countries, Insight Crime reports.In addition to its reported involvement in the heroin trade in the Middle East, it is active in Europe and in the US, where, according to the DEA in 2013, it "supplies 80% of the heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetaminewith a street value of $3 billionthat floods the Chicago region each year."The cartel is adept at sneakingthe drug across borders and into the US. Cocaine has been found smuggled in frozen sharks, sprinkled ondonuts, and crammed into cucumbers. The cartel is perhaps best known for the hundreds of elaborate smuggling tunnels it has built (the most recent allowing its boss to escape prison).Sinaloas second-in-command, Ismael El Mayo Zambada, reportedly directs the cartels Colombian business dealings through two Mexicans based in the country, Jairo Ortiz and Montielboth aliases.Lacoste, Apple, and Made in ColombiaDocuments from police and security forces seen by El Tiempo indicate the Sinaloa cartel works closely with criminal groups and guerrilla forces to run a trafficking network that exports more than one-third of the cocaine produced in Colombia.Through an unidentified businessman, the Sinaloa cartel works with the criminal organization Los Urabeos, which was formed by remnants of right-wing paramilitaries in the mid-2000s, according to Colombia Reports.This unidentified businessman works with Los Urabeos, its leader Dario Antonio suga, and the cartelto coordinate shipments of drug cargos, labeled Lacoste, Apple, and Made in Colombia, to destinations in Europe and Asia, according to El Tiempo.Los Urabeos, aka Clan suga, are regarded as the most powerful of Colombia's remaining criminal organizations, and as the only one with a truly national reach.Many of the Pacific and Caribbean smuggling routes are controlled by Los Urabeos, and its influence is so extensive that, over the last 18 months, 600 Colombian officials have been jailed for supporting the group.The Sinaloa cartel has also formed an alliance with the left-wing guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).The Farc began peace negotiations with the government in late 2012 and agreed to suspend drug trafficking as a part of the talks. Sinaloa then beganfranchising drug operations from Farc rebels, allowing the cartel to expand its reachinto the production stages of the cocaine trade.The Mexican cartel reportedly works with two Farc leadersin southern Colombia andpays as much as $40,000 per shipment for cocaine that leaves the Pacific coast departments of Nario and Cauca.The Sinaloa cartel also works with La Empresa, a criminal group based in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura, to direct shipments. La Empresa has, according to Colombia Reports, allied with Colombian criminal groupLos Rastrojos (with whom the Sinaloa cartel has also aligned) to fight off the Pacific coast expansion of Los Urabeos.(La Empresa, El Tiempo notes, has been linked to the casas de piquebuildings in outlying areas of Buenaventura used to torture and dismember rival gang members.)The Sinaloa cartel has alsoprovided weapons and financing to the Oficina de Envigado, a Medellin-based crime syndicate that assumed much of Pablo Escobars operations after his death in 1993.Sinaloa retained the services of La Oficina to support drug trafficking around the world, the US Treasury Department hassaid.According to El Tiempo, the FARC, los suga, and la Empresa are keys in Sinaloa'sstrategy to control eight ports on the Pacific, from Mexico to Peru.In Colombia, [the Sinaloa cartel] already directs 50% of the drugs that leave from [the ports of] Tumaco, Buenaventura, and el Urab, which form a network with ports in Peru (El Callao and Talara), Ecuador (Esmeraldas and San Lorenzo) and Guatemala, according to intelligence documents seen by El Tiempo.Drugsare shipped by fastboat from Colombia, primarily to Guatemala's Puerto Quetzal, which handles almost all of the cocaine coming out of Colombia.A kilo of cocaine that reaches Guatemala is worth $10,000, according to El Tiempo. The price hovers around $12,000 to $15,000 at the US border, and a kilo can sell in the low six figuresonce it reaches the US.A possible refugeThe panoply of ties that the Sinaloa cartel has built throughout the Western Hemisphere lead many to believe El Chapo, the fugitive Sinaloaboss, could seek a possible refuge in Colombia.In fact, on July 19, just eight days after El Chapo rode to freedom a motorcycle through a mile-long, air-conditioned underground tunnel in central Mexico, El Tiempo reported that officials from the DEA and FBI had requested all available information on the movements, personnel, and contacts of the Sinaloa cartel in the country.In the six months prior to El Chapo's escape, the Mexican army captured nearly 2,800 kilos of cocainea 340% increase over the same period in 2014. The increase in seizures comes despite UN reportsindicating that drug cultivation and trading in Colombia had stablized.The hunt for El Chapo has also drawn in several officials from the very country to which he may be headed. In late July, El Tiempo reported that three retired Colombian generals and six active police officials were headed north to assist with the search.The Colombian generalstwo former heads of the national police and the former chief of the now disbanded secret policewere selected because of their roles in similar mission: the effort to bring down the Cali cartel and Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel two of the Colombian drug-trafficking organizations that ran roughshod over Colombian society in 1980s and 1990s.The generals, who a Colombian police source calledthemost effective three musketeers the country has against the narcos, left Mexico in early August.But, according to Michael Lohmuller at Insight Crime,whatever advice they left behind may not be enough to bring down Sinaloas drug boss.The 20 years since the controversial killing of Escobar have seen marked advancements in the operations, sophistication, and evasiveness of drug cartels.Moreover, modern-day Colombian police have failed to catch their countrys own most wanted kingpin: Dario Antonio sugathe head of Los Urabeos and El Chapos ally.SEE ALSO:The first reported narcotunnel found since El Chapo's escape has all the hallmarks of Mexico's most powerful cartelJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Inside the dangerous life of Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo
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