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Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Cartel Operatives Criticize DEA Map of Cartel Influence in the US; 'It's Bulls---', They Said

"MX" for Borderland Beat

Note: To read the DEA 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment, please visit our story published in March.

Mexican soldiers stand guard next to packages of marijuana at a military base in Tijuana, June 13, 2015. (Reuters)

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently released its annual National Drug Threat Assessment, in which it maps out the states where Mexican drug cartels have gained "influence."

Asked about that depiction of cartel presence in the US, security experts and cartel sources told Insider "it's bulls---."

The DEA's report says Mexican transnational criminal organizations, or TCOs, "maintain great influence" in most US states, with the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion showing the "biggest signs of expansion."

A map included in the report shows the Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, Cartel del Golfo, Organización de Beltran-Leyva, and Los Rojos as the most "influential" drug organizations with presence in Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Chicago, New York, Florida, Kansas, Colorado, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, among other states.

"Mexican TCOs continue to control lucrative smuggling corridors, primarily across the SWB [Southwest Border], and maintain the greatest drug trafficking influence in the United States," the report says.

Major Mexican organized-crime groups' areas of influence in the US, according to the DEA's 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment. (2020 National Drug Threat Assessment)

But operatives for the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion interviewed by Insider said their criminal organizations maintain "only clients or helpers" across the border and "not members of our organization."

"You would never see anyone in the US saying they are part of the organization [Sinaloa Cartel], because that is bulls---. The members and leaders of the organization are in Mexico, not in the US. What we have there are clients or associates, people helping transport, or gang members working with us," a Sinaloa Cartel operative told Insider.

The operative explained that most of the gangs or "associates" in the US work as independents.

"We wholesale to them and what they do to that merchandise is their problem. We don't give a f---. They can loose it, sell it, snort it, whatever, as long as they pay up," he said.

One of the most prominent cases used to prove Mexican cartels' presence in the US was that of Pedro and Margarito Flores, two brothers from Chicago accused of importing cocaine for the Sinaloa Cartel.

Pedro Flores, left, and his twin brother, Margarito Flores, in undated photos from a wanted poster released by the US Marshals Service. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshals Service)

The Flores brothers admitted to smuggling at least 1,500 kgs of cocaine for the Sinaloa cartel into the US every month between 2005 and 2008. According to their guilty pleas, they also sent more than $930 million in "bulk cash" back to the cartel in Mexico.

US authorities allege the brothers were part of the Sinaloa Cartel, but a phone call of a negotiation with then-Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman that was made public during Guzman's trial in 2018 revealed Flores brothers bargaining over the price of a 20 kg shipment of heroin.

"Do you think we can work something out where you can deduct five pesos from those for me?" said a man identified as Pedro Flores.

"How much are you going to pay for it?" said the other man on the call, allegedly Guzman.

'It just doesn't make sense'

A fraction of the cocaine seized from a ship at a Philadelphia port on display at the US Custom House in Philadelphia, June 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Alejandro Hope, a security analyst in Mexico and former official with CISEN, Mexico's top security intelligence organization, said the DEA warns of Mexican drug cartels being active in the US in order "to keep asking for money."

"It's DEA's bulls---. They have been doing this for years, and it just doesn't make sense. Cartels today are not structured [like] a hierarchy organization, but more like a decentralized network," Hope told Insider.

"The logic behind the DEA [report] is to argue there is an invasion of external forces so they can justify more budget and support from the US," he said. Neither DEA headquarters nor its offices in Texas and Arizona responded to requests for comment on the map.

The report describes the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion as "one of the fastest growing cartels" and says the organization "smuggles illicit drugs into the United States by accessing various trafficking corridors in northern Mexico along the SWB including Tijuana, Juarez and Nuevo Laredo."

"The cartels dominate the drug trade influencing the United States market, with most cartels having a poly drug market approach that allows for maximum flexibility and resiliency of their operations," the report states.

The report doesn't describe how these organizations maintain their presence in the US. "The DEA has a problem with semantics. What does influence actually mean? What does presence even mean? An associate is no other thing but a client," Hope said.

The cartel areas of influence map from the 2016 National Drug Threat Assessment. (DEA NDTA 2016)

An operative for Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion said the organization maintained a large group of members in Mexico who are "mostly on the armed side of the operations," while most contacts in the US were clients.

"Most of what we can call members of the Jalisco organization are on the arms [side], like sicarios, and some producers that are on a payroll, but everyone else is either a client we are selling to or an association to have access to certain route" for distribution in the US, he said.

Some intelligence officials believe Mexican cartels do have a real presence on US soil but function differently there.

"The substantial difference is that drug criminal enterprises are not displaying force at the border with the US because it is not needed. We should take into account that keeping a low profile is good for their activities and business, just as any other corporation," said a high-level foreign intelligence official in Mexico who asked for anonymity.

The official said cartel associates in the US have something like membership, even if they aren't part of the cartel structure, and "are using the brand" to prove their drugs' quality.

"We need to consider that they act just as another transnational company, with their level of organization, distribution, reach, and territory control. They do have a presence in the US in how their drug has a brand backing up certain quality," the official said.

Source: Business Insider

25 comments:

  1. Wait now theses cartels are crying bull, they want Human Rights to get involved, because they feel disrespected...cry me a river...do crime in USA get exposed simple as that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you obviously have a reading comprehention problem.

      Delete
    2. 518 your lost man lay down the pipe.

      Delete
  2. It is true. Mexican cartels don't call their American counterparts members. They call them associates.
    Now these associates do have to talk to cartel members in order to purchase drugs from Mexican cartels.
    They haggle on the prices as well.
    Street and prison gangs also do not work directly for a cartel but rather follow the same processes.
    All this is because Mexicans like the Italians trust themselves more so than they trust Americans or other races. They simply rather deal with Mexicans living in Mexico as actual members than having to trust people living abroad although actual members may live along some U.S. border cities but by far fewer members live 25 miles or more from this border.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I found an error!
    It says 'Some intelligence officials believe Mexican cartels do have a real presence on US soil but function differently there.'

    It should say 'intelligence officials try to make you believe anything to secure funds and support to continue the WoD for another 30 lucrative years'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @ 8:49

      great lines

      Delete
    2. 8:49 there has been drug busts in Virginia, Florida, south Carolina, Texas. As long as drugs keep coming in, DEA will always be in business.

      Delete
  4. CDG losing turf ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmmmmm..... Let’s see.

    One side chops people up, extorts and kidnaps, and the other side is exaggerating for more funding.

    I’ll side with the ones who want more funding.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The 2016 map is more accurate than the 2020 map

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually Mijo the 2021 map is more accurate than the 2016 and 2020 map.

      Delete
    2. 🤨 9:56 what? Dude shit is changing month by month just cause you dont like the map it dont mean its not accurate, come on bro its common cense!

      Delete
  7. Where is italian mob? They dont runs shit anymore??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @10:24, if you mean the American mafia, then no they dont run things like they used to. Are they gone? No, but their influence has been diminished.

      Delete
    2. @10:24am yes, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino are the Absolute Mob bosses controlling 33 of Mexico's 32 States.

      Canadian girl💋

      Delete
    3. Stop talking about Italian mobs. They are choir boys comparing to Mexican cartels. And they cant even compare to the triads.

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    4. 12:48 its funny that some people thinks that ndrangheta or italian mafia can compete with cartels lol! Sam Gor organization alone makes all italian mob together looks like amateurs!

      Delete
    5. Stop replying to these guy, he just want attention

      Delete
  8. 8:49

    dang i saw caught that error too ya beat me to it

    ReplyDelete
  9. So how is this bullshit? Most of this article only talks about how theres a difference between being a member and being an associate, still doesnt change the fact that cartels have influence in certain cities.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The Mexican cartels do control human smuggling and drugs in the USA, especially with open borders.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Man this cds members keep on ratting shit out, like i always say they are the biggest rats!

    ReplyDelete
  12. You fools probably believe anything the DEA says,yeah mexican cartels all over the US cutting people up,err no their not actually .
    Cartels couldnt give a fuck as long as their payed for their gear

    ReplyDelete
  13. Y los del CAF? Agusto.... 💯😎🤫 💰

    ReplyDelete
  14. Just thought I would point out an error in your listing of states in paragraph four. Chicago is not a state, but in fact the largest city (but not the capital) of the state of Illinois. Love the site!

    ReplyDelete

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