RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Mexico’s criminal gangs are pursuing an alternative strategy: they are distributing aid supplies and waging even more aggressive territorial wars.
The lack of supplies of substances, lower demand, limited smuggling routes: even Mexico’s powerful criminal organizations are not immune to the coronavirus. The “giants” in Mexico’s underworld, such as the Sinaloa cartel or its rival Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), generally make big money as the main supplier of the American narcotics market.
This is not the case in times of pandemic: the drug trade has collapsed due to the interruption of international supply chains, just like their other traditional sectors of the economy. However, this has not brought peace to Mexico, which has been severely affected by violence – quite the opposite: the cartels are proving to be flexible.
Tracks leading to China
“El Mayo” Zambada, the head of the notorious Sinaloa cartel, has sharply increased the prices of synthetic drugs in response to the crisis. This is reported by local media who have spoken to gang members. One pound of methamphetamine currently costs the equivalent of US$616 instead of the former US$102.
“El Mayo” is said to have ordered the price increase because his cartel had to cut back the production of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and heroin in its clandestine laboratories in Mexico.
The reason for this is the shortage of chemical base substances from China. These are supplied in large quantities from the central Chinese province of Hubei, with its capital Wuhan the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis and which was in quarantine for weeks.
This has severely impacted the production and trade of opiate raw materials, which has temporarily affected Mexico’s crime syndicates.
Not only have deliveries to the Aztec country declined, but the prices for the ingredients have also exploded since February: Experts speak of an inflation rate between 25 and 400 percent.
In order to free themselves from the dependence on overseas suppliers in the longer term, chemists are allegedly developing a new synthetic version of the basic substance for Fentanyl commissioned by cartels.
The supply shortage of chemicals from China is also mentioned in a document leaked to the press from secret service sources. This document analyses the impact of the coronavirus on organized crime.
The report, which was released two weeks ago by the Mexican Security Cabinet, mentions the decline in drug sales in the United States and the cartels’ struggle to maintain their smuggling routes.
Border traffic between Mexico and the United States has been restricted to stop the spread of the virus. Controls are tighter and the risk of being caught is greater.
This was also recently confirmed by numerous members of the Sinaloa cartel to the renowned weekly newspaper “Ríodoce”, whose reporting specializes in coverage of organized crime.
According to a Tijuana-based syndicate leader, his subgroup has not been smuggling cocaine across the border since late February, for security reasons. Before that, according to his statements, they were smuggling 200 kilos of the white powder into the USA every two weeks.
The head of another of the cartel’s cells also reports that border crossings have been closed and that its officers were working with them. He says that for security reasons he is now refraining from sending his couriers through other points.
He told “Ríodoce” that this was one of the reasons why he considerably reduced his deliveries of fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine. The situation for criminal organizations is further aggravated, because many flights throughout the continent have been temporarily suspended. A drug smuggler is thus also easier to detect.
Great adaptability
Security expert Edgardo Buscaglia of Columbia University and the University of Turin explains in an interview that business involving all drugs has declined as a result of the coronavirus.
According to him, human trafficking, petrol smuggling, and protection rackets have also decreased due to border blockades and curfews. However, Buscaglia is convinced that the pandemic will not cause lasting damage to the larger syndicates like the Sinaloa cartel and the CJNG, which act as transnational criminal organizations.
The security expert points to their pronounced ability to adjust. While their traditional activities are temporarily on hold, they seize the opportunity to consolidate their economic, political and social power elsewhere, he explains.
According to Buscaglia, syndicates have engaged in smuggling protective masks, blackmailing businesses that spared them, or granting low-interest loans to companies in crisis. But above all, they are also using the coronavirus crisis to increase their support among the population.
One of the daughters of the convicted drug lord “El Chapo” Guzmán of the Sinaloa cartel, imprisoned in the USA, recently showed how this is done. She filmed and photographed herself filling cartons with rice, cooking oil or toilet paper bearing her father’s portrait, and then distributing them among the poor districts of Guadalajara.
The owner of the fashion brand “El Chapo 701” is in good company. For weeks now, Mexico’s criminal organizations have been distributing relief supplies in many parts of the country with great media attention. “From your friends of the CJNG – Emergency Assistance Covid-19,” it reads on the package from the Jalisco cartel.
On social media, there are countless pictures of people radiantly holding a food parcel with the sender of a criminal organization on camera. The actions are a propaganda battle among criminals.
The coronavirus hits the lower social classes particularly hard and will further aggravate their living circumstances. Any help is welcome in this context – particularly when the state is absent, as is the case in many poor areas of Mexico. The cartels take over the state’s duties at various levels, says Buscaglia. According to the expert, they are even sending medical personnel to help the needy at home.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador criticized the cartels for their actions on Monday. They are not helping the population with relief supplies, the 66-year-old said. Instead, they should stop the bloodbath they have caused.
Murder every 20 minutes
Mexico recorded 2,585 murders in March. This is the bloodiest month since López Obrador took office in December 2018. According to Buscaglia, the wave of violence is linked to the pandemic: the cartels fought their territorial battles for control over strategically vital areas more aggressively than usual as a result of market disruption.
The same strategy seems to be behind their charitable activities. According to the security expert, they intend to win over entire communities in order to establish themselves there as a parallel state. Therefore, Buscaglia fears that after the coronavirus crisis, organized crime will return to traditional business as usual – but from a strengthened position of power.