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Transcript

Mega Edition: The Los Chapito's And Their Fentanyl Empire (10/27/26) · Beyond The Horizon

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. In
0:06
Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to keep the conversation about El
0:10
Speaker 1: Chapo's sons, the Los Chapitos, and how they built a
0:14
Speaker 1: fentanyl empire that poisoned America. Today's article is from Reuters
0:20
Speaker 1: and the headline, Special Report, How El Chapo's Sons Built
0:25
Speaker 1: a Fentanyl Empire Poisoning America. This article was authored by Drazen,
0:34
Speaker 1: In January 2017, days after Mexico extradited the notorious drug
0:40
Speaker 1: trafficker Joaquin El Chapo Guzman to the United States, local
0:44
Speaker 1: cops in his home state of Sinaloa fell under attack.
0:48
Speaker 1: Some were shot dead in broad daylight. Others vanished and
0:52
Speaker 1: were never found. In all, 13 police officers died or
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Speaker 1: disappeared in the months that followed. And that's just a
1:00
Speaker 1: common occurrence down in Mexico. You go down to one
1:03
Speaker 1: of these cartel hotspots and you start arresting members of
1:07
Speaker 1: the cartel and bosses and otherwise, you can expect a
1:11
Speaker 1: lot of blowback in the area from the locals. That
1:16
Speaker 1: spree was the start of a shift in tactics within
1:19
Speaker 1: Guzman's Sinaloa cartel. According to four intelligence and security officials,
1:25
Speaker 1: one that signaled the arrival was of a new force
1:28
Speaker 1: inside of one of Mexico's most powerful drug syndicates, the
1:33
Speaker 1: Kingpin's Four Sons. And with the Los Chapitos being buoyed
1:37
Speaker 1: by their last name, it made it a lot easier
1:40
Speaker 1: for them to step into that vacuum and fill the
1:43
Speaker 1: void of power that their father had left behind. Collectively
1:48
Speaker 1: known as Los Chapitos or Little Chapos, The four siblings
1:52
Speaker 1: were once mocked by adversaries as entitled princelings more concerned
1:57
Speaker 1: with flashing their wealth on Instagram than the grubby work
2:00
Speaker 1: of moving tons of cocaine into the United States. Yet
2:04
Speaker 1: the brothers have resuscitated a drug empire teetering after their
2:09
Speaker 1: father was locked behind bars and diversified the business by
2:12
Speaker 1: embracing a new line of synthetic drugs. Well, I think
2:16
Speaker 1: that's a bit overstated to say that the Sinaloa cartel
2:21
Speaker 1: was degraded after El Chapo's arrest because that's not the truth.
2:26
Speaker 1: We all know that El Mayo has always been behind
2:29
Speaker 1: the controls here. And while El Chapo getting arrested certainly wasn't,
2:34
Speaker 1: you know, the greatest news that the Sinaloa cartel ever had,
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Speaker 1: it didn't end their operation and it certainly didn't put
2:41
Speaker 1: a dent in who they are. Their early bet on fentanyl,
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Speaker 1: a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin, helps
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Speaker 1: supercharge an opioid epidemic that has placed them squarely in
2:53
Speaker 1: the crosshairs of American anti-narcotics agents. 100%. I mean, they've
2:59
Speaker 1: always been on the radar, on the map, but now
3:03
Speaker 1: with fentanyl doing what it's doing across America and elsewhere,
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Speaker 1: they have become the top priority. Last month, U.S. authorities
3:12
Speaker 1: laid out extensive new charges against the brothers in indictments
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Speaker 1: filed in multiple jurisdictions and the bounties for two of
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Speaker 1: the siblings to $ 10 million apiece, cementing their status as
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Speaker 1: some of the world's most powerful and wanted drug lords. U.S.
3:29
Speaker 1: officials portrayed them as the face of a highly addictive
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Speaker 1: poison that's killing nearly 200 Americans daily. And while it's
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Speaker 1: all fine and well that we have a boogeyman, let
3:41
Speaker 1: us not forget that the real driver for this fentanyl
3:45
Speaker 1: epidemic is the fact that we have so many addiction
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Speaker 1: problems here in America. The addicts want these drugs, so
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Speaker 1: the market, you better be damn well sure, is going
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Speaker 1: to provide them. The Chapitos pioneered the manufacture and trafficking
4:00
Speaker 1: of the deadliest drug our country has ever faced. And Milgram?
4:05
Speaker 1: the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief said at an April
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Speaker 1: 14th press conference in Washington. They inherited a global drug
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Speaker 1: empire and made it more ruthless, more violent, and more deadly. Huh,
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Speaker 1: sounds to me like Ann Milgram and the DEA is
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Speaker 1: admitting that cutting the head off the snake or going
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Speaker 1: after the boss doesn't end the problem. And sometimes it
4:30
Speaker 1: makes the problem even worse. I've talked about this numerous times,
4:35
Speaker 1: as we've discussed this topic. It's all fine and well.
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Speaker 1: The decapitation strategy, it sounds great. Go after the scumbag
4:42
Speaker 1: who's in charge. Pretty simple. But, like in everything else
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Speaker 1: in the world, it's not that simple. It's a nuanced
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Speaker 1: problem that is going to require a nuanced solution. Las Chapitos,
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Speaker 1: for the first time ever, released a public letter last
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Speaker 1: week denying claims that they traffic fentanyl and rebutting allegations
5:02
Speaker 1: made by U.S. officials in the Washington press conference. We
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Speaker 1: have never produced, manufactured, or marketed fentanyl or any of
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Speaker 1: its derivatives. We are victims of persecution, and they made
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Speaker 1: us a scapegoat, the brothers said in a letter. Mexico's
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Speaker 1: Millenio News aired its contents on May 3rd, along with
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Speaker 1: an interview of Guzman family lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, who
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Speaker 1: provided the broadcaster with the document. Denying that they head
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Speaker 1: the Sinaloa cartel, the brothers said, drug traffickers in the
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Speaker 1: media have exploited their father's fame to implicate them in
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Speaker 1: crimes of which they are innocent. I wonder how they
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Speaker 1: kept a straight face while writing this letter. El Chapo
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Speaker 1: is serving a life sentence in a Supermax prison in Colorado.
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Speaker 1: Mariel Colon Miro, Guzman's U.S.-based attorney, said her client was
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Speaker 1: unable to comment due to restrictions barring him from speaking
6:00
Speaker 1: to the media. The four brothers, two born to El
6:03
Speaker 1: Chapo's first wife, the others to another, range in age
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Speaker 1: from 33 to 40, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Speaker 1: Headed by Ivan, El Chapo's eldest son, the siblings have
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Speaker 1: emerged as key figures in the Sinaloa cartel, U.S. and
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Speaker 1: Mexican anti-narcotics officials said. While the syndicate is a loose
6:24
Speaker 1: confederation of trafficking factions that cooperate on logistics and security,
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Speaker 1: the Guzman's block is a pillar of the organization, the
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Speaker 1: official said, and Los Chapitos have quickly consolidated power within it. Again,
6:39
Speaker 1: they're using their father's name to do that. Everybody understands
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Speaker 1: who El Chapo is, and if their dad has given
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Speaker 1: them the green light to take up operations, people are
6:50
Speaker 1: going to fall in line. To chronicle the rise of
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Speaker 1: this new generation of narco juniors, as children of established
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Speaker 1: traffickers are known in Mexico, Reuters spoke with four Sinaloa
7:01
Speaker 1: cartel operatives and visited a house where gang members assembled
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Speaker 1: pills stuffed with methamphetamine, another cash cow. The news agency
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Speaker 1: also interviewed dozens of sources, including law enforcement, intelligence, and
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Speaker 1: government officials in Mexico and the United States, as well
7:19
Speaker 1: as local residents who have witnessed the changing of the guard.
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Speaker 1: I've heard the same thing from my sources. Things have
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Speaker 1: very much changed as far as the playing field within
7:30
Speaker 1: the Sinaloa cartel since El Chapo's arrest and the emergence
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Speaker 1: of the Los Chapitos. Remember, there's a lot of infighting
7:38
Speaker 1: going on at the same time. You have several different factions,
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Speaker 1: but mainly Los Chapitos and El Mayo's faction. So those
7:46
Speaker 1: two are fighting for supremacy within the Sinaloa cartel while
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Speaker 1: at the same time navigating all of the other issues
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Speaker 1: they have with external foes. So it's certainly a balancing
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Speaker 1: act for the Los Chapitos, but they've been able to
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Speaker 1: maintain that act ever since they've emerged on the scene.
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Speaker 1: And not only that, they haven't just held what they've
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Speaker 1: owned previously, they've expanded. They've become more progressive, if you will,
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Speaker 1: with their drug trafficking. The rapid ascendancy of Los Chapitos
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Speaker 1: many details of which are told here for the first time,
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Speaker 1: show how authorities may have underestimated the former party boys.
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Speaker 1: A 2019 showdown with Mexico's army in Culiacan, Sinaloa's capital,
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Speaker 1: already has cemented their place in narco lore. Soldiers Captain Ovidio,
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Speaker 1: the youngest of the four siblings, then quickly released him
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Speaker 1: on the orders of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
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Speaker 1: after cartel foot soldiers fought troops in shootouts that killed
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Speaker 1: 14 people, including several bystanders. And this has always been
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Speaker 1: the mode for the cartels. Oh, you're going to arrest
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Speaker 1: one of us? We're going to cause mayhem. We're going
8:59
Speaker 1: to cause all kinds of chaos and we're going to
9:02
Speaker 1: force your hand. And that's been a very successful strategy
9:05
Speaker 1: for the cartels for a very long time. This new
9:09
Speaker 1: generation is more violent, said one retired Mexican police officer
9:13
Speaker 1: in Sinaloa, before they would interrogate and then kill you.
9:17
Speaker 1: Now they kill and ask questions later. Within the cartel,
9:21
Speaker 1: the brothers have battled elders opposed to them, assuming their
9:24
Speaker 1: father's mantle, including El Chapo's former right hand, Damaso Lopez,
9:30
Speaker 1: according to U.S. and Mexican security forces. But these young
9:34
Speaker 1: guns have also built a reputation as sharp businessmen. They've
9:39
Speaker 1: helped transform Mexico from a transit country for Chinese-produced fentanyl
9:43
Speaker 1: into a major production hub, half a dozen U.S. officials
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Speaker 1: and DEA sources have said. To do that, they said,
9:52
Speaker 1: Los Chapitos built a network of clandestine laboratories across Sinaloa
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Speaker 1: and ramped up smuggling of precursor chemicals from China. And
10:02
Speaker 1: if you think that the Chinese CCP isn't hip to
10:05
Speaker 1: what's going on here, you're out to lunch. Everybody's getting
10:09
Speaker 1: a taste. Everything that happens in China, the local party
10:12
Speaker 1: boss is getting a taste. Believe it. And that's no
10:15
Speaker 1: different here. Working with the local party bosses, the local
10:19
Speaker 1: criminal element, you know that the Sinaloa cartel has their
10:24
Speaker 1: hooks already in. And any place that they do business,
10:27
Speaker 1: you know that they're going to have operatives on site
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Speaker 1: as well. The earnings have been astronomical. The cartel can
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Speaker 1: turn $ 800 worth of precursor chemicals into fentanyl pills or
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Speaker 1: powder and that reap profits as high as $ 640, 000, according
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Speaker 1: to one of the April indictments, which was filed in
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Speaker 1: the Southern District of New York. Now look at the
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Speaker 1: profit margin there, and then think about the profit margins
10:54
Speaker 1: of cocaine. It is way different. And to be able
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Speaker 1: to produce it all on hand in your own laboratories
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Speaker 1: and cut out all middlemen, that is why the Los
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Speaker 1: Chapitos recognize this for the cash cow it is, and
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Speaker 1: why they basically turned their whole entire operation into a
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Speaker 1: fentanyl operation. That cash, U.S. prosecutors say, has bankrolled the
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Speaker 1: war chest used by the brothers to bribe politicians and
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Speaker 1: cops and finance an ever-growing army of sicarios, or hitmen,
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Speaker 1: to protect their interests. And there's a lot of truth
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Speaker 1: to that. If you have a gigantic war chest, chances
11:32
Speaker 1: are you're going to have a lot of sicarios. You're
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Speaker 1: going to have a lot more political power. And if
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Speaker 1: the Sinaloa cartel has anything, it's a gigantic war chest.
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Speaker 1: The impact on U.S. streets has been devastating. One American
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Speaker 1: dies from a fentanyl overdose almost every eight minutes. U.S.
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Speaker 1: Deputy Attorney General Lisa A. Monaco said at the Washington
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Speaker 1: press conference, U.S. overdose deaths, the lion's share due to fentanyl,
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Speaker 1: surged to nearly 107,000 in 2021. Now think about that
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Speaker 1: for a minute, okay? One American dies from a fentanyl
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Speaker 1: overdose almost every eight minutes. And if you're wondering why
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Speaker 1: I'm beating on this drum so loud so often, this
12:14
Speaker 1: is why. Los Chapitos dissent, U.S. and Mexican officials say,
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Speaker 1: has coincided with a decision by Lopez Obrador to turn
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Speaker 1: away from the aggressive anti-narcotics policies of his predecessors. Well,
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Speaker 1: I'll say this. They didn't work so great either. Okay?
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Speaker 1: We're here because Felipe Calderon started this war on drugs
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Speaker 1: down in Mexico in 2006. And at the same time
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Speaker 1: he was fighting the so-called war on drugs, his top
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Speaker 1: cop was working with the Sinaloa cartel at the same time.
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Speaker 1: So what did they accomplish besides making Mexico a much
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Speaker 1: more dangerous and a much more violent place? They certainly
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Speaker 1: didn't stop drugs from being produced or smuggled through Mexico,
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Speaker 1: did they? So what did they accomplish? After assuming office
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Speaker 1: in December 2018, Lopez Obrador restructured Mexico's security forces, eliminating
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Speaker 1: teams that were once at the forefront of probing cartel activity, U.S.
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Speaker 1: and Mexico security sources said. They say the president also
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Speaker 1: curbed security cooperation with the United States and largely eschewed
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Speaker 1: the so-called kingpin strategy that led previous administrations to arrest
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Speaker 1: El Chapo and other high-profile traffickers. Look, I don't blame
13:31
Speaker 1: AMLO for getting away from the kingpin strategy. That's the
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Speaker 1: decapitation strategy we were just talking about. There is zero
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Speaker 1: proof anywhere that it works. What happens is, is the
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Speaker 1: next man up gets up, and that next man might
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Speaker 1: be even more violent than the one you just got
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Speaker 1: rid of. Instead, AMLO has vowed to concentrate on social
13:51
Speaker 1: programs to tackle crime and violence at a grassroots level,
13:56
Speaker 1: a policy dubbed Hugs Not Bullets. And while I get
13:59
Speaker 1: the gist of what he's trying to do here, that's
14:02
Speaker 1: not going to work with people like the CJNG and
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Speaker 1: the Sinaloa cartel. They're not interested in your program. They're
14:09
Speaker 1: interested in creating more drugs, more money and more power
14:13
Speaker 1: for themselves. That's what they're interested in. Mexico's presidency did
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Speaker 1: not respond to requests for comment about Lopez Obrador's crime
14:22
Speaker 1: fighting approach. He has repeatedly touted his strategy on multiple
14:26
Speaker 1: visits to Sinaloa. Nothing can be solved with the use
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Speaker 1: of force. You can't put out fire with fire, AMLO
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Speaker 1: told residents in 2019. His supporters note that murders nationwide
14:39
Speaker 1: have stabilized since he took power. The president's critics say
14:44
Speaker 1: the number of homicides above 30,000 a year is still
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Speaker 1: extremely high and that the production and smuggling of drugs
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Speaker 1: into the United States has increased. Mexico's army did ultimately
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Speaker 1: apprehend Ovidio Guzman earlier this year by sending hundreds of
15:01
Speaker 1: troops to raid one of his homes in rural Sinaloa.
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Speaker 1: He's now in a maximum security lockup near Mexico City,
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Speaker 1: but that arrest had more to do with the army
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Speaker 1: trying to restore its battered prestige rather than a shift
15:16
Speaker 1: in Lopez Obrador's thinking. Four U.S. and Mexican officials said
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Speaker 1: A video's lawyer and AMLO's office did not respond to
15:26
Speaker 1: requests for comment. The Army did not comment about its
15:30
Speaker 1: motive for the arrest. All right, folks, we're going to
15:33
Speaker 1: wrap up part one here. And in the next episode,
15:36
Speaker 1: we're going to finish up with part two. All of
15:39
Speaker 1: the information that goes with the episode can be found
15:42
Speaker 1: in the description box. What's up, everyone, and welcome back
15:47
Speaker 1: to the program. In this episode, we're going to pick
15:51
Speaker 1: up where we left off in our last episode, talking
15:55
Speaker 1: about the Los Chapitos and how they built a fentanyl empire.
16:01
Speaker 1: This article was authored by Drazen Jorjic, and it was
16:05
Speaker 1: published by Reuters. U.S.-Mexico security ties have frayed. AMLO called
16:12
Speaker 1: the recent U.S. indictments against the four younger Guzmans abusive,
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Speaker 1: arrogant interference that should not be accepted under any circumstances.
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Speaker 1: The Mexican leader said the case was built by DEA
16:26
Speaker 1: agents operating in Mexico, which he has deemed a violation
16:31
Speaker 1: of sovereignty. So AMLO's kind of stepping in it here
16:34
Speaker 1: and cutting off his nose to spite his face. I
16:37
Speaker 1: am not a fan of the DEA by any stretch
16:40
Speaker 1: of the imagination, but when we're talking about what they
16:44
Speaker 1: do down in Mexico... considering what the rules are for
16:49
Speaker 1: the war on drugs as it is, they're playing a
16:52
Speaker 1: crucial role. And without their help down in Mexico, there's
16:55
Speaker 1: no way that the Mexican security forces are going to
16:58
Speaker 1: be able to root out groups like the Los Chapitos.
17:01
Speaker 1: It's going to be impossible. While he has not booted
17:05
Speaker 1: the agency from the country, DEA operations have been hobbled
17:10
Speaker 1: on his watch. Mexico, in 2021... disbanded an elite police
17:15
Speaker 1: unit that worked closely with the DEA for a quarter
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Speaker 1: of a century, amended a national security law to make
17:21
Speaker 1: it harder for foreign agents to operate inside Mexico, and
17:26
Speaker 1: slow-walked visa approvals for DEA agents, CNN reported. We talked
17:31
Speaker 1: about this at the time, and again, it's a bad idea.
17:34
Speaker 1: It's only going to make things much more difficult as
17:37
Speaker 1: far as keeping an eye and tabs on what these
17:40
Speaker 1: dudes are doing in these cartels. Those measures were widely
17:44
Speaker 1: viewed as retaliation for the 2020 arrests of former Mexican
17:48
Speaker 1: Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos in Los Angeles on drug trafficking charges,
17:55
Speaker 1: a move that angered AMLO. U.S. prosecutors later dropped the charges,
18:00
Speaker 1: pointing to sensitive foreign policy considerations. Not that he's innocent,
18:05
Speaker 1: not that he didn't do it, but we want to
18:06
Speaker 1: make sure things are smooth. Do you think you or
18:10
Speaker 1: I would ever get that kind of soft walk from
18:12
Speaker 1: the United States government if we were selling narcotics or
18:16
Speaker 1: involved with selling narcotics? So why would you drop these charges?
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Speaker 1: The Justice Department declined to comment. The DEA did not
18:24
Speaker 1: respond to a request for comment. Rafael Heredia Rubio, a
18:29
Speaker 1: lawyer representing Cienfuegos, said he was not authorized to comment.
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Speaker 1: Cienfuegos' attorneys previously had denied that he was involved in
18:39
Speaker 1: drug trafficking. Born into one of Mexico's most storied outlaw families,
18:46
Speaker 1: Guzman's five sons, Edgar, Ivan, Jesus Alfredo, Joaquin Jr., and Ovidio,
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Speaker 1: grew up in luxury once unimaginable to their father, a
18:58
Speaker 1: semi-literate farm worker from Sinaloa's mountains before becoming the head
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Speaker 1: of a drug empire. El Chapo fathered more than a
19:06
Speaker 1: dozen children, according to local media, not all of whom
19:10
Speaker 1: are reputed to be involved in drug trafficking. Minor social
19:15
Speaker 1: media celebrities, they flaunted their pet tigers, Ferraris, and golden
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Speaker 1: AK-47s on Instagram and Twitter. Those accounts were never verified
19:25
Speaker 1: by those platforms, but a social media analyst familiar with
19:29
Speaker 1: cartel communications And two security sources told Reuters they believe
19:34
Speaker 1: the accounts were authentic. They were authentic. 100%. These accounts
19:39
Speaker 1: were real. Cartel members far and wide love to use
19:44
Speaker 1: social media to flex. They love to be on there
19:47
Speaker 1: showing off their guns, their cars, this, that, the other things.
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Speaker 1: Early on, the general perception was that the Los Chapitos
19:55
Speaker 1: were spoiled brats, said Mike Vigil, former head of DEA's
19:59
Speaker 1: International Operations. After El Chapo's escape, from a maximum security
20:05
Speaker 1: prison in 2001. Reportedly in a laundry trolley, the brothers
20:09
Speaker 1: took a hands-on approach to the family business, security sources said.
20:14
Speaker 1: Edgar blazed a trail for his brothers by building his
20:17
Speaker 1: own contacts and doing his own deals, the sources said.
20:21
Speaker 1: But he was killed in 2008 in Culiacan in a
20:25
Speaker 1: hail of bullets amid infighting between warring factions of the
20:29
Speaker 1: Sinaloa cartel. His four surviving brothers filled the void, according
20:34
Speaker 1: to U.S. and Mexican security sources. Starting in 2009 with
20:40
Speaker 1: Jesus Alfredo, the brothers all have been indicted by U.S.
20:45
Speaker 1: authorities multiple times for alleged offenses, including money laundering, possession
20:50
Speaker 1: of machine guns, and trafficking of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine.
20:55
Speaker 1: The U.S. State Department in 2021 put $ 5 million bounties
20:57
Speaker 1: on their heads. a figure recently doubled for Iván and
21:03
Speaker 1: Jesús Alfredo, while the DEA set up chapitostipsatdea.gov to encourage
21:10
Speaker 1: snitches to rat them out. Boy, you gotta have some
21:13
Speaker 1: set of huevos, huh? Snitch out the cartel? You gotta
21:17
Speaker 1: be really up against it to even think about doing
21:19
Speaker 1: something like that. The agency in April placed Iván on
21:23
Speaker 1: the list of its 10 most wanted fugitives, joining Jesús
21:27
Speaker 1: Alfredo and Ismael Elmayo Zambada a Sinaloa cartel legend and
21:32
Speaker 1: El Chapo's alleged former business partner. Washington has taken note
21:37
Speaker 1: of Los Chapitos and their business flair. The State Department,
21:41
Speaker 1: in its 2021 bounty notices, said Ovidio and Joaquin Jr.
21:46
Speaker 1: began smuggling chemicals from Argentina in 2008 to launch experiments
21:51
Speaker 1: in Mexico on how to produce methamphetamine. As they built
21:55
Speaker 1: their own crew, the brothers, purportedly, discarded the shibboleth that
22:00
Speaker 1: Sinaloa kingpins should only sell drugs to foreigners. Los Chapitos
22:05
Speaker 1: placed pushers on street corners in Culiacan, according to cartel
22:09
Speaker 1: members and Mexican media reports. But I thought that AMLO
22:13
Speaker 1: said there's not a drug problem inside of Mexico. I
22:16
Speaker 1: thought that that was only an American problem. Or could
22:20
Speaker 1: it be that AMLO is lying? In what would prove
22:24
Speaker 1: to be another consequential move, Ovidio in 2014 began to
22:29
Speaker 1: tinker with manufacturing fentanyl in Mexico, according to one indictment
22:34
Speaker 1: unsealed last month. That same year, the brothers faced another
22:38
Speaker 1: major test. Their father was nabbed again, this time by
22:42
Speaker 1: Mexican Marines working with the DEA. The sons helped El
22:46
Speaker 1: Chapo staged yet another audacious escape in July 2015 by
22:52
Speaker 1: organizing the construction of a mile-long tunnel to his Mexican
22:56
Speaker 1: prison cell, according to testimony that would emerge later at
23:00
Speaker 1: the Elder Guzman's 2019 drug trafficking trial in New York.
23:06
Speaker 1: Following the tunnel caper, Mexican authorities recaptured El Chapo in
23:10
Speaker 1: January 2016. He tapped his sons to head his portion
23:15
Speaker 1: of the trafficking empire, triggering a power struggle with Lopez,
23:19
Speaker 1: who had run the business during the boss's previous incarceration,
23:24
Speaker 1: according to 2017 Mexican military intelligence documents viewed by Reuters.
23:31
Speaker 1: Los Chapitos and their posse squeezed Lopez's crew by crimping
23:35
Speaker 1: his finances. Near a Sinaloan dam where both groups filched
23:39
Speaker 1: water to feed their clandestine drug labs, the brothers cut
23:43
Speaker 1: off Lopez's access to his critical resource. crippling his manufacturing
23:48
Speaker 1: capability while keeping the taps open for themselves, according to
23:52
Speaker 1: three serving Mexican Marines who spoke with Reuters. And we've
23:56
Speaker 1: talked about how Sinaloa cartel and cartels in general use
24:00
Speaker 1: water in Mexico as not only a commodity, but as
24:04
Speaker 1: a tool to keep people in line. And if you
24:06
Speaker 1: control a resource like water in a drought stricken area,
24:10
Speaker 1: you're going to have a lot of power. Las Chapitos
24:14
Speaker 1: had an advantage as they kept the production of drugs.
24:17
Speaker 1: They had money to pay Sicarios by arms, said one
24:20
Speaker 1: of the men who worked with the elite Navy unit
24:23
Speaker 1: that helped capture El Chapo in 2016. The feud escalated
24:28
Speaker 1: into an all-out war following Guzman's 2017 extradition to the
24:33
Speaker 1: United States. El Chapo's sons, targeted the 13 Sinaloan police
24:38
Speaker 1: officers for execution because they were on Lopez's payroll, according
24:43
Speaker 1: to prosecutors and former cops in Sinaloa, as well as
24:47
Speaker 1: military officials and intelligence documents reviewed by Reuters. Police in
24:52
Speaker 1: Sinaloa did not respond to the claims that the targeted
24:56
Speaker 1: officers were in league with Lopez. They were. That's how
24:59
Speaker 1: it goes. When you're offered all that money, by the
25:04
Speaker 1: cartel and you're only making, I don't know, $ 200 American
25:08
Speaker 1: a month, it's not a very difficult decision. One of
25:12
Speaker 1: the U.S. indictments unsealed last month details other grisly violence
25:16
Speaker 1: allegedly meted out by the Los Chapitos. Their henchmen allegedly
25:21
Speaker 1: kidnapped two officials from the federal attorney general's office in
25:25
Speaker 1: early 2017, torturing one by inserting a corkscrew into his muscles,
25:31
Speaker 1: ripping it out, then placing hot chilies into his open
25:34
Speaker 1: wounds and nose. Sounds like a fantastic day at the office, huh?
25:38
Speaker 1: Ivan finished off the victims with gunshots, with Jesus Alfredo
25:43
Speaker 1: pitching in to shoot one in the face, according to
25:45
Speaker 1: the indictment, which said the two brothers also killed some
25:49
Speaker 1: of their enemies by feeding them alive to pet tigers
25:52
Speaker 1: they kept at their ranches. The brothers, in their public letter,
25:56
Speaker 1: denied killing or torturing the officials or feeding people to tigers.
26:02
Speaker 1: A tiger may kill a person, but eat him? We
26:04
Speaker 1: do not have, nor do we have tigers, the letter stated.
26:08
Speaker 1: Which is obviously a lie. We've all seen the pictures
26:12
Speaker 1: of the tigers and them flaunting the tigers in those pictures.
26:15
Speaker 1: Dar prosecution witness in El Chapo's trial in 2019, Lopez
26:20
Speaker 1: got his own life sentence for drug trafficking reduced. In 2021,
26:25
Speaker 1: his name disappeared from the Federal Bureau of Prisons Public
26:29
Speaker 1: Registry of Inmates, fueling media speculation. that he entered witness protection. Lopez,
26:35
Speaker 1: through his lawyer, declined to comment. On their turf in Culiacan, meanwhile,
26:39
Speaker 1: the brothers quickly solidified their grip on the local drug market,
26:44
Speaker 1: a local trafficker told Reuters. Jesus, an independent operator in
26:49
Speaker 1: Culiacan who ships fentanyl and heroin to the United States
26:53
Speaker 1: with the help of the syndicate, said gunmen working for
26:56
Speaker 1: the Los Chapitos told street dealers they had to purchase
26:59
Speaker 1: product from their cartel faction exclusively and pay protection money.
27:04
Speaker 1: He said several friends and family members who were slow
27:07
Speaker 1: to comply were kidnapped and beaten. Las Chapitos made it
27:11
Speaker 1: clear that the market now belongs to them, Jesus said.
27:16
Speaker 1: And that sort of thing is very, very common when
27:18
Speaker 1: we're talking about drugs. you'll have a big-time player move
27:22
Speaker 1: into an area, and all of the little drug dealers
27:26
Speaker 1: and medium dealers who were copping their bag from somebody else,
27:30
Speaker 1: they're going to have to get on the package of
27:32
Speaker 1: the new player in town, whoever just moved into the neighborhood.
27:35
Speaker 1: And if you don't get on their package, you're going
27:37
Speaker 1: to get clipped. You're going to get dealt with. On
27:42
Speaker 1: December 1st, 2018, Lopez Obrador took office after winning Mexico's
27:47
Speaker 1: presidency in a landslide. Within months, Members of UNOPS, the
27:52
Speaker 1: Navy's elite special forces unit that had pursued El Chapo
27:56
Speaker 1: and other traffickers, were ordered by superiors to leave Sinaloa
28:00
Speaker 1: and shut down their temporary bases there, according to three
28:04
Speaker 1: Marines and three ex-DEA officials. And AMLO will tell you
28:09
Speaker 1: that has to do with Mexico wanting their sovereignty to
28:12
Speaker 1: be respected. But there's people out there that will say
28:16
Speaker 1: AMLO and his administration... are in bed with the Sinaloa cartel,
28:21
Speaker 1: and that's why they're doing what they're doing. And I
28:24
Speaker 1: think it's probably a little bit of both. Now, do
28:27
Speaker 1: I think AMLO is directly on the payroll of a cartel?
28:32
Speaker 1: Probably not. But I do think that people around him
28:36
Speaker 1: are certainly wetting their beak. In October 2019 came the
28:41
Speaker 1: Mexican army's first capture of Ovidio Guzman in Culiacan. Recalling
28:46
Speaker 1: that day, Two Sinaloa cartel members told Reuters that within minutes,
28:50
Speaker 1: encrypted radios carried by fellow gunmen began to buzz with
28:54
Speaker 1: the news. The boss has fallen. The boss has fallen.
28:58
Speaker 1: Hundreds of gang fighters armed with military grade weapons rushed
29:03
Speaker 1: to the scene, firing on government troops and barricading key
29:06
Speaker 1: city streets to trap them. They also kidnapped eight soldiers
29:10
Speaker 1: and surrounded military housing where wives and children of Mexican
29:14
Speaker 1: soldiers lived. Mexican officials said. Now, imagine somebody trying that
29:18
Speaker 1: in America going to say, oh, I don't know, Nellis
29:21
Speaker 1: Air Force Base and saying we're going to surround this
29:23
Speaker 1: place until you let so and so go. How long
29:26
Speaker 1: do you think it would take before a few Black
29:29
Speaker 1: Hawk helicopters and a few Apaches were launched to take
29:32
Speaker 1: care of that problem? See, down in Mexico, it's not
29:35
Speaker 1: the same. The military is hard-pressed to deal with these cartels.
29:40
Speaker 1: With the pop, pop, pop of gunfire echoing in the background,
29:43
Speaker 1: encircled Mexican troops put Ovidio on the phone with his
29:47
Speaker 1: brother Ivan in an attempt to get Los Chapitos to
29:50
Speaker 1: call off their gunmen. Tell them to stand down. I
29:53
Speaker 1: don't want chaos, Ovidio said in video footage released by
29:57
Speaker 1: Mexico's government. Hell no. We are coming to rescue you,
30:01
Speaker 1: Ivan responded, according to Sinaloan newspaper Rio Doce. Hours later,
30:07
Speaker 1: with Culiacan resembling a war zone and scenes of pandemonium
30:11
Speaker 1: being broadcast across the globe, AMLO ordered the army to
30:16
Speaker 1: free Ovidio. The day of terror shocked Sinaloans, whose relationship
30:21
Speaker 1: with the cartel is complex. El Chapo had the reputation
30:25
Speaker 1: of being ruthless to those who crossed him. But locals
30:28
Speaker 1: say he provided jobs, handouts, and security by punishing hoodlums
30:33
Speaker 1: preying on poor communities. There's no doubt that the older
30:36
Speaker 1: bosses were different. They weren't good people, but they were different.
30:41
Speaker 1: And there was a level to this game. And the
30:44
Speaker 1: extreme violence was only meted out when absolutely necessary. Because
30:49
Speaker 1: it's all about business, right? And if you're dropping bodies everywhere,
30:53
Speaker 1: makes it hard to collect the bag. But things are
30:55
Speaker 1: a lot different now. And these new younger narcos, they
30:59
Speaker 1: don't respect shit. It was the first time we saw
31:03
Speaker 1: the Sinaloa cartel use their armed power to generate chaos
31:07
Speaker 1: and fear to try and achieve their goals, said Adrian Lopez,
31:10
Speaker 1: publisher of the Sinaloan Noreste newspaper. For the brothers, it
31:15
Speaker 1: was a turning point. Mexico's military and its president had
31:19
Speaker 1: bowed to them in front of the entire world. It
31:22
Speaker 1: showed who was in power, a cartel member said, There's
31:26
Speaker 1: no doubt that the Sinaloa cartel was emboldened by this,
31:29
Speaker 1: and they remain emboldened by it. Still, they set out
31:34
Speaker 1: to burnish their public image. One such charm offensive took
31:37
Speaker 1: place in December 2020 in San Diego, a village about
31:41
Speaker 1: 60 kilometers south of Culiacan that is home to several
31:46
Speaker 1: high-ranking cartel sicarios, a resident told Reuters. There, Los Chapitos
31:51
Speaker 1: staged a music concert and raffle, whose prizes included included
31:55
Speaker 1: new cars, washing machines, and refrigerators, all bearing stickers emblazoned
32:01
Speaker 1: with El Chapo's initials. JGL for Joaquin Guzman, Larea, that person,
32:08
Speaker 1: and two other locals said. A fourth declined to answer questions, saying,
32:13
Speaker 1: I don't want them to disappear me. During the COVID-19 lockdowns,
32:17
Speaker 1: the brothers doled out food parcels and built an outdoor
32:20
Speaker 1: school in rural Sinaloa, and they have maintained the tradition
32:25
Speaker 1: of punishing common hoodlums, Sinaloan residents, and cartel members said.
32:29
Speaker 1: And back in the day, when the mafia was running
32:32
Speaker 1: things in America, the safest neighborhoods in the whole ass
32:35
Speaker 1: country were mafia-ran neighborhoods. You really think you were going
32:39
Speaker 1: into a Gambino neighborhood and robbing somebody? Zero chance, not
32:44
Speaker 1: if you wanted to stay alive. And you saw the
32:47
Speaker 1: same thing down here in Mexico with the cartels for
32:49
Speaker 1: a very, very long time. And while some of that
32:52
Speaker 1: tradition still remains, it's certainly not at the forefront of
32:55
Speaker 1: the mind of these new younger narcos. It's all about money, power,
33:00
Speaker 1: and the consolidation of both. Taking control, but like their father,
33:06
Speaker 1: Los Chapitos, are at heart violent businessmen with a drive
33:10
Speaker 1: for manufacturing and moving drugs, security officials said. A gang soldier,
33:15
Speaker 1: calling himself Juedo, a silver pistol tucked into his waistband,
33:20
Speaker 1: last year gave Reuters a tour of a cartel safe
33:23
Speaker 1: house on the edge of Culiacan. There, two young men
33:27
Speaker 1: in white surgical gloves sat at a brown lacquer table,
33:31
Speaker 1: carefully stuffing white powder into transparent capsules. Methamphetamine samples for
33:36
Speaker 1: a new client looking to ship in bulk to the
33:39
Speaker 1: United States, Cuero said. As fentanyl and meth production have soared, U.S.
33:44
Speaker 1: seizures have likewise skyrocketed. Interdictions of fentanyl alone on the U.S.-Mexico border,
33:52
Speaker 1: hit 14,104 pounds in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022,
33:58
Speaker 1: up more than 400% since 2019, according to U.S. Customs
34:03
Speaker 1: and Border Protection data. And if that much has been caught,
34:06
Speaker 1: how much has gotten through? Inside Mexico, meanwhile, the Army
34:11
Speaker 1: had a grudge to settle. In early January of this year,
34:14
Speaker 1: the army told AMLO it planned to mount a top-secret
34:18
Speaker 1: operation to recapture Ovidio, according to a then-senior government official
34:23
Speaker 1: with direct knowledge of the events. The president approved the
34:27
Speaker 1: mission but was not informed of the date and time,
34:30
Speaker 1: the source said. Mexico's army and the presidency did not
34:34
Speaker 1: respond to requests for comment about the official's account, and
34:38
Speaker 1: they probably didn't want to tell him because of leaks.
34:42
Speaker 1: They didn't want any of the corrupt officials around AMLO
34:45
Speaker 1: letting the cartel know that this was going down. As
34:49
Speaker 1: hundreds of soldiers encircled a video's rural Sinaloan compound in
34:53
Speaker 1: the pre-dawn assault, a helicopter strafed targets from the air.
34:57
Speaker 1: Video of the incident showed cartel gunmen went on a
35:00
Speaker 1: rampage again, setting fire to cars, blocking roads, and forcing
35:05
Speaker 1: Culiacan's airport to shut by shooting at passenger jets. The
35:09
Speaker 1: violence left 29 people dead. including 10 armed forces personnel,
35:14
Speaker 1: but the Sicario's were too late. A military chopper had
35:18
Speaker 1: already whizzed a video out of Sinaloa. Despite that blow
35:23
Speaker 1: to the Sinaloa cartel, fentanyl keeps flowing north. In February
35:27
Speaker 1: and March, U.S. border agents seized a combined 5,130 pounds
35:33
Speaker 1: of fentanyl in the two biggest monthly hauls ever. And
35:37
Speaker 1: the sad truth is, no matter how much of this
35:39
Speaker 1: stuff we stop at the border, a ton of it
35:42
Speaker 1: is going to get through and hit the streets. And
35:45
Speaker 1: while I certainly think it's a good idea to have
35:47
Speaker 1: border interdiction set up, I also think it would be
35:51
Speaker 1: a good idea to start putting some fundage towards rehabilitating
35:55
Speaker 1: the people that are addicted to this poison in our streets.
35:58
Speaker 1: Because until we deal with that problem, we will never
36:02
Speaker 1: make an inch of headway in the so-called war on drugs.
36:07
Speaker 1: All right, folks, that's going to do it for this one.
36:09
Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with the episode can
36:12
Speaker 1: be found in the description box. What's up, everyone, and
36:16
Speaker 1: welcome back to the program. Recently, the United States and
36:21
Speaker 1: Mexico has turned up the heat a bit when it
36:24
Speaker 1: comes to fentanyl production in Mexico. So, of course, the cartels,
36:29
Speaker 1: they're going to adapt. They're not just going to sit
36:31
Speaker 1: there and let their product get raided and seized. and
36:36
Speaker 1: lose money. That's not how they operate. So what does
36:38
Speaker 1: the cartel do if Mexico is becoming too hot? Well,
36:42
Speaker 1: that's simple. They'll just pick up the whole entire operation
36:46
Speaker 1: and move it somewhere else. And in this case, it
36:49
Speaker 1: looks like a lot of the fentanyl production, or at
36:52
Speaker 1: least some of it, has been moved to Colombia. And
36:56
Speaker 1: that's just wild to me. Remember, Colombia is the home, obviously,
37:00
Speaker 1: of cocaine. But now Mexico is using Colombia basically as
37:06
Speaker 1: a storage facility, a place where they go and move
37:09
Speaker 1: their labs because the labs aren't going to come under
37:13
Speaker 1: as much pressure as they would in Mexico. What does
37:17
Speaker 1: that say about what's going on in Colombia? That doesn't
37:20
Speaker 1: give me a lot of confidence in what Gustavo Petro
37:24
Speaker 1: is doing down in Colombia. And I had a lot
37:26
Speaker 1: of hope for him. I thought that maybe, just maybe,
37:30
Speaker 1: Gustavo Petro would have done the right thing for the
37:33
Speaker 1: Colombian people, like he said he was going to do,
37:36
Speaker 1: but unfortunately, like most politicians around the world, the dude
37:40
Speaker 1: was full of shit. Today's article is from the Puerto
37:44
Speaker 1: Vallarta Daily, and the headline, Mexican cartels that produce fentanyl
37:49
Speaker 1: found a new destination for their laboratories. And once again,
37:53
Speaker 1: what this does, it shines a light on the fact
37:55
Speaker 1: that no matter how much interdiction you have, how many
37:58
Speaker 1: raids you have, how many factories you shut down, as
38:02
Speaker 1: long as there's a market for these narcotics in America
38:05
Speaker 1: and elsewhere, the cartels are going to find a way
38:07
Speaker 1: to produce these narcotics. And until we deal with the
38:11
Speaker 1: addiction issues here in America and elsewhere, that's just how
38:15
Speaker 1: it's going to go. This article was authored by staff. U.S.
38:21
Speaker 1: pressure on the Mexican government to combat fentanyl trafficking has
38:24
Speaker 1: led drug cartels to seek new horizons to manufacture this
38:28
Speaker 1: deadly synthetic opioid. Thus, criminal organizations have found a new
38:33
Speaker 1: country to move their production, Colombia. And it's just crazy
38:37
Speaker 1: to think about. Imagine in the old days, the Mexican
38:41
Speaker 1: cartels even thinking about picking up shop and moving to Colombia.
38:45
Speaker 1: How do you think the Medellin cartel would have reacted?
38:48
Speaker 1: Or how about Pacho Herrera? And the gentlemen of Cali,
38:52
Speaker 1: I'm sure they would have loved that, right? But the
38:55
Speaker 1: tide has turned, and the Mexican cartels for sure are
38:59
Speaker 1: the dominant player when it comes to the narco game. Sure,
39:02
Speaker 1: Colombia is producing the cocaine, but it's Mexico that's really
39:06
Speaker 1: overseeing what's going on. On March 16th, elements of the
39:11
Speaker 1: Colombian National Police carried out the arrest of a couple
39:15
Speaker 1: of subjects who were identified as members of the Sinaloa cartel.
39:19
Speaker 1: one of the main groups responsible for the production of
39:22
Speaker 1: fentanyl in Mexico, who worked for the faction of Los Chapitos,
39:27
Speaker 1: led by the sons of Joaquin El Chapo Corazón. And
39:31
Speaker 1: we all know that Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG, they're the
39:35
Speaker 1: drivers of the fentanyl trade. They know that there's a
39:38
Speaker 1: lot of money to be made here, and they also
39:41
Speaker 1: know that there's a lot of addicts in America that
39:43
Speaker 1: are falling all over themselves, literally, to get their hands
39:47
Speaker 1: on this product. So, CJNG, Sinaloa, they've invested a lot
39:52
Speaker 1: of time, money, and effort in making sure that product
39:55
Speaker 1: is being made and getting to its destination. The arrest
39:59
Speaker 1: of the two individuals took place at the El Dorado
40:02
Speaker 1: International Airport in Bogota. The Colombian authorities verified what was
40:07
Speaker 1: suspected at one time. The Mexican cartels have sought to
40:12
Speaker 1: transfer the manufacture of the opioids to Colombia. And now
40:16
Speaker 1: that goes along with the fact that Sinaloa and CJNG
40:20
Speaker 1: have their representatives already in Colombia overseeing the coca production,
40:27
Speaker 1: making sure that everything is on the up and up
40:29
Speaker 1: and making sure that the interests of the cartels, CJNG
40:33
Speaker 1: and Sinaloa specifically, are being looked after. And we have
40:37
Speaker 1: known about these representatives down in Colombia for quite some time.
40:41
Speaker 1: We've talked about it here now for over a year.
40:44
Speaker 1: And I had first heard that this was happening from
40:46
Speaker 1: my source down in Mexico. They were telling me all
40:49
Speaker 1: about it, and it was just mind-blowing then, and it's
40:53
Speaker 1: mind-blowing now, how things have turned around in the narco game.
40:57
Speaker 1: As far as the supremacy, when we're talking about the traffickers,
41:01
Speaker 1: there's no doubt that for a very long period of time,
41:04
Speaker 1: the Colombians were running the whole entire thing. Now they've
41:08
Speaker 1: taken a way-back seat to the Mexican cartels. And besides
41:13
Speaker 1: producing the cocaine, the Colombian cartels, or criminal groups, have
41:18
Speaker 1: been pretty much defanged on the international stage. The detainees
41:23
Speaker 1: were identified as Carlos Felix Gutierrez and Silvano Francisco Mariano,
41:29
Speaker 1: who had a residence in Culiacan, Sinaloa, although they are
41:33
Speaker 1: from other states, according to the reports from the weekly Proceso.
41:38
Speaker 1: Although they assured that their top Colombia was for tourist purposes,
41:42
Speaker 1: Their plans were different. Yeah, and those plans included setting
41:46
Speaker 1: up shop in Colombia and manufacturing fentanyl by the 100,000.
41:52
Speaker 1: Carlos and Silvano left the flight from Mexico City with
41:56
Speaker 1: a specific task. Contact local drug traffickers and coordinate a
42:00
Speaker 1: plan for the production, sale, and export of fentanyl. For
42:04
Speaker 1: this reason, they had several meetings scheduled in Medellin and
42:08
Speaker 1: Bogota where they intended to set up clandestine laboratories for processing.
42:13
Speaker 1: And what would happen is whoever the local criminal group is,
42:16
Speaker 1: they'd get a cut, right? Oh yeah, you let us
42:19
Speaker 1: put it on your land. You let us put it
42:21
Speaker 1: here in your gang territory, whatever. Sure, you'll get a
42:25
Speaker 1: little piece of the action. And the little piece of
42:27
Speaker 1: the action from one of these sorts of manufacturing situations
42:32
Speaker 1: is a lot of money. Because think about how much
42:35
Speaker 1: money is going to be coming out of every single
42:38
Speaker 1: one of these factories. considering it cost them basically nothing
42:42
Speaker 1: to make this fentanyl, and then bumping the price up
42:45
Speaker 1: depending on how many milligrams you get, all the way
42:48
Speaker 1: up to 30, 40 bucks. So, the return on investment
42:53
Speaker 1: for the cartels is absolutely insane when it comes to
42:56
Speaker 1: synthetic drugs. However, their plans were foiled after his arrest,
43:01
Speaker 1: which was announced six days later by the authorities. Even
43:05
Speaker 1: the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, confirmed his intentions in
43:09
Speaker 1: a publication that on social networks. Trying to produce fentanyl,
43:13
Speaker 1: the worst of the worst, this ban from the Sinaloa
43:16
Speaker 1: cartel is captured in Colombia, he commented on that occasion.
43:21
Speaker 1: Authorities from Greece and Guatemala also participated in these arrests.
43:26
Speaker 1: You'll see a lot of the shipped goods, if you will,
43:29
Speaker 1: that are leaving Colombia, they'll go directly to Europe. And
43:33
Speaker 1: you see that element here with somebody from Greece being
43:36
Speaker 1: connected to this as well. Later it was learned that
43:40
Speaker 1: both Carlos and Silvano had arrest warrants for the purpose
43:43
Speaker 1: of extradition to the United States since they presented charges
43:47
Speaker 1: of fentanyl trafficking due to a shipment of 400 grams
43:51
Speaker 1: of the narcotic that was produced in Mexico and taken
43:54
Speaker 1: to the United States according to the indictment of the
43:57
Speaker 1: Federal Court of the Southern District of New York. So
44:01
Speaker 1: these guys get around. And when you're a representative for
44:04
Speaker 1: the Sinaloa cartel and they are putting you in a
44:06
Speaker 1: different country, You're a trusted member, and you're somebody that
44:11
Speaker 1: has the ear of the leadership structure at the very least.
44:16
Speaker 1: Los Chapitos had two options to acquire fentanyl in Colombia,
44:21
Speaker 1: according to reports by journalist Rafael Crota. One of them
44:25
Speaker 1: consisted of obtaining it through the diversions of the drug
44:29
Speaker 1: that is used legally in the country's hospitals. This practice
44:33
Speaker 1: is recurrent since the Ministry of Health indicated that in 2022,
44:38
Speaker 1: the loss of 88 vials of the narcotic was reported.
44:42
Speaker 1: The loss, huh? I'm sure that wasn't sold. The second
44:45
Speaker 1: option was for the Sinaloa cartel to resort... to its
44:49
Speaker 1: contacts in China to import it illegally. This method has
44:54
Speaker 1: even been identified by the president of Mexico, Andres Manuel
44:58
Speaker 1: Lopez Obrador, who on several occasions has indicated that the
45:02
Speaker 1: chemical precursors used to make fentanyl come from China. Well,
45:06
Speaker 1: they definitely do. But didn't AMLO tell us just a
45:09
Speaker 1: few weeks ago that there's no fentanyl in Mexico, that
45:13
Speaker 1: this is not a Mexican problem, it's only an American problem? Yeah,
45:18
Speaker 1: how's that working out for you there, old AMLO? The
45:22
Speaker 1: reason why Colombia has been an alternative for Los Chapitos
45:26
Speaker 1: in terms of opioid manufacturing has to do with the manpower, experience,
45:31
Speaker 1: and knowledge that local drug traffickers have to produce drugs.
45:35
Speaker 1: Although the Colombian authorities have not found the fentanyl drug
45:39
Speaker 1: laboratory in their country, they do not rule out its existence.
45:43
Speaker 1: Since the deadly opioid arrived in Cartagena two years ago,
45:47
Speaker 1: That is, there is consumption, but no production so far.
45:51
Speaker 1: I don't believe that. No production found maybe, but there's
45:55
Speaker 1: no way that nobody in the whole country of Colombia,
45:58
Speaker 1: of all places, is not producing fentanyl. In September 2016,
46:03
Speaker 1: the Bogota Metropolitan Police seized over just 122 grams of
46:10
Speaker 1: a chemical precursor used in clandestine laboratories for the preparation
46:15
Speaker 1: of fentanyl which can be up to 50 times more
46:18
Speaker 1: powerful than heroin. In Mexico, the Sinaloa cartel is not
46:22
Speaker 1: the only transnational organization that produces fentanyl, as there is
46:27
Speaker 1: also the CJNG. These two groups have been pointed out
46:31
Speaker 1: by the DEA as the main ones responsible for the
46:34
Speaker 1: trafficking of the drug to the United States. This means
46:38
Speaker 1: that the consumption and trafficking of fentanyl have become a
46:42
Speaker 1: problem of global scope. In 2021, more than 71,000 deaths
46:47
Speaker 1: were reported in the United States from overdoses derived from
46:51
Speaker 1: synthetic opioids. And the sad truth is, if there were
46:56
Speaker 1: laboratories in Colombia and they were ratted out and they
47:00
Speaker 1: were broken up, the cartels would just move somewhere else.
47:04
Speaker 1: And that's why I say the biggest issue here, obviously,
47:07
Speaker 1: is the problem with addiction. And until we deal with that,
47:11
Speaker 1: no matter what we do or any other government does,
47:15
Speaker 1: It's not going to change the fact that people all
47:17
Speaker 1: around the world have a Jones for these drugs. And
47:22
Speaker 1: if people want them, then somebody somewhere is going to
47:26
Speaker 1: make sure that this product gets to market. So we
47:30
Speaker 1: can deal with blowing up cartels and drone striking them
47:34
Speaker 1: or whatever crazy nonsense people want to do. But the
47:37
Speaker 1: fact is this, until we address the addiction problem, the
47:40
Speaker 1: whole entire problem of the narco game is not going away.
47:45
Speaker 1: All right, folks, that's going to do it for this one.
47:48
Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with the episode can
47:50
Speaker 1: be found in the description box.