“Ivan” for Borderland Beat
The order was given by Los Chapitos in the face of the US government’s onslaught to capture them.
The order was categorical: no one can produce or traffic fentanyl, and anyone who does so will face the consequences. The order, according to various sources, came directly from the Chapitos faction, in an effort to eliminate the stigma that they are the ones in charge of fentanyl production in Sinaloa that is trafficked to the United States.
“We were told not to cook because if we did, it would be very bad for us. That’s why nobody is making fentanyl right now, everything is stopped,” said a freelance cook to whom Ríodoce had access, and who asked that his identity not be revealed.
The order came five weeks after the US Department of Justice (USDOJ) said it would go all out against those producing and trafficking fentanyl, directly accusing Joaquín Guzmán Loera’s sons as the main culprits behind the fentanyl rush in the United States.
“The actions being taken are to send a clear message to Los Chapitos and other criminal drug networks around the world that the DEA will stop at nothing to protect the national security of the United States and the safety and health of the American people,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said at the time.
In response to these accusations, and aware that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is targeting them, Los Chapitos sent a letter to journalist Azucena Uresti through lawyer José Refugio Rodríguez Núñez, to clarify that they “do not work with fentanyl, but that in Sinaloa, there were many independent groups and narcos who did, and who did not report to them or have control over what they did.
The content of the letter went around the world in a few hours, especially because the DEA never bought the message that Los Chapitos do not produce fentanyl when there were dozens of informants negotiating with the United States, claiming that Chapo’s sons are “the good guys.
The cook himself acknowledged that he did not cook for Los Chapitos, but that there were others who surely do.
“I tell him: he did not cook fentanyl for them (Los Chapitos); I am associated with another person who is in charge of sending the fentanyl to the United States and from there we get money, that’s why we don’t look kindly on being told that we can’t cook.”
MIKE VIGIL. We have it on record.
Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the DEA, said that the order is because the sons of Joaquín Guzmán Loera el Chapo are feeling the pressure because of the measures that the United States is taking against them.
“We are also aware that they stopped (the production of fentanyl), although we are honestly not very convinced of that, but if it is true, I think it will be something temporary, and they will wait to see how the government reacts, because we do not believe that they will stop producing fentanyl and forget the market they have in the United States,” said Vigil, in a telephone interview.
However, the former DEA agent considered that the measure will cause this faction to lose an important part of the drug market in the United States, and that is where the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG) will enter to take over the market, which will mean that this criminal group will eventually replace them in the fentanyl trade.
“I say this because in the United States they are consuming fentanyl more than ever, and if Los Chapitos start to feel the pressure, they are going to stop, because they are not hardened criminals like Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, or Ismael, El Mayo Zambada, but they are narco juniors who had everything and that makes them feel more pressure for what is coming,” said Vigil, author of the books Deal and The Rise of a Sicario.
This is not the first time that one of the Sinaloa Cartel factions has issued an order to stop a criminal activity in its territory, as in 2019, during the first six months of the year, the cartel banned the theft of hydrocarbons around Culiacan, and the order was obeyed; and previously, in 2006, the cartel also banned car theft.
A coordinator for the transfer of precursor chemicals from China to Sinaloa noted, however, that this time it was different, as the cartel leaders would not only have banned fentanyl production and trafficking, but also methamphetamine production and arms trafficking, as the order is to keep on pause while they figure out what to do to avoid arrest.
“I think that if this goes on for another month, we are going to have to take the kitchen somewhere else, where Los Menores don’t control, because the truth is that we don’t want problems with anyone, but at the same time we have to eat, and that’s the only thing we know how to do,” said the cook.
The fentanyl fever in the United States has reached unsuspected levels, even according to the health authorities of that country, in 2023 it has killed more than 70 thousand users by overdose, while in 2022 it killed more than 100 thousand people, causing its legislators to pass a law to punish as terrorists drug trafficking groups, particularly those associated with the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG.
Article published on June 11, 2023 in the 1063rd edition of the weekly Ríodoce.