“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
According to US authorities, Algredo started his business in approximately 2011.
Javier Algredo Vázquez Arrested
A U.S. businessman was found guilty of drug trafficking in mid-2023 after being involved in a shell company scheme to bring precursor chemicals from Asia to Mexico to produce methamphetamine.
Javier Algredo Vázquez trafficked tons of precursor chemicals from China, India and Turkey to the United States, using a network of front companies connected to Mexico.
According to US authorities, Algredo began his business in approximately 2011.
He worked directly with the Jalisco New Generation Caretl for ten years until mid-2021, when he was arrested by US authorities. His shipments were headed to two strategic points in Mexico: the Port of Veracruz and the Port of Manzanillo in Colima.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) began investigating this three-man network, which used legitimate front companies to purchase the chemicals in Asia: acetic acid, citric acid and methylammonium chloride.
The precursors were then imported into the United States and finally into Mexico to produce methamphetamine, which was returned to the US.
How did they catch him?
To investigate him, US authorities leaked a cooperating witness. It was a former CJNG operator who identified Algredo as a cartel operator, whom he had met personally between 2013 and 2014 in Guadalajara, Jalisco.
The insider said another cartel worker introduced them as coordinators of precursor shipments. He recalled that Algredo agreed to sell them “acero” and “dulce,” code names for methamphetamine precursors according to the DEA.
Another source collaborating within the cartel, but also working directly for the DEA, said he met Algredo at Algredo’s ranch in Puente Grande, Jalisco, where he offered to sell him “dulce” and “loquera,” plus precursor chemicals.
Algredo showed him the methamphetamine lab he ran on his property, and even offered the DEA source to give him free precursors in exchange for operating his lab.
US prosecutors discovered that Algredo controlled the company Pro Chemie New York Inc, which they directly linked to several shipments of precursors belonging to the scheme used to produce and traffic drugs that Algredo and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel belonged to.
With official documents of the shipments, the US authorities were able to secure 4 shipments that made a first stop in the United States; one with 24.5 tons of methylammonium chloride in Oakland, California, which were going from China and had as final destination the port of Manzanillo, Colima.
Two more seizures of a total of 50 tons of citric acid coming from China and destined for the Port of Veracruz, including an illicit shipment of oxalic acid in Seabrook, Texas with 22 tons of the precursor used to manufacture drugs.
The shipment was made by the Indian firm Punjab Chemicals and Crop Protection, for which Algredo paid 20,900 dollars ($381,660.54).
And another seizure of 44.4 tons of acetic acid that came from Turkey and was headed to Manzanillo, Colima.
Relationship with Mexico
In Mexico, Algredo was linked to the company MB Barter &Trading Mexico SA de CV, whose import and export manager is, according to his Linkedin account, Carlos Algredo, Javier’s brother. The company has an address in Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico.
On its official website, the company reports that it works with imports of several of the precursor chemicals indicated by the US government, such as acetic acid, citric acid and oxalic acid, but not methylammonium chloride. In addition, commercial records confirm that he had business with the company Punjab Chemicals.
On July 26, 2023, Javier Algredo went to trial, and was found guilty by a jury in Washington after a trial that lasted several days, of one count of conspiracy to produce methamphetamine, one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, and one count of conspiracy to launder money.
His sentencing is pending, and his brother, Carlos, is likely to be charged as part of the same criminal scheme.