“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stated that both the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) benefit from the corruption that exists in Mexico.
The 2024 National Drug Assessment, presented yesterday by the DEA, warns that the Sinaloa Cartel “can operate freely in some parts of Mexico because it has a network of corrupt contacts between law enforcement, the Army and politics.”
It is mentioned that this cartel completely controls the Port of Mazatlán, in Sinaloa, but also maintains corrupt logistical and government contacts in other seaports on both coasts of Mexico.
In the case of the CJNG, the report highlights the violence with which it operates, recalling its high-profile attacks against the Mexican Army and police.
However, unlike the Sinaloa Cartel, the CJNG “controls very little territory near the border with the United States.” That forces them to pay “a fee for the use of entry points, tunnels or other smuggling routes into the United States to any criminal organization that controls access at that time.”
In the report published by EL UNIVERSAL, it points out that both cartels unleashed “the worst drug crisis” in the history of the United States, since they have a presence in all 50 states.
Based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the DEA indicates that in 2020 drug-related deaths claimed 107,941 lives.