Amid growing concerns over the spread of the screwworm parasite, Mexico’s national ranchers union is calling for tougher actions to halt the trafficking of cattle smuggled from Central America to Mexico and the United States.
Mexico’s National Confederation of Livestock Organizations (Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas – CNOG) issued a public statement on July 16 asking for stronger coordination between federal and local authorities to confront cattle trafficking.
The union’s proposed measures include the creation of a specialized intelligence unit, a ban on livestock imports from Central America to Mexico, and stronger controls to curb the illicit sale and distribution of livestock identification tags.
“In terms of intelligence, CNOG is requesting an increase in material and human resources … like increasing personnel and training for the National Guard and the Army to stop livestock transports, request documentation, and verify its authenticity,” a livestock expert told InSight Crime.
The confederation’s statement comes amid the ongoing spread of screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite that targets warm-blooded animals, including cattle. First detected in December last year on a remote farm near Mexico’s border with Guatemala, the outbreak has steadily advanced northward, raising alarms among US officials and leading to repeated suspensions of cattle imports over the past year.
SEE ALSO: Cash Cows – The Inner Workings of Cattle Trafficking from Central America to Mexico
“While in the past Mexico and the United States successfully confronted [the pest] through binational cooperation, this time the screwworm is linked to cattle smuggling from Central America, an activity now partly controlled by organized crime,” said Antonio Ortiz-Mena, a professor at Georgetown University who specializes in international political economy. “This is no longer informal smuggling – it’s transnational crime.”
Criminal organizations smuggle cattle raised in uncertain circumstances north from the Central American nations of Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua to Mexico. Many arrive emaciated, in poor health, and lacking the proper ear tags or health documentation required to transit Mexico legally.
Despite these irregularities, processed meat and by-products from some of these animals enter international supply chains, at times even reaching the US market.
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A lack of traceability continues to fuel cattle trafficking between Mexico and Central America, providing criminals with a lucrative opportunity to diversify their portfolios, launder illicit funds, and extort money from the transport networks involved, but it is unlikely that the Mexican government will move to address this problem anytime soon.
The US-Mexico cattle trade surged following the approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, which put pressure on Mexico’s supply chain to meet both rising international and local demand. This has since been partially filled by illicitly sourced cattle from Central America.
To help oversee the growing flow of livestock, the Mexican and Guatemalan governments officially signed an agreement in 2019 to regulate cattle imports, requiring animals to originate from certified ranches in Guatemala, wear traceable identification tags, and carry up-to-date health certificates.
However, as part of a 2022 InSight Crime investigation, Mexico’s National Service of Health, Safety, and Agri-Food Quality (Servicio Nacional de Sanidad e Inocuidad Agropecuaria de México – SENASICA) said it estimates that as many as 800,000 heads of cattle are trafficked into the country from Guatemala each year.
This is in part due to a thriving black market for ear tags that fuels cattle smuggling.
“Between January and June 2025, just over 500,000 ear tags not compliant with official regulations have been withheld in Chiapas, Mexico,” the livestock expert told InSight Crime.
SEE ALSO: How Black Market Ear Tags Help Flow of Contraband Cattle
Almost all sources consulted by InSight Crime during the investigation reported that some officials sell the ear tags under the table, either directly to traffickers or to other entities involved in the trade. Traffickers can also buy them from collection points, which frequently obtain ear tags through their local union and sell them directly to those who bring unmarked cattle to their facilities.
“The irony is that everything comes in legally,” a government official in southern Mexico told InSight Crime in 2022.
The black market for ear tags is a lucrative business. While an official ear tag costs between 40 or 50 Mexican pesos (around $2.50), black market ear tags can be sold for as high as 1,000 pesos (around $50), according to the livestock expert.
The process by which smuggled cattle are “laundered” into Mexico’s legal supply chain also creates opportunities for drug trafficking groups to disguise and legitimize illicit profits through the livestock trade. Criminal networks have also used the system to move cocaine across the border.
In recent years, combating this illicit trade on the Mexico-Guatemala border has not been as high of a priority for Mexican authorities as stopping migrants and drugs.
“The Mexican government has the political will to address the problem … but its immediate response capacity is limited,” said Ortiz-Mena. “This issue requires close coordination with security, enforcement, and international cooperation agencies.”
One proposed solution, Ortiz-Mena noted, is to modernize Mexico’s livestock traceability system by incorporating technologies that are harder to counterfeit, including electronic chips or GPS devices that track cattle movements in real time.