“The fentanyl epidemic is a crisis that demands our full attention,” were the words with which the U.S. Attorney for California, Martin Estrada, warned about the crisis facing the United States derived from the distribution of the powerful opioid in every corner of the territory.
The consumption of fentanyl has caused thousands of overdose deaths in recent years in the country governed by Joe Biden, officials from different levels of government have accused Mexico and the cartels operating in the Aztec country of being responsible for trafficking and distributing the narcotic that they manufacture in clandestine laboratories.
“The violent drug cartels, specifically the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS) and the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG), are deliberately pushing lethal fentanyl into our communities with total disregard for human lives in an effort to maximize their profits,” said Bill Bodner, a special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Los Angeles.
According to the DEA intelligence report, Fentanyl Flow to the United States, published in January 2020 and consulted by Infobae in Mexico, transnational criminal organizations are producing greater quantities of fentanyl and illicit tablets containing said synthetic opioid.
The report also specifies that Mexican cartels use clandestine laboratories and increasingly sophisticated processing methods – glassware, unregulated chemicals, and industrial tablet presses – to manufacture fentanyl.
“Fentanyl is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border in low concentration but high-volume loads,” the report specified.
DEA reports have indicated that the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG are the main trafficking groups responsible for smuggling fentanyl into the United States from Mexico.
This premise is also based on the fact that until January 2020 – the date on which the DEA intelligence report was published – the operations to dismantle drug laboratories have taken place in territories controlled by these criminal organizations, in addition to the fact that the participation of members or associates of the aforementioned drug trafficking cartels has been confirmed.
Los chapitos, los zamudio and the sinaloa cartel
While the fentanyl crisis currently plaguing the United States has entailed meticulous manufacturing, distribution, and marketing operations by both criminal organizations, behind the whole process, there are people who already appear among the most wanted lists not only by Mexican authorities but also by various U.S. law enforcement agencies.
With regard to the Sinaloa Cartel, after Joaquín Guzmán Loera – better known as El Chapo – was extradited and sentenced to spend the rest of his days in a maximum security prison in Colorado, the so-called Pacific Cartel was divided into at least three important factions: one headed by Ismael Zambada García, alias El Mayo; another led by Aureliano Guzmán Loera, brother of the co-founder of the criminal organization known as El Guano, and Los Chapitos, the capo’s sons.
It is precisely this last faction that has been identified by US security agencies as the main manufacturers and distributors of the synthetic opioid, so that Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, Joaquin Guzman Lopez and Ovidio Guzman Lopez — who was apprehended in January 2023 — can be considered the fentanyl kings of the criminal organization.
In addition to Joaquín Guzmán Loera’s sons, in February 2023, the US State Department issued a statement identifying a network that collaborates with the Sinaloa Cartel to traffic fentanyl.
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The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) reported brothers Luis Alfonso and Ludim Zamudio Lerma as responsible for placing illicit precursor chemicals directly into the hands of Sinaloa Cartel members and laboratory operators.
“The Zamudio Lerma brothers and their network promote the production of synthetic drugs that devastate the lives of Americans while the Sinaloa Cartel leaders line their pockets,” said OFAC Director Andrea Gacki.
The DEA also identified a family in Sonora that collaborates with the Los Chapitos faction in the trafficking of fentanyl. The group known as “Los Salazar” has been consolidated as the armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel in that state and in Chihuahua since the 1980s under the command of Adán Salazar, also known as Don Adán.
Although the capo has been held in a maximum security prison since 2011, he and his son, Alfredo Salazar Ramirez, alias El Muñeco, have coordinated the criminal group’s operations from behind prison walls through messages sent by lawyers and visits from family members.
The “kings” of the CJNG
The US Department of Justice, Treasury, and State consider the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG) as one of the drug cartels responsible for trafficking thousands of tons of cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin mixed with fentanyl to the United States, according to a statement issued by the agency in October 2018.
As a result, the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, in collaboration with the prosecutors’ offices of the states of California, Illinois, Mississippi, and Virginia, filed indictments against leaders, financiers, transporters, and sources of drug supply of that criminal organization, including:
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mecho: leader and founder of the Four Letter Cartel that has acquired the designation of criminal enterprise for conspiring to distribute significant quantities of narcotics and opioids for illegal importation into the United States.
Rubén Oseguera González, alias El Menchito: son of the founder of the Jalisco Cartel – New Generation (CJNG), accused of conspiring to distribute significant quantities of narcotics for illegal importation into the United States. He was arrested in 2015 by Mexican authorities and extradited.
Erick Valencia Salazar, alias El 85: He is accused of participating in the conspiracy to distribute significant quantities of narcotics and opioids to the United States between 2003 and 2018.
Similarly, and although their names have not been released, the US State Department is aware of multiple members who make up a fentanyl trafficking network operating for the Four Letter Cartel on the border.
“They are using much smaller packages, they can break [shipments] into smaller packages, they are using more cars, more people, so it’s a pretty big challenge, but with every challenge, there is an answer, and we are looking for them,” said Todd D. Robinson, the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.