Vienna (EFE)
One of the central points of the World Cocaine Report 2023 is the analysis of the fragmentation of the criminal ecosystem of drug trafficking, although it is indicated that very powerful organizations continue to exist in Mexico.
“The Mexican criminal landscape is also increasingly complex and fragmented. Currently, Mexican authorities have identified nine large organized criminal groups that include approximately a total of 53 groups,” the report states.
Its expansion beyond Mexico
The UN describes the situation as a network of changing and highly specialized alliances that cooperate with each other depending on the situation.
“The Sinaloa Cartel, for example, can be described as an ‘alliance network’ of multiple specialized cells, each with a specific function in the supply chain,” the report states.
The Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación are the two with the most international presence, UN experts stress. Both also have a large presence in the US market.
“According to some analysts, the increase in drug-related violence in South and Central America has been driven mainly by competition between the local representatives of these two groups,” he adds.
Since almost no criminal group controls the entire cocaine supply chain from South America to destination markets such as Europe and North America, alliances are formed at different stages of the process.
“These collaborations tend to be very dynamic and unstable, as in the case of Mexico, for example, where yesterday’s criminal allies can become today’s enemies, and vice versa,” the UN warns.
That is why competition for control of spaces or distribution points can end in acts of violence.
In some cases, local representatives of the two main Mexican cartels have been behind waves of violence.
Links in Ecuador and Colombia
For example, the report indicates that a series of violent acts in Ecuador was linked to rivalry between local criminal groups linked to the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel.
The report indicates that an increase in homicides in Ecuador is linked to drug trafficking, especially in the coastal zone, where there are groups linked to Mexican and Colombian organizations.
In Colombia, the demobilization of the FARC has led to an increase in the presence of Mexican groups, especially, once again, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel.
Representatives of those cartels collaborate with FARC dissidents to export cocaine shipments from areas of Colombia near the Pacific, the report noted.
The great criminal fragmentation in Colombia and the presence of Mexican criminal groups “feeds more violence,” according to the UN analysis.
The cocaine business
Cocaine trafficking is only one part of the criminal business of Mexican criminal groups, as they are involved in many other activities, such as the trafficking of marijuana, heroin, stimulants, weapons and people.
The UN report on cocaine specifies that in 2020 almost 2,000 tons of cocaine of the highest purity were produced in total, twice as much as in 2015.
“The world supply is at record levels,” warns the UN, which alludes to the expansion of coca crops and more efficient techniques to convert the leaves of that plant into cocaine.
The strong growth in supply is accompanied by a constant increase in the demand for cocaine, both in North America and in Europe, where the 21.5 million habitual users of this drug are concentrated.