Mexico’s drug cartels have adapted quickly to the pandemic world.
The Mexican Army set up a checkpoint in Celaya, Mexico, in August after an anti-drug operation.
The Mexican Army set up a checkpoint in Celaya, Mexico, in August after an anti-drug operation.Credit...EPA, via Shutterstock
Like a lot of businesses, the Sinaloa Cartel was knocked back on its heels as the coronavirus swept the globe and travel ground to a near halt.
Government measures to contain the virus had fouled up its operations, interrupting the supply of chemicals for manufacturing synthetic drugs like
fentanyl and methamphetamine and cutting off trafficking routes across international borders.
But while many legitimate industries remain staggered by the pandemic, the cartel has adapted quickly, as have other organizations that dominate drug
trafficking throughout the Americas, the source of nearly all of the world’s cocaine and most of the heroin consumed in the United States.
“The cartels have long demonstrated their resiliency,” said Scott Brown, the head of the Homeland Security Investigations office in Arizona.
“They are going to continue to find new and innovative ways to try to move their product.”
The drug trafficking organizations have slashed payrolls and devised workarounds to traffic drugs and get them into the hands of consumers, according
to interviews with sources close to the Sinaloa Cartel, law enforcement officials in the United States and Latin America, and security analysts.
During the year, some traffickers have increasingly relied on newer tools like drones and cryptocurrency and on creative uses of older approaches like
underground tunnels and sea routes.
American officials have also detected a growing emphasis on the recruitment of impoverished or drug-addicted Americans to smuggle drugs in their body
cavities.
The changes, sources said, have allowed the Sinaloa Cartel and the region’s other major drug trafficking groups to rebound quickly even as the
pandemic continues to devastate economies.
And the challenges of getting drugs into the United States when travel routes shut down appears to have spurred the development of clandestine
laboratories in the United States for the production of synthetic drugs, said Celina Realuyo, professor at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric
Defense Studies at the National Defense University in Washington.
Law enforcement agencies around the world have also detected an acceleration in the use of cryptocurrency and the so-called dark web for drug
transactions and money laundering during the pandemic, she said.
“They’re adjusting,” Ms. Realuyo said of the drug trafficking groups. “They already had kind of a wherewithal, and what they’re doing is
they’re just adapting quicker to their context.”
[Edited on 1-20-2021 by verichip]RocketJSquirrel - 1-20-2021 at 12:34 PM
Criminals always adapt much faster than government can respond. They have highly efficient organizations. Gov't doesn't. RocketJSquirrel - 1-20-2021 at 12:37 PM
I keep wondering how long cryptocurrency will be allowed to stay legal.
It just seems to be the perfect conduit for laundering dirty money. Hiding transactions. Making/receiving payoffs/ransoms. I tend to be libertarian,
but on this issue, I am not sure. wilderone - 1-21-2021 at 09:42 AM
Really doesn't have to do with the OP, but I've been watching To Catch a Smuggler on Natl Geog channel recently. About Customs and Immigration
officials who work the airports and apprehend various people, goods entering US illegally. E.g., last night airing were some Tupperware containers
from Mexico, intercepted and inspected. Inside there were what appeared to be tamales with sauce on them. Inspectors cut into them and there were
tubes of heroin with fentynal. Similar discoveries then warrant follow-up to see who would claim them or other investigation. Other "cases" are
people from Guyana or Nigeria with fake documents and a story that they're entering US for a conference, but their IDs are expired, there's no hotel
reservation, their govt doesn't acknowledge their name/status - so they're put on the next flight back home. Old people in wheelchairs who are drug
mules. Really an eye-opening program.pacificobob - 1-21-2021 at 10:45 AM
any ICE personal who is being honest will tell you most/many busts are the results of someone dropping a dime and ratting. dang near as easy as the
FBI getting convictions from the trump insurrection by using selfies and social media posted
by the "patriots" themselves motoged - 1-21-2021 at 07:46 PM
From China Today Text(XINHUA)
Imagine this: A state leader was betrayed by his deputy and was completely cut off from his supporters; the opposition took control of the media and
the military; angry protesters stormed the parliamentary building, demanding the election result be overturned; key officials resigned; finally, the
leader was coerced into announcing a curfew effective until power was handed over to the opposition.
Everything perfectly scripted so far… except that the United States hasn't announced sanctions against that nation yet.
As Lebanese diplomat Mohamad Safa commented on the January 6 U.S. Capitol Hill chaos, "If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the
United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States."
How could it be possible that the self-invented "Twitter revolution" backfired? After some serious soul searching, the Big Tech muzzled Donald Trump,
the most prominent American dissident, proving to the whole world that free speech in America is nothing but a joke.
The U.S. mainstream media love to mock Trump as the vain emperor who wore invisible magnificent clothes. But for us here in China, we see Trump as the
child who blurted out the truth about American-style democracy.
Many of my generation looked up to the United States while growing up. We used to be inspired by the stories behind the Statue of Liberty--ordinary
people's search for survival, freedom and opportunities. We watched Hollywood blockbusters and sitcoms and were amazed by the spectacle of
computer-generated imagery and amused by the American-style humor; we gasped in admiration at the height of the Empire State Building.
We were envious of Americans' free education and free medical services. Some were intrigued by the "one person, one vote" system and sought to import
the same checks and balances, while quite a few eulogized Americans' First Amendment rights.
Until the Trump presidency.
The Capitol Hill insurrection is not the end to the American divisiveness, but the beginning of the great "American Delusion" (as opposed to The God
Delusion by Richard Dawkins, who got disenchanted after then President George W. Bush claimed that God had told him to invade Iraq).
Has Trump spoken the truth about the United States?
Yes, he has. If an election goes his way, it's a fair election; if it doesn't, then it's rigged. Cases in point: "Russian democracy is a farce" by
CNN; "Venezuela's democracy is fake" by The Washington Post. And don't even get started on their attack on China's political system.
But the world is watching.
Though the Statue of Liberty still stands tall and formidable, a wall is being built in the land of shining beacon of democracy where babies are torn
away from their parents.
The Empire State Building remains New York City's skyline, but has lost its unique luster to the newer and taller skyscrapers in Beijing, Shanghai and
elsewhere.
As more Chinese are traveling and studying overseas, they come to realize that free education for the poor is inferior; the real money goes into the
expensive private schools, while free medicare comes only after high monthly insurance payments.
The Americans can attack their president and elected officials, and pretend to have unrestricted information. But the sense of national unity and
solidarity has fallen apart.
The checks and balances are intact, but now the more-than-ever urgent question is: Will the U.S. Government ever be able to reach a consensus within
itself? And together with the people, will it be able to start renovating the country's crumbling infrastructure?
While Hollywood still serves as the soft power arm of the U.S., the fatigue brought about by watching too many Batman, Superman, Iron Man and
Spider-Man (to name a few) series has made us realize that superheroes are only fantasies. It is the ordinary people and their wisdom and grit that
are making this world a much better place.
The Great American Delusion has begun.
Let's hope America can find its way forward and lead its people to be a fully inclusive and progressive nation again and re-awaken to the American
Dream.
elgatoloco - 1-23-2021 at 02:02 PM
China Daily News is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party. So definitely believe
everything they publish as the unmitigated truth.
