Mexico’s notorious Sinaloa cartel, once ruled by now-imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, has banned the production of fentanyl, under penalty of death.
The change of attitude of the drug gang – the main trafficker of the deadly synthetic opioid flooding the United States – comes as El Chapo’s sons bow to a growing police crackdown on drug trafficking, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The order came from the “Chapitos”, the name of Guzmán’s children, who took charge of the operation.
“In Sinaloa, the sale, manufacture, transportation or any type of business that involves the substance known as fentanyl is permanently prohibited, including the sale of chemicals for its production,” said one of several banners hanging on billboards and overpasses in Culiacán. .
“You have been warned,” the message said. “Sincerely, Chapitos.”
Law enforcement officials in the United States are skeptical of the decree and said the ban is expected to do little to curb the fentanyl trade, and could lead to an increase in heroin and cocaine trafficking.
Mexican police show more than $15 million in drug money seized from the Sinaloa cartel in 2011. Mexican and U.S. law enforcement authorities from the EPA have increased pressure on the Sinaloa cartel in recent years.AP
“All in all, it won’t mean anything,” a law enforcement official told the Journal. “They think that if they do this, they won’t bear so much pressure.”
However, the cartel sent a gruesome message in June, when three bodies covered in blue fentanyl pills were found outside Culiacán, a grim reminder that the Chapitos mean business.
In the last 10 days, about a dozen more people have been kidnapped in Sinaloa, and most of them are believed to be linked to fentanyl trafficking in the area.
“We believe these kidnappings and disappearances are related to the fentanyl ban because their relatives have filed formal complaints with authorities,” said Michael Angel Murillo, a human rights activist with the Sinaloa Civic Front, a grassroots group.
“These people are very scared.”
Mexican security forces capture a son of El Chapo in January, as part of an offensive against the cartel. AFP via Getty Images Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the notorious former head of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, was extradited to the United States in 2017 and was sentenced to prison two years later. He is in a maximum security federal prison serving his sentence. EPA fentanyl has flooded the US in recent years and has become a leading cause of overdose deaths. The Mexican Sinaloa cartel, once led by imprisoned kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was one of the main traffickers of the deadly drug. DEA officials in the U.S. are skeptical that the ban will actually work. Getty Images
El Chapo ran the drug empire for decades before being extradited to the United States in 2017.
He was convicted of drug trafficking two years later and ordered imprisoned in a maximum security federal prison in Colorado.
U.S. and Mexican drug authorities turned their attention to the former kingpin’s sons, and in January they captured Ovidio Guzmán, the Chapitos’ top leader, after a deadly shootout that left at least 29 dead, including a Mexican army colonel.
Ovidio Guzmán was extradited to the United States last month, while four Guzmán brothers and about two dozen Sinaloa associates were indicted by US federal prosecutors in April.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn