{"id":20156,"date":"2025-10-25T17:58:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T16:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=20156"},"modified":"2026-01-11T18:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T17:02:18","slug":"america-loves-cocaine-again-mexicos-new-drug-king-cashes-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/10\/america-loves-cocaine-again-mexicos-new-drug-king-cashes-in\/","title":{"rendered":"America Loves Cocaine Again\u2014Mexico\u2019s New Drug King Cashes In"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening Comment by DrugWatch member Maggie Petito:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It is often stated that comprehensive plans are most effective. Andean media often reports on crime profits from the transport of drugs, weapons and humans.\u00a0 Additional factual reporting is needed.Few understand the profiteering by the Albanian mafia, Chinese Triads and Russian mobs. South American media does claim that Colombia [and Peru] see soaring cocaine production.Transportation and distribution yields higher profits than the actual production. Nonetheless, common sense reminds that without product, there is nothing to transport.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

ARTICLE:<\/p>\n

by\u00a0 \u00a0 Steve Fisher, Jos\u00e9 de C\u00f3rdoba and Santiago P\u00e9rez\u00a0 – <\/em>Wall Street Journal\u00a0 – <\/em>Sept. 16, 2025<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

From a heavily guarded mountain hideout in the heart of the Sierra Madre, 59-year-old Nemesio \u201cMencho\u201d\u00a0Oseguera\u00a0reigns as the new drug king of Mexico, aided in his ascendance by America\u2019s resurging love of\u00a0cocaine\u00a0and the Trump administration\u2019s escalating\u00a0war on fentanyl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oseguera spent decades building his Jalisco New Generation Cartel into a transnational criminal organization fierce enough to forge a new underworld order in Mexico, displacing the Sinaloa cartel, torn by\u00a0warring factions, as the world\u2019s biggest drug pusher.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sinaloans, Mexico\u2019s top\u00a0fentanyl\u00a0traffickers, got caught in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, which promised to eradicate the synthetic opioid. The crackdown has left an open field for Jalisco and its lucrative cocaine trade, elevating Oseguera to No. 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Mencho\u2019 is the most powerful drug trafficker operating in the world,\u201d said\u00a0Derek Maltz, who served this year as interim chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration. \u201cWhat is happening now is a pivot to much more cocaine distribution in America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cocaine sold in the U.S. is cheaper and as pure as ever for retail buyers. Consumption in the western U.S. has increased 154% since 2019 and is up 19% during the same period in the eastern part of the country, according to the drug-testing company Millennium Health. In contrast, Fentanyl use in the U.S. began to drop in mid-2023 and has been declining since, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For new users, cocaine doesn\u2019t carry the stigma of fentanyl addiction. Middle-class addicts and the tragic spectacle of homeless crack-cocaine users in the 1990s helped put a lid on America\u2019s last cocaine epidemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oseguera, who grew up poor selling avocados, is making a killing from cocaine buyers in the U.S. His cartel transports the addictive powder by the ton from Colombia to Ecuador and then north to Mexico\u2019s Pacific coast via speedboats and so-called narco subs.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. forces in the Caribbean recently blew up two speedboats, including one this week, that President Trump alleged were ferrying cocaine and fentanyl from Venezuela to the U.S. Fentanyl is largely produced in Mexico, and most cocaine ships through the Pacific. All those aboard the two vessels were killed. The president also has threatened military action against Mexican drug cartels.<\/span><\/p>\n

A video released and edited by the Mexican military showing the apprehension of a drug-laden speedboat on Mexico\u2019s Pacific coast this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. has a $15 million bounty on Oseguera, but he rarely leaves his mountain compound, according to authorities. Few photos of him circulate. The cadre of men protecting Oseguera, known as the Special Force of the High Command, carry RPG 7 heat-seeking, shoulder-fired rocket launchers capable of piercing a tank, people familiar with cartel operations said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visitors to the drug lord\u2019s stronghold are hooded before they embark on the six-hour car trip through terrain sown with land mines, those people said. Locations of the pressure-activated explosives are known only by members of Oseguera\u2019s inner circle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oseguera\u2019s fortunes rose after the U.S. pressured Mexico to crack down on the Sinaloa cartel, where Oseguera got his start in the trade. The Sinaloans pioneered the manufacturing and smuggling of fentanyl, an industry breakthrough that sent cartel revenue soaring and drove up the number of fatal overdoses in the U.S. For the Sinaloans, landing in the administration\u2019s spotlight couldn\u2019t come at a worse time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The capture of Sinaloa cartel leader Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n in January 2016 and his extradition to the U.S. a year later, set in motion a precipitous decline. Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s four sons inherited their father\u2019s empire, highly valued for its network of smuggling tunnels beneath the U.S.-Mexico border, used for moving cocaine, fentanyl and other contraband.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sons, known collectively as the little Chapos, or \u201cChapitos,\u201d shifted production resources to fentanyl, which compared with the heroin their father had brought into the U.S. by the ton is easier to smuggle and costs just a fraction to produce.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Chapitos triggered an internecine war last year as a result of a plot against Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada, the 70-something co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel. Zambada was forced aboard a private plane bound for the U.S. by\u00a0Joaquin Guzm\u00e1n, one of El Chapo\u2019s sons, who hoped for leniency from U.S. prosecutors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both men were taken into U.S. custody when they landed outside of El Paso, Texas. Zambada pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking charges last month and faces a possible life sentence. Guzm\u00e1n, still in custody, pleaded not guilty to trafficking charges.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zambada\u2019s capture led to a violent split between men loyal to Zambada\u2019s son, Ismael \u201cMayito Flaco\u201d Zambada, and those allied with the Chapitos. An estimated 5,000 people from both camps have been killed or gone missing in the conflict, along with bystanders caught in the crossfire. Mexico has sent 10,000 federal troops in the past year to the state of Sinaloa, where the federal government has been largely helpless to end the fighting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hemmed in by U.S. and Mexican authorities on one front, and Zambada\u2019s men on the other, the Chapitos swallowed their pride and sought the help of Oseguera, once a sworn enemy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each side had something the other wanted. Oseguera agreed to meet, looking to a future where he and his Jalisco cartel would rule as Mexico\u2019s dominant criminal enterprise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Landmark drug deal<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In December, Oseguera sat down with a top lieutenant of\u00a0Iv\u00e1n Archivaldo\u00a0Guzm\u00e1n, who leads Sinaloa\u2019s Chapito faction. At the meeting in Mexico\u2019s western state of Nayarit, Oseguera, who was operating from a position of strength, agreed to supply the Chapitos with weapons, cash and fighters.<\/span><\/p>\n

In exchange, the Sinaloans opened their smuggling routes and border tunnels into the U.S., said people familiar with the meeting. The Jalisco cartel previously paid hefty fees to use the tunnels to move drugs beneath the U.S.-Mexico border, people familiar with its operations said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The agreement also divvied up the U.S. trafficking trade, these people said: The Chapitos would keep their focus on serving American fentanyl addicts. Oseguera would concentrate on cocaine and its down-market cousin, methamphetamine. The Jalisco cartel now ferries tons of cocaine and record amounts of methamphetamine into the U.S. through Sinaloan-built tunnels, as well as fentanyl, the people familiar with cartel operations said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sinaloa-Jalisco agreement was \u201can unprecedented event in the balance of organized crime,\u201d Mexico\u2019s attorney general\u2019s office said in a July report. The Jalisco cartel compares with the Sinaloa cartel at the height of its power before El Chapo\u2019s arrest, according to the DEA\u2019s latest drug-threat assessment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oseguera caught another break from the Trump administration. The president\u2019s campaign to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally has taken federal agents away from drug-traffic interdiction. In Arizona, two Customs and Border Protection checkpoints along a main fentanyl-smuggling corridor from Mexico have been left unstaffed. Officers stationed there were sent to process detained migrants. A senior administration official said the U.S. border is more secure than it has ever been.<\/span><\/p>\n

Colombia is producing records amounts of cocaine, and the volume of the drug arriving in the U.S. is driving down prices, the people familiar with cartel operations said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cocaine prices have fallen by nearly half to around $60 to $75 a gram compared with five years ago, said\u00a0Morgan Godvin, a researcher with the community organization Drug Checking Los Angeles. \u201cThe price of pure cocaine has plummeted,\u201d Godvin said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tons of cocaine<\/strong>\u00a0manufactured in Colombia are shipped from Ecuador by small crews of fishermen on a three-week voyage to Mexico.<\/span><\/p>\n

After refueling near the Galapagos,\u00a0speed-boats and so-called narco subs<\/strong>\u00a0continue north.\u00a0The Mexican navy<\/strong>\u00a0has deployed special forces to block shipments.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jalisco cartel, which controls ports on Mexico\u2019s Pacific coast, now uses\u00a0routes and tunnels<\/strong>\u00a0into the U.S. that are controlled by the sons of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaqu\u00edn \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jalisco cartel also draws steady revenue from diverse sources outside narcotics.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cartel acts as a parallel government in the southwestern state of Jalisco and other parts of Mexico, taxing such goods as tortillas, chicken, cigarettes and beer, security experts said. It controls construction companies that build roads, schools and sewers for the municipal governments under cartel control.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A booming black market for fuel is another cash cow. Gasoline and diesel stolen from Mexican refineries and pipelines\u2014or smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. without paying taxes\u2014is sold at below market prices to small and large businesses. U.S. officials estimate as much as a third of the fuel sold in Mexico is illicit. The head of the Jalisco cartel\u2019s fuel division is nicknamed \u201cTank\u201d for his prowess at stealing and storing millions of gallons of fuel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The cartel profited from the passage of migrants bound for the U.S., charging them thousands of dollars each to pass through territory it controls. And in recent years, the cartel has operated more than two dozen call centers to scam senior citizens out of hundreds of millions of dollars in a vacation-timeshare fraud, according to the Treasury Department.<\/span><\/p>\n

Family ties<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Oseguera, celebrated as \u201cEl Se\u00f1or Mencho\u201d in narco-ballads, is viewed as an altruistic patriarch by some poor Mexicans living in areas controlled by the cartel, which organizes town fiestas and hands out food, medicine and toys.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1994, Oseguera was convicted of dealing heroin and served nearly three years in a California prison. He was deported to Mexico, where he married the daughter of the boss of a Sinaloa-affiliated gang. By 2011, he was leading his own organization based in Jalisco state.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jalisco gunmen stormed a Puerto Vallarta restaurant in 2016 and kidnapped two Chapitos\u2014Iv\u00e1n Archivaldo and\u00a0Jes\u00fas Alfredo\u2014who were celebrating Iv\u00e1n\u2019s birthday. Oseguera released them after an intervention by \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada, who later became a target of the Chapitos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like many of Mexico\u2019s cartels, Jalisco is largely a family business. One of Oseguera\u2019s brothers, Antonio, known as Tony Montana after the\u00a0Al Pacino\u00a0character in the movie \u201cScarface,\u201d was in charge of acquiring heavy weapons, the attorney general\u2019s report said. The brother was arrested in 2022, and in February he was among 29 drug bosses Mexico expelled to the U.S., hoping to address Trump\u2019s demands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oseguera\u2019s son, who served as a top leader in the cartel, was sentenced in Washington, D.C., this year to life in prison for drug trafficking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds of gunmen trained by former Colombian special forces work for Oseguera, according to Mexican officials. He travels through his territory in a small convoy of armored vehicles with a team equipped to fight off aggressors until reinforcements arrive. He had a specialized medical unit built near his mountain hideout to care for his advanced kidney disease, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Photos from the Mexican navy showing packaged cocaine, in a 3.5-ton seizure from a semi-submersible vessel, a so-called narco sub, caught off the Pacific coast and brought to port in Acapulco, Mexico, in June.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Two cartel accountants arrested by Mexican authorities said they were required to leave behind smartphones,\u00a0Apple\u00a0Watches and any device with GPS signal before traveling to meet with Oseguera, a precaution against electronic surveillance or tracking, according to the people familiar with the cartel\u2019s operations. Oseguera has a team that manages more than 50 phones of top cartel lieutenants, people familiar with the operations said. Every week, cartel operatives gather and review phone call logs to ensure the men haven\u2019t been speaking with enemies, security experts said. Afterward, the men get new phones.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2020, more than two dozen gunmen fired more than 400 rounds at the armored car ferrying\u00a0Omar Garc\u00eda Harfuch, then Mexico City\u2019s security chief, on the capital\u2019s Paseo de la Reforma.\u00a0Garc\u00eda Harfuch\u00a0was hit three times but survived. Two of his bodyguards and a woman headed to work were killed.\u00a0Garc\u00eda Harfuch now serves as security minister for Mexico President\u00a0Claudia Sheinbaum. He is overseeing the law-enforcement offensive, backed by U.S. intelligence, that has crippled the Chapitos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oseguera\u2019s subsequent rise to Mexico\u2019s top drug trafficker puts him in a very dangerous spot, according to a senior Trump administration official.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: www.drugwatch.org<\/a>
\ndrug-watch-international@googlegroups.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening Comment by DrugWatch member Maggie Petito: It is often stated that comprehensive plans are most effective. Andean media often reports on crime profits from the transport of drugs, weapons and humans.\u00a0 Additional factual reporting is needed.Few understand the profiteering by the Albanian mafia, Chinese Triads and Russian mobs. South American media does claim that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,129,68,82,40,139,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-violence-prison","category-culture","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-economic","category-prevention-research","category-strategy-and-policy","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20159,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20156\/revisions\/20159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}