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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| Sinaloa Cartel Moves East: Shift in Strategy or Resources? | |
| 2011-03-27 | |
By Chris Covert
And the cocaine seized was prodigious at more than 500 kilograms, along with weapons and vehicles, arrests which were part of a multinational operation that rounded up 18 suspects in toto in five mid-Mexico states, including Tabasco, Jalisco, Quintata Roo, Mexico and Distrito Federal and in Ecuador. Victor Manuel Felix Felix, who is the brother-in-law of Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin Guzman Loera, alias El Chapo, reports say, was also the chief financial officer for the organization as well as for the Pacifico cartel, a subgroup for the Sinaloa cartel. Felix Felix's arrest was apparently part of an international police operation which spanned to Ecuador, specifically the city of Guayaquil where four tons of cocaine were seized and nine drug trafficking and money laundering suspects were detained by the Ecuadoran Policia Nacional. Reports say Felix Felix ran a money laundering operation discovered by Ecuadoran Policia Nacional after the March 18 arrest of 8 individuals. Although no deliberate indications appear in either English or Spanish language press, it appears Felix Felix was a background operator who was secure his money laundering operations were safe. Tabasco is at the center of the counternarcotics operations and is also where things get interesting. On Friday Tabasco governor Andres Granier Melo told reporters that Mexican Federal investigative services had gained possession of several computer USB drives which showed the Sinaloa Cartel was moving to the east coast of Mexico. The state of Sinaloa is on the west coast of Mexico, and on the Mexican west coast and points north is where much of the fighting since early spring 2010 has been taking place between them and their rivals, Los Zetas, the Tijuana drug cartel and the Juarez drug cartel. A Proceso news story posted on their website last fall contended that the Sinaloa cartel and the Tijuana cartels were pausing in their fighting to prepare for all out war in Baja California, a contention this writer has repeated in the past. Since that time, however, Tijuana has been relatively docile area accounting for less that three or four drug and gang related murders per week since that story was posted. The reason may be the Sinaloa drug cartel has suffered a number of embarrassing reverses in the west, including two large firefights in northern Sonora between their armed wing, Command X, and Los Zetas which may have claimed as many as 40 lives in Sonora last July and August. To read Rantburg reports on the shootouts in Sonora last summer click here, here and here. More recently, several major gun battles between Sinaloa drug cartel and Los Zetas in far western Durango along a major east-west highway has claimed a number of lives numbering well north of 30 men total. To read Rantburg reports on the intergang firefights between the Sinaloa cartel and Los Zetas click here, here,here and here Add to the losses in men the blow early last winter that more than 200 tons of marijuana were seized by authorities in Tijuana, Baja California. A subsequent threat apparently issued by the Sinaloa gang to kill cops in retaliation never materialized. With the great losses in personnel and product, it is not surprising the retaliations never took place. A move to Tabasco makes sense for the Sinaloa cartel and its new Gulf to cartel allies. Tabasco is a major agricultural area and has an advanced road system to support it. Its border is adjacent to Quintana Roo, which its tourist area is a major destination for drugs coming out of Guatemala. Guatemala and the adjacent Mexican state of Chiapas, Campeche and Quintata Roo are battlegrounds between the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas. The situation in Guatemela is so intense due to the competition between the cartels one province was out through a state of emergency to deal with the issue last December. The Gulf cartel bringing in its stronger ally for drug operations also makes sense because of Sinaloa's muscle and experience fighting Los Zetas. Weapons smuggling is also a reason for the Sinaloa cartel to move into Tabasco. In the press conference Granier said a number of weapons were seized. Granier also said that Tabasco was a major transshipment point for all three, drugs, guns and immigrants. It may well be also that the Sinaloa cartel may be following an old corporate maxim of expending when you are in trouble and consolidating when you are not. | |
| Posted by:badanov |
