Drug trafficking routes: How Latin American cartels operate, flooding the country with drugs

Last week, the White House assured that the Trump Administration is willing to use "all its power" to stop drug trafficking coming from Latin America, while reiterating that Nicolás Maduro is not the legitimate president of Venezuela, but the "fugitive leader" of the Cártel de los Soles, accused of sending drugs to the United States.

For her part, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the deployment of three destroyers with around 4,000 troops to international waters in the Caribbean, near Venezuela, in response to Washington's strategy to combat trafficking of fentanyl and other drugs that affect its communities.

The drug trafficking routes have evolved over time and have adapted to the current situations of each country, as well as to the different types of border control, taking advantage of the fragmented geography of the region.

These routes represent a logistical challenge for the governments of the hemisphere, as well as a social risk due to increased violence, organized crime and corruption in the affected areas.

The Cartel of the Suns and Caribbean routes 

The Treasury Department recently asserted that the regime of Nicolás Maduro has provided logistical and financial support to the Sinaloa Cartel, allowing it to operate in Venezuelan territory and then distribute the drugs to the United States.

Likewise, according to a report from the Guatemalan National Defense Navy, over the years, Venezuela has been gaining ground in traffic in the United States.Venezuela has been gaining ground in drug trafficking, both in the maritime trade, through the Arco de las Antillas, as well as in production.

The document states that the Caribbean country has already become one of the main exporters of cocaine to the United States.

The document assures that the routes leaving Venezuela are mainly divided into four axes, starting mostly from the Colombia-Venezuela border region:

According to data from the International Center for Research and Analysis against Maritime Narcotrafficking (CMCON), between 2020 and 2023, there were 29 events in Venezuela, which represented a total of 33.4 tons of drugs seized between Marijuana and CHC.

Venezuela as transshipment route to the U.S.

A lawsuit, to which VOZ has had access, filed by a Court of the Southern District of Florida, reiterates that Maduro cannot commit his acts of terrorism alone, and that officials from his closest entourage provide him with material support, including a constant flow of millions of dollars from drug trafficking, money laundering and assistance in evading U.S. sanctions.

According to the lawsuit, drug trafficking has been conducted into the U.S. and money laundering has likewise been conducted into and through the country, with "billions of dollars extracted from U.S. citizens."

According to the document, the Venezuelan Army, led by the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, was supposed to be responsible for intercepting suspected drug traffickers flying through Venezuelan airspace. However, as defense minister, Padrino Lopez exercised his power to allow, through bribes, drug traffickers to use Venezuela as a transshipment route for drugs destined for the U.S.

"As long as they paid him, the planes loaded with cocaine could pass and avoid interdiction. Far from stopping drug traffickers, the military - for the right price - gave safe passage to drug traffickers, terrorists and other criminals," the lawsuit reads.

The Sinaloa Cartel and Caribbean routes

The Sinaloa Cartel operates mainly on the northern border of Mexico and use the border crossings located in Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, Nogales and Sonoyta to smuggle cocaine, methamphetamines and fentanyl into the U.S.

Cocaine produced in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia passes through Venezuela and Honduras, which are key transit points via airbridges that transport drugs to Mexico.

Honduras is an important transit point to the north. Routes include stopovers in Panama, Costa Rica and then on to the Honduran Caribbean, from where it heads to Guatemala, Mexico or Belize.

On the other hand, the precursor chemicals for fentanyl are imported from China and India and processed in clandestine laboratories in Sinaloa, and then shipped to the U.S.

Over time, the cartel has reduced the size of the shipments to avoid detection, the cartel has also become more sophisticated in its concealment methods, using aluminum foil, charcoal and chemicals to evade X-rays and trained dogs.

The Sinaloa Cartel operates as a multi-headed hydra and has operated under the leadership of Ismael El Mayo Zambada, El Chapo Guzmán, his sons Los Chapitos, El Guano and Chapo Isidro.

Following the capture and extradition to the U.S. of El Mayo, a fratricidal war broke out between Los Chapitos and La Mayiza that has left more than 1,700 dead in recent months.

Despite international pressure, the Sinaloa Cartel continues to operate with independent cells, making it difficult to dismantle. Mexico's Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar Garcia Harfuch, says that despite certain cells being depleted, there are still active leaders and cells that require continued attention:

"The Sinaloa Cartel has never had a leader as such, there have always been several leaders, it is a cartel that has several branches, one of which was Ismael El Mayo Zambada, another the Chapo Guzmán, then the sons of Chapo, the Guano who is also the brother of Chapo, that is to say, the cartel cannot be finished because there are several heads of what was once the Sinaloa Cartel, so there are still very important criminal cells and leaders that have to be arrested."

The Jalisco Cartel - New Generation and Pacific Routes

The Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG), in territorial conflict with the Sinaloa Cartel, uses ports like Cartagena to send cocaine shipments to Mexico, sometimes using go-fast vessels from the Colombian Pacific.

The destination of these shipments are the Mexican states of Jalisco, Michoacán and Veracruz, where the cartel has laboratories and distribution centers to smuggle drugs into the U.S. through the border crossings of Tamaulipas, Sonora and Baja California.

The group has extended its operations to Asia and Oceania, with routes connecting the Pacific from Ecuador to Canada.

The CJNG uses transportation methods such as trucks, tunnels and even drones to traffic fentanyl, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin to the U.S.

Also, like the Sinaloa Cartel, the criminal group imports the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from China and India and then ships the drugs to the U.S. by sea and land.

Recently, rumors have surfaced of an alliance between the Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG. However, Secretary Harfuch has ruled out this hypothesis:

"There has been no indication of this alliance between criminal groups...at the moment there has been no alliance, nor any arrests that confirm that there is an alliance."