Sinaloa Cartel Essay

The Sinaloa Cartel, which was formerly led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, maintains the highest presence and impact in the United States. The U.S. law enforcement agencies like Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have described this cartel as the oldest, largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in the Western Hemisphere with annual earnings estimating in the billions. Mexican authorities have been attempting to combat drug cartels for over a decade with limited success. Researchers state that more than 100,000 people, including politicians, students, and journalists, who have been killed by drug cartels. Today, Sinaloa controls almost half of the territory in Mexico. After the Guadalajara cartel split, Sinaloa took one half

of the members and its territory. Sinaloa controls most of the territory in Mexico, with a presence in 17 states. The cartel has centers in Tepic, Mexico City, Toluca, Guadalajara, Zacatecas and all state of Sinaloa. Out of all Mexican drug cartels that smuggle and distribute drugs in the US, Sinaloa controls most routes. The primary product of the cartel is Colombian cocaine, as well as methamphetamine and Mexican marijuana and heroin. Since the late 1980s, the Sinaloa cartel is categorized as the largest drug organization in Mexico by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Sinaloa Cartel is in strategic alliance with the Juarez cartel, and the two together control most of the routes in Mexico. The cartel itself controls the Sonora-Arizona corridor, one of the most important and biggest corridors that extends up to 375 miles. Aside from the Arizona corridor, Sinaloa cartel controls distribution routes through Chicago and other big cities in the US. Sinaloa also controls 35% of the cocaine made in Colombia. The Sinaloa Cartel, compared to other cartels, can be exceedingly violent, but “El Chapo” preferred the method of bribery, a factor that has been argued to have established corruption within the police and the Mexican government.
The Sinaloa Cartel, like most other drug cartels, originated in the state of Sinaloa and since the 1960s and 1970s, these organizations have smuggled “homegrown” drugs, particularly marijuana, which the United States has decriminalized and legalized in several states. Therefore, the state of Sinaloa has been home for marijuana and poppy cultivation (Insight Crime, n.d.). Pedro Aviles, who was the first to traffic marijuana in bulk, was a key player in the initiation of "El Chapo’s” drug-trafficking business. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Colombian cartels’ Caribbean networks were cracked down by the U.S. government which led Colombian traffickers to turn their operations to Mexico’s Guadalajara cartel. This was a major factor that led the role of the Mexican drug cartels, like the Sinaloa Cartel, in drug trafficking to increase, particularly Colombian cocaine (Mishkov, 2015; Insight Crime, n.d.). Then, in 1989, one of Guadalajara Cartel leaders, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, was arrested, which led to “El Chapo” and the other leaders Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo, to divide the trafficking routes and establish the Sinaloa, Juarez, and Tijuana cartels, and “the battles between these organizations began almost immediately” killing more than 60,000 people (Insight Crime, n.d.). However, throughout the bloodshed, it can be argued that the Sinaloa Cartel continued to grow and now its future is uncertain after the recapture of “El Chapo” in 2016 and is being challenged by The Jalisco New Generation Cartel. There are other factors that led to the growth of the Sinaloa Cartel. For instance, These innovative techniques have supplemented more traditional methods, such as air transport and container ships, to traffic narcotics coming from South America or produced in Mexico into the United States.
The factors that have led to the Sinaloa Cartel’s success and power is U.S.

drug addiction and logistics, in other words, the means of transporting bulk amounts of drugs (Mishkov, 2015; McGahan, 2013). “El Chapo” was able to successfully smuggled cocaine - 35 percent of cocaine made in Colombia is controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel - from Colombia to Mexico and other drugs from Mexico to the U.S. via air, land, water and underground tunnels. The Sinaloa cartel controls distribution routes through Chicago and other big cities in the US. In addition, there are four factors for the Sinaloa Cartel to target Chicago as the top port or transportation hub. First, it is transportation; Chicago is a day’s drive of 70 percent of the nation’s population and it is crisscrossed by six major interstate highways and six major railway lines (McGahan, 2013). Next, is the ethnic makeup in the Chicago metro area - there is a large Hispanic immigrant population, which makes it easy for traffickers to “blend in.” The third factor is the huge size of the market and demand; there has been a sales increase of Methamphetamine and Heroin. Lastly, gang culture in Chicago and law enforcement officials have stated that these gangs make it easy to meet the drug demands (McGahan,

2013).
Relationship Between the Catholic Church and the Mexican Drug Cartels
In 2014, 81 percent of adults identified themselves as Roman Catholic (See Appendix C).

In his hometown Zamora Michoacán, México, Alberto Cornejo grew up Catholic and always “marveled at the beauty of the Gothic cathedral” (Marosi & Gerber, 2016). However, Cornejo and other people not only have long questioned the constant remodeling of these cathedrals, but have also argued that the Catholic Church may condemn them in public, but “collude” with the cartels (McManus, 2016). It is a challenge that the Catholic Church has struggled to face, especially as few have “given in to traffickers, either cowed or complicit in taking tainted money” (Marosi & Gerber, 2016). On the other hand, there is a “high cost” for those local priests who have faced the drug cartels. For instance, Father Gregorio Lopez, begun wearing a bulletproof vest during mass because he received numerous death threats after speaking out against the drug cartels (Marosi & Gerber, 2016). In addition, in May 1993, at an airport in Guadalajara, gunmen in three vehicles opened fired at a white Mercury Grand Marquis. These gunmen killed Juan Jesus Cardinal Posadas Ocampo, his drivers, and five other individuals (McManus, 2016). Since then, 35 priests have been killed, therefore, Mexico has replaced Colombia as the world’s most dangerous place to be a priest (McManus,

2016).
In 2005, cartel influence in the church was condemned by Pope Benedict XVI. Today, Pope Francis has challenged the issue, especially during his trip to Mexico in 2016, by urging people and religious figures to not given in to the money and help from the cartels because "These are temptations that seek to degrade and destroy," Pope Francis stated. There is a widespread belief that the Catholic Church still needs to do more and Pope Francis’ challenge has also demonstrated his awareness of this perception on the church often failing to protect society and the priests from drug-related violence. In 2014, Pope Francis traveled to southern Italy to excommunicate members of the mafia. Therefore, many in Mexico, believe this act should happen with those who affiliate with cartel members, which scholars argue could have a significant impact (McManus, 2016). There have been signs of change like archbishops urging the government to increase its presence, but it may be a challenge to place gap between the Catholic Church and the Mexican drug cartels, especially as the levels of violence has increased since 2015.