Drug Cartels in Mexico Still Successful in 2015 Despite Arrest of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman
In the world of international drug cartels, Joaquin Guzman was considered public enemy number one.
Known by the nickname "El Chapo," Guzman was responsible for putting more narcotics on American streets than anyone in history.
A legend grew around the man that he was in fact untouchable, as he bribed his way out of a Mexican prison in 2001, The Guardian reports. For the next 13 years, Guzman used money and power to avoid capture.
On Feb. 22, 2014 he was finally captured. The arrest was hailed by both the Mexican and U.S. authorities as one of the biggest hits to the drug trade in decades.
A year later, however, things have not exactly changed. The number of seizures of drugs coming from Mexico and heading into the U.S. has remained about the same as it was before Guzman’s arrest.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has announced only small changes in the way the Sinola cartel operates.
“Chapo’s capture has not produced any major changes here,” Ismael Bojórquez, the director of the Sinaloa investigative weekly Ríodoc, said. “The cartel structure continues to work just as before.”
On the other hand, retired General Moisés Melo Garcia, Sinaloa’s current Coordinator of Public Security, said that not only have things not become any worse, but “high impact crimes have been falling in Sinaloa, thanks to improved coordination between the federal and state forces.”
Regarding the state of drug running today, a man named Luís, who spent a decade as one of El Chapo’s gunmen loading up planes with drugs and torturing as well as murdering cartel members who stepped out of line, also discussed the longetivity of Mexican drug cartels.
“There will always be drugs moving, for as long as it is not legal, but I see a lot of weakness, a lot of internal disputes and mistreatment of the local population and that creates problems too," Luís said.
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