Weed legalization in the US slapped Mexico (bonus: field notes)

Article published on InsightCrime.org

First off, I want to thank you for subscribing to CONFIDENTIAL. As described on my latest post, all of you on the free subscription will get to read my latest articles with some bonus field notes on safety, recommendations, backstories, photos and else.

For all of you on the paid subscription you’ll also get a monthly in-depth analysis on criminal organizations, trends, interesting interviews, books, shows or podcasts recommendations and also access to my private Telegram group where I’ll be speaking directly to you on many of this issues and will have important guests once in awhile to enrich the chat.

Your first CONFIDENTIAL monthly report is due Sep. 15 and here is an update on the subject of the report: Up-to-date there are 227 crime groups operating in Mexico, some of them with strong ties in the US. You’ll be amazed on what I found.

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As Marijuana Profits Dry Up, Mexico Crime Groups Turn to Alcohol and Logging

Mexico remains the main international provider of marijuana for the United States, but this has greatly diminished since 2013, forcing certain criminal groups to adapt and look for other funds.

As more US states move towards legalization, “Mexican marijuana has largely been supplanted by domestic-produced marijuana,” according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment. 

The report shows marijuana seizures along the southwest US-Mexico border declined by more than 81 percent between 2013 and 2020, suggesting Mexican crime groups have significantly scaled down their marijuana trafficking operations.

A high-ranking Sinaloa Cartel operative in Sonora state told InSight Crime that the marijuana business is “barely profitable now.” 

“I only traffic marijuana to pay some of my people in the organization. I’m paying them with kilograms [of marijuana] that they manage to smuggle and get paid for, but it’s really coming to a point where it’s no longer a viable business,” he said. 

The border state of Chihuahua is Mexico's second-largest marijuana producer behind Sinaloa, accounting for 20 percent of production nationwide, according to a 2016 report by a Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) researcher analyzing drug cultivation. And much of this comes from the Sierra Tarahumara, a vast network of canyons and mountains.

Two of Mexico's main criminal organizations operate in the Sierra Tarahumara: the Sinaloa Cartel and Juárez Cartel through its armed wing, known as La Línea.

Over the past 10 years, fighting between these two groups has had a constant ebb and flow.

But both of these criminal heavyweights are having to adjust to many US states decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana. To do so, they have monopolized other commercial activities like alcohol sales and logging, while also extorting the region’s local farmworkers to keep profits alive.

Alcohol Monopoly in Chihuahua 

Starting from La Junta highway at the entrance to the Sierra Tarahumara, only “authorized” stores can sell alcohol. Criminal organizations have threatened national chains like Oxxo to stop selling alcohol or risk facing retaliation, according to residents, business owners and state officials speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal.

For the most part, according to the cartel operative interviewed by InSight Crime, the alcohol monopoly is in the hands of the Sinaloa Cartel, specifically Noriel Portillo, alias “El Chueco.” 

“Only authorized stores can sell alcohol. That way, there is no competition, and all of those earnings go to the organization,” he said. 

This started as a direct consequence of the depreciation of marijuana prices, according to the operative. The municipalities under this rule stretch all the way from Bocoyna, Guachochi, Batopilas, Urique, and out to Guadalupe y Calvo.

He added that all alcohol distribution trucks are “stopped at the highways connecting to the Sierra and asked to go back. We maintain our own distribution, and businesses have to buy only from us.” 

The cartel is buying massive quantities of alcohol in major cities like Cuauhtémoc or the capital, Chihuahua, and then transporting those products by truck to several municipalities inside the Sierra Tarahumara. They are the ones granting authorization to sell and distribute all sorts of alcohol without any legal permits. 

The operative said they are not forcing everyone to sell alcohol, but those who want to must have permission from the cartel.

Alcohol regulatory authorities have virtually no presence in the Sierra Tarahumara, according to the cartel operative. 

Most products go for two or three Mexican pesos (roughly $0.10) above the average retail price, which InSight Crime corroborated in several stores. And some restaurants aren’t selling any alcohol out of fear of negotiating with crime groups. 

“We had to go with their deal, otherwise we would have to stop selling and close our business,” said a women from a local store in Guachochi.

*Read complete article here.

Bonus: field notes on security when traveling the region.

Although traveling to the Sierra Tarahumara is still a common place for US and Mexican national tourists, doing so to report on criminal organizations is something completely different.

All of the towns and ranchos around the Sierra have only one way in and one way out -that’s for someone like me, not living in the area and not involved in any crime activity-. This makes anyone setting foot on this region extremely vulnerable to criminals.

Other things to know: for stretches of 1 or 2 hours there is no phone or internet service, until arriving to another major town. Ex. From Creel to Guachochi the travel time could be from to 5 hours, depending on road and weather conditions. During all of those hours there is no phone or internet service.

On all of the region there is a curfew set by cartels from 6am to 8pm. Everyone traveling the highway outside those hours could be stopped on illegal checkpoints and risks getting shot at.

Safety measures on reporting:

Before leaving I set up a security protocol with three trusted people. I would share live location updates, call every two hours -if not possible I would advise beforehand-, and setting three or four international contacts to call in case of emergency.

I change my looks slightly: sometimes I travel with full beard, sometimes fully shaved, caps, hats, long or short hair, etc.

No dark clothes: I do not wear dark clothes during reporting trips since it could mean hostility on my end.

A low-profile vehicle: I do avoid SUV’s, white or black colored cars, no tinted windows, no foreign plates.

Indirect advisory of intentions: In this region most corner stores have a look-out reporting directly to a cartel member. What I did was stopping at several to buy water, gum, chips or whatever and initiating a casual conversation where I would lay out what was I going to do in the area: I was a tourist looking to get away from the city and asking for some cool activities recommendations.

Hotels: All if not most of hotels have look-outs for the cartels. All of my sensitive meetings were on my hotel room where I would loudly greet “my friend” outside with some beers and some small-chat after getting inside, cranking some music up and then speaking quietly.