A federal indictment provides a window in the world of terror that belongs to the Mexican drug cartels. El Chapo might be behind bars but his little Chapitos are anything but little as they terrorize Mexico and parts of America with their control of the fentanyl drug trade.
A federal grand jury indicted El Chapo's sons - Ivan Guzman Salazar, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, and Ovidio Guzman Lopez along with other members and partners of the Sinaloa Cartel for their various roles in the production and trafficking of fentanyl.
El Chapo turned his Sinaloa organization into the most feared cartel in Mexico. Unfortunately, his 2014 capture did little damage to the cartel. Just as the Herculean hydra sprouted more heads for every one lost, so did the Sinaloa Cartel grow after law enforcement nabbed the legendary drug lord. El Chapo's sons, the Chapitos, are the new and improved versions of their old man as they played a sort of cartel Augusti to Guzman's Ceasar. The Cartel has total control of drug operations in "many parts of Mexico" and has a near-monopoly on fentanyl exports to the United States.
The nutshell version of this real-life narcodrama is the Sinaloa Cartel buys fentanyl precursor chemicals from Chinese companies. The cartel manufactures fentanyl in highly-industrialized fashion in Mexico. The product is shipped to the good ole USA while the Cartel conducts a reign of terror against cartels, government officials, and of course, the police.
The press release is posted below but here are some gruesome nuggets from the indictment:
The Deadly Costs of Fentanyl
2. From August 2021 to August 2022, 107,735 Americans died of drug overdoses. The majority of those deaths involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Between 2019 and 2021, fatal overdoses increased by approximately 94 percent, with an estimated 196 Americans dying every day from fentanyl. In 2022, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") seized over 57 million fentanyl-laced coW1terfeit prescription pills and over 13,000 pounds of fentanyl powder - the equivalent of about 410 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl. In total, that is enough fentanyl to kill the entire U.S. population...
19. Fentanyl is... more than 50 times more potent than heroin. Just two milligrams of fentanyl, a tiny amount that could fit on the tip of a pencil, is a potentially deadly dose for a human being.
Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My or The Sinaloa Torture Machine
31. At the ranch of IVAN ARCHIVALDO GUZMAN SALAZAR, the defendant, in Navolato, Sinaloa, the Ninis would bring in for interrogation individuals they captured, including rival traffickers, workers loyal to other factions of the Cartel, and officials who refused to facilitate the Chapitos' operations. Once information was obtained from these captives, typically through torture, these individuals were killed - either by or at the direction of the Chapitos themselves - and the bodies disposed of throughout the area. While many of these victims were shot, others were fed dead or alive to tigers belonging to IVAN ARCHIVALDO GUZMAN SALAZAR and JESUS ALFREDO GUZMAN SALAZAR, a/k/a "Alfredo," the defendants, who raised and kept the tigers at their ranches as pets....
36. At present, the Cartel is active in more than half of all states in Mexico. The Cartel itself is highly organized and has a sophisticated security apparatus that is armed with military-grade weapons and consists of hundreds of individuals, including those with military-type training, responsible for protecting the Cartel and its leadership at all costs. ....
41. (d) intimidate local civilian populations and attack law enforcement and government officials in order to prevent interference with the Cartel;s fentanyl trafficking, such as in or about 2017, when..... GUZMAN SALAZAR MEDINA GONZALEZ, and PEREZ SALAS captured, tortured, and killed two Mexican federal law enforcement officers of the Office of the General Prosecutor, and in or about 2022, when Cartel sicarios in Ciudad Juarez attacked the local prosecutor's office...
The Chinese Connection
46. The Cartel relies primarily on chemical companies outside of Mexico for obtaining precursor chemicals that are necessary to make fentanyl. China has emerged as the source of the vast majority of these chemicals used by the Cartel to manufacture their fentanyl; in other words, the chemicals enabling the Cartel to produce and flood the United States with lethal fentanyl are coming principally from China.
47. The Chapitos and their confederates use various means to purchase fentanyl precursor chemicals from chemical and pharmaceutical companies in China, including using brokers in other countries to purchase the precursor chemicals from those companies on the Cartel's behalf. Those brokers also assist with ensuring that the precursor chemicals are successfully transported from China to the Cartel in Mexico....
53. Like certain other companies in China involved in the illicit supply of fentanyl precursors to drug traffickers, SK Biotech projects a purported air of legitimacy and takes steps to avoid detection and prosecution by law enforcement. On its website, for example, the company advertises itself as a manufacturer of legal raw materials. Those chemicals, however, are principally those that are often used as cutting agents for illegal narcotics, including fentanyl. Moreover, while SK Biotech's headquarters are based in Wuhan, China, the company has a factory based elsewhere in the country, allowing SK Biotech to manufacture illicit chemicals alongside legal raw materials. SK Biotech and similar Chinese chemical companies are nimble and have taken steps such as eliminating or cleaning up to legitimize a particular factory, or even changing their company name, in order to avoid detection or intervention by law enforcement. ...
Manufacturing Mushrooms in Mexico
55. In or about 2014, the Chapitos began manufacturing fentanyl in a single makeshift lab located within a modest house in Culiacan. Fentanyl precursors, stored in warehouses owned by the Cartel, were transported to the lab under armed guard. Once processed, Cartel workers packaged, transported to Tijuana and smuggled the finished fentanyl across the U.S.-Mexico border.
56. Since those early days of the Cartel's fentanyl trade, the Cartel's manufacture of fentanyl has exploded, and the demand for the highly dangerous and potentially lethal drug has grown significantly. That growth has been fueled, at least in part, by the Cartel driving users of other drugs to fentanyl by mixing fentanyl into other drugs to increase their potency. Indeed, as the Cartel's fentanyl trade grew, heroin traffickers for the Cartel began to struggle to sell their product. As a result, Ovidio Guzman Lopez established an outpost in Mexico City, Mexico, where heroin traffickers can go to purchase fentanyl to mix in with their heroin. "Cutting" their product with fentanyl has allowed Cartel heroin traffickers to maintain their customer base, but substantially increases the risk of overdose and death.
57. The Cartel also now employs skilled chemists -known as"cooks" -who have the expertise to synthesize fentanyl by combining and manipulating multiple different precursor chemicals. Many of the cooks work in Cartel-controlled clandestine fentanyl labs on ranches owned by high-level members of the Cartel and in smaller houses in and around Culiacan. The Cartel's labs are heavily guarded Cartel assets, protected by armed security. For instance, one clandestine Cartel lab in Sinaloa was located underground with a concealed entrance and elevator used to transport large drums of fentany1 and precursor chemicals. The underground lab contained industrial stoves, pill presses, and other materials used to manufacture large quantities of fentanyl under the protection of Cartel security personnel armed with automatic rifles....
58.... Unlike other dangerous narcotics that can take months and many acres of land to grow, fentanyl can be manufactured in a small lab over the course of just a few days. In one day alone, a Cartel cook can manufacture in excess of 100,000 pills using pill press machines such as the pill press pictured below...
59.... The purity of the fentanyl varies greatly depending on the method and skill of the particular manufacturer. In spring 2022, Ovidio Guzman Lopez noted that he was working to centralize all fentanyl manufacturing in Sinaloa, effectively establishing a monopoly for the Cartel over the fentanyl market in Mexico. As part of that effort, the Cartel is trying to manufacture the most potent fentanyl and to sell it in the United States at the lowest price.
60... HUMBERTO FIGUEROA BENITEZ, a/k/a "27," the defendants, for example, have tested fentanyl on individuals who were tied down, and three cooks in a fentanyl lab that they controlled died after sampling the product. More recently, in or about 2022, PEREZ SALAS and FIGUEROA BENITEZ experimented on a woman whom they were supposed to shoot ("Victim-2"). Instead of shooting Victim-2, however, PEREZ SALAS and FIGUEROA BENITEZ injected her repeatedly with a lower potency of fentanyJ until she ultimately overdosed and died. Similarly, when an addict died testing Cartel fentanyl produced by CARLOS LIMON, the defendant, LIMON sent the batch of fentanyl to the United States anyway.....
Bribes at the Border
63. As an example of how the Cartel imports its fentanyl into the United States, in or about August 2021, in or around El Paso, Texas, a high-ranking member of a Chapitos-aligned gang from Ciudad Juarez introduced a corrupt border official and Cartel co-conspirator ("CC-2") to JUAN PABLO LOZANO, a/k/a "Camaron," the defendant, one of the Cartel's fentanyl and weapons smugglers, as described above. Over the ensuing approximately 12 months, CC-2, in exchange for payment from the Cartel, facilitated PABLO LOZANO's trafficking by permitting PABLO LOZANO to cross into and out of the United States as he desired during CC-2's shift, which began each night at approximately I0:00 p.m. During CC-2's shift, PABLO LOZANO also smuggled fentanyl pills through the port of entry with "mules." American women, recruited by PABLO LOZANO, would ingest or insert into their bodies up to approximately 2,000 packaged fentanyl pills on each of three trips across the border each night. PABLO LOZANO also maintained a house just outside of El Paso, where he would bring the fentanyl smuggled across the border during CC-2's shift. From the house, PABLO LOZANO sold the Chapitos' fentanyl in bulk to customers in, among other cities, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and traded fentanyl for cars that could be re-sold in Mexico or used to smuggle more fentanyl across the border....
Fentanyl Economics 101
68. Fentanyl trafficking is extremely profitable for the Cartel. As noted above, fentanyl is inexpensive and easy for the Cartel to make. The Cartel can purchase approximately one kilogram of fentanyl precursor from China for approximately $800. In tum, the Cartel can manufacture approximately 415,000 fentanyl pills, or four kilograms of fentanyl powder, from just that one kilogram. The fentanyl can then be sold wholesale in the United States for as low as 50 cents a pill, depending on the particular city or area in which it is sold. On the street, dealers can tum those pills into profit, demanding as much as three dollars per pill in New York City. The Chapitos, therefore, can turn one kilogram of fentanyl precursor into enough finished fentanyl from which they can make a profit ranging from approximately 200 to 800 times the amount it costs them to purchase the precursor chemicals. ....
Count 1: Continuing Criminal Enterprise (5 violations)
Count 2: Fentanyl Importation Conspiracy
Count 3: Fentanyl Trafficking Conspiracy
Count 4: Possession of Machine Guns and Destructive Devices
Count 5: Conspiracy to possess Machine Guns and Destructive Devices
Count 6: Money Laundering Conpspiracy
The government also seeks forfeiture of all proceeds and assets derived from the illegal activity.
Justice Department Press Release
The Justice Department today announced charges unsealed in the Southern District of New York, Northern District of Illinois, and District of Columbia, against several leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, a transnational drug trafficking organization based in Sinaloa, Mexico, and its facilitators across the globe.
“Today, the Justice Department is announcing significant enforcement actions against the largest, most violent, and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world – run by the Sinaloa Cartel, and fueled by Chinese precursor chemical and pharmaceutical companies,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Families and communities across our country are being devastated by the fentanyl epidemic. Today’s actions demonstrate the comprehensive approach the Justice Department is taking to disrupt fentanyl trafficking and save American lives.”
“The fentanyl crisis in America – fueled in large part by the Sinaloa cartel – threatens our public health, our public safety, and our national security,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “Today’s indictments target every element of the Sinaloa Cartel's trafficking network and reflect the Justice Department's commitment to attacking every aspect of this threat: from the chemical companies in China that spawn fentanyl precursors, to the illicit labs that produce the poison, to the networks and money launderers and murderers that facilitate its distribution. Just as we have gone on offense against terrorists and cyber criminals around the globe, the Department is now waging a relentless campaign to disrupt the production and trafficking of fentanyl – before it can reach its victims.”
“Today’s indictments send a clear message to the Chapitos, the Sinaloa Cartel, and criminal drug networks around the world that the DEA will stop at nothing to protect the national security of the United States and the safety and health of the American people,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “The Chapitos pioneered the manufacture and trafficking of fentanyl – the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced – flooded it into the United States for the past eight years and killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Over the last year and a half, the DEA proactively infiltrated the Sinaloa Cartel and the Chapitos network, obtained unprecedented access to the organization’s highest levels, and followed them across the world. I am grateful to the men and women of the DEA for their exceptional work on this case, which is the beginning of our work as ‘One DEA’ to dismantle every part of the criminal cartels that are killing Americans at record rates.”
“Far too many Americans have become victims in the national fentanyl crisis. These cartels have shown us they will stop at nothing to manufacture, traffic, and push these dangerous drugs to every corner of our country,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Today’s indictments show that the FBI and our law enforcement partners will never tire in our pursuit not only to shut down their criminal enterprises, but also to go after individuals in their network. I want to thank the FBI team continuing to work on these cases everyday as we join with our law enforcement partners to tackle this national epidemic.”
“This indictment is another example of how this administration is taking on the cartels and their transnational criminal networks, and sending a clear message that we are going to hold them accountable,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “I commend our workforce at Homeland Security Investigations and our federal partners who are relentless in their efforts to stop the scourge of fentanyl. Today’s announcement exemplifies a whole-of-government approach to protecting our homeland that is yielding results.”
The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the most powerful drug cartels in the world and is largely responsible for the manufacturing and importing of fentanyl for distribution in the United States. Fentanyl is a dangerous synthetic opioid that is more than 50 times more potent than heroin. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49, and it has fueled the opioid epidemic that has been ravaging families and communities across the United States for approximately the past eight years. Between 2019 and 2021, fatal overdoses increased by approximately 94%, with an estimated 196 Americans dying each day from fentanyl.
The Sinaloa Cartel operated as an affiliation of drug traffickers and money launderers who obtain precursor chemicals – largely from China – for the manufacture of synthetic drugs, manufacture drugs in Mexico, move those drugs into the United States, and collect, launder, and transfer the proceeds of drug trafficking. Once led by Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka El Chapo, and Ismael Zambada Garcia, aka El Mayo, the Sinaloa Cartel’s members and associates – allegedly including the sons of Guzman Loera, collectively known as the Chapitos – smuggled significant quantities of drugs through Mexico and into the United States. The Chapitos are Ivan Guzman Salazar, 40, Alfredo Guzman Salazar, 37, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 36, and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, 33.
Following Guzman Loera’s arrest in January 2016 and extradition to the United States in January 2017, the Chapitos allegedly assumed their father’s former role as leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, along with Zambada Garcia and Damaso Lopez Nunez, aka Licenciado. The Chapitos subsequently amassed greater control over the Sinaloa Cartel by allegedly threatening and causing violence against Lopez Nunez, his family, and his associates and, as a result, became principal leaders and drug traffickers within the Sinaloa Cartel.
The indictments being unsealed today demonstrate that the Sinaloa Cartel has been engaged in drug trafficking activities into the United States, and violence, spanning over a decade and a half. The Chapitos are alleged to have repeatedly and consistently transported lethal amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl.
The Chapitos allegedly used cargo aircraft, private aircraft, submarines and other submersible and semi-submersible vessels, container ships, supply vessels, go-fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor trailers, automobiles, and private and commercial interstate and foreign carriers to transport their drugs and precursor chemicals. They allegedly maintained a network of couriers, tunnels, and stash houses throughout Mexico and the United States to further their drug-trafficking activities. The Chapitos allegedly used these networks to import the drugs into the United States.
Southern District of New York
Fentanyl trafficking, weapons, and money laundering charges were unsealed today in the Southern District of New York against 28 defendants, including three of the Chapitos; top lieutenants and leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel; alleged manufacturers and distributors of the Sinaloa Cartel’s fentanyl; the managers of the violent armed security apparatus that protects the Sinaloa Cartel’s drug trafficking operations; the sophisticated money launderers who repatriate the Sinaloa Cartel’s drug proceeds back to Mexico; and multiple chemical precursor suppliers in China that fuel the Sinaloa Cartel’s fentanyl distribution operation.
According to court documents, Ivan Guzman Salazar, Alfredo Guzman Salazar, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, and their co-conspirators allegedly controlled extensive, multi-faceted, and international operations covering the fentanyl trade. Through these efforts, the Chapitos and the Sinaloa Cartel allegedly reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in profits by flooding the United States with fentanyl.
Seven defendants are in custody pending extradition proceedings.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez is charged in a separate indictment alleging the same offenses.
The DEA investigated the case with assistance from the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kyle A. Wirshba, Nicholas S. Bradley, Sarah L. Kushner, David J. Robles, and Alexander Li for the Southern District of New York are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) provided substantial assistance.
Northern District of Illinois
Narcotics, money laundering, and firearms charges were unsealed today in the Northern District of Illinois against four of the Chapitos: Ivan Guzman Salazar, Alfredo Guzman Salazar, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, and Ovidio Guzman Lopez.
According to court documents, the charges stem from a decades-long, collaborative, multi-district effort between the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section (NDDS), the Northern District of Illinois, the Southern District of California, and their law enforcement partners. The indictment alleges that between May 2008 and April 5, 2023, the Chapitos operated a drug trafficking Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE), along with additional drug, money laundering, and firearms charges.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez is charged in a separate indictment alleging the same offenses, dating from May 2008 until October 2021, when Mexican authorities arrested him on Jan. 5 in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. Ovidio Guzman Lopez remains detained in Mexico pending extradition proceedings.
The FBI Washington Field Office and San Diego Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations Nogales Office, DEA’s Chicago Division and San Diego Division, and IRS Criminal Investigations Chicago Office are investigating the case.
Acting Deputy Chief Katharine Wagner and Trial Attorney Kirk Handrich of NDDS, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Erskine and Erika Csicsila for the Northern District of Illinois, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Sutton for the Southern District of California are prosecuting the case. OIA provided substantial assistance.
This case is supported by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF).
District of Columbia
Narcotics, firearms, and witness retaliation charges were unsealed today in the District of Columbia against Nestor Isidro Perez Salas, aka Nini, 31, allegedly one of the Chapitos’ lead sicarios, or assassins.
According to court documents, Perez Salas is allegedly a leader and commander of the “Ninis,” a violent group charged with providing security for the Chapitos. From at least 2012 until February 2021, Perez Salas allegedly conspired to distribute and manufacture cocaine and methamphetamine for unlawful importation into the United States, used a firearm in furtherance of the alleged drug-trafficking offense, and killed, attempted to kill, threatened, and caused bodily injury to another to intimidate a government witness and informant.
The FBI Washington Field Office is investigating the case.
Trial Attorneys Kirk Handrich and Kate Naseef of the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section are prosecuting the case.
This case is supported by the OCDETF.
* * * * *
The U.S. Department of State, through its Narcotics Rewards Program, is offering rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Ivan Guzman Salazar, Alfredo Guzman Salazar, and Ovidio Guzman Lopez, and up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Joaquin Guzman Lopez.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York, U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman of the Southern District for California, Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual for the Northern District of Illinois, and Acting Deputy Director PJ Lechleitner of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made the announcement.
Photos of the fugitives can be obtained at www.dea.gov/fugitives.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
26 comments:
Remember these are the same people the ATF armed with over 2000 guns with Operation Fast and Furious in a double pronged attempt to arm the cartel and manufacture support for gun control. Several American law enforcement officers and an unknown number of Mexican nationals were directly killed during the ATF's operation.
“10 percent for the Big Guy.”
Same DNA as Mayan Aztecs who celebrated human sacrifice and drinking blood of captives.
There are 200 Americans dying of fentanyl overdoses each day? And the Mexican/US border is still open? You can't make this up.
This is what they do, and it’s coming to a place near you! Do some more investigating and find out where the ingredients to make fentanyl are coming from.
As long as Americans keep using these drugs it’s gonna get worse.
The banksters know what’s going on. We ought to have a death penalty for any banking personnel found laundering drug money.
Remember HSBC corporation was found guilty of laundering billions of dollars for the border cartels and other Asian drug runners in 2014… they had special made boxes for cash from the cartels
For deposits.
You can't make this up.
Of course because it is by design. Countries either allow themselves to be invaded or violently, if necessary, fight the invasion.
There will be another civil war in the United States of America. All the elements that cause civil wars are converging rapidly now. History is your guide.
@8:52
Mayan Aztecs you say?
Is that like the German Italians and the Spanish Norwegians?
Educate yourself, bigot.
The Mayans and Aztecs were completely different civilizations from different regions.
@9:21
The biggest banking families are related and intermarried to the biggest drug families in history. The cartels don’t run the global drug trade. They have no power in Asia, the USA, and Europe. They are guard dogs of the Sassoon family global narcotics empire that goes all the way back to the Opium wars.
Sassoon family is married into the Rothchilds family.
8:52 is a bigot. Stupid, too, if he/she thinks "Mexican" is a race rather than a nationality.
Which came first - the chicken or the egg? If we didn't have drug addicts in the US, then we wouldn't have a fentanyl problem.
@ 9:41
So from a sheer historical perspective the guy got it wrong, but how is what he said a "bigoted" statement??? personally, I think when you are discussing a group (cartel) of people who FEED PEOPLE TO TIGERS........the whole bigot thing goes out the window.
critical thinking is a segment of education "dumbass"
Too bad you can’t get the special needs groups and their talking heads to complain about it like they do guns. This is how you know they don’t really care about life, just the agenda.
Y’all, this is obviously a witch hunt. Nothing to see here.
Remind y’all of someone?
Border Patrol just reported that 10,000 illegals are crossing into the U.S. every day. For those of you who voted for Biden... FU!
Good thing we're celebrating an open border with Mexico.
i did not know that there were tigers in mexico.
If anyone on here ever gets captured and are facing the tigers, feed them cinnamon. Tigers love pepper, they hate cinnamon.
@10:10, BINGO! They don't care about the loss of life or they protest abortion as well. They pick and choose their agendas. Like protesting capitalism, or global warming or paying your baby's momma child care and flying around on a private jet while being a millionaire (Looking at you Nancy & Hunter).
It seems to me the root problem that allowed this to happen is corruption.
Hunter must receive his fentanyl for free, while the "big guy" gets his 10%.
9:08 - 200 people dying everyday. One of these days we're gonna get those guys that are forcibly stuffing the pills down their throats.
Comes down to supply and demand. WE as an addicted society demand the product that the cartels supply. The border could be airtight and we'd still have a Fentanyl/Marijuana/Cocaine problem.
The truth is that the fentanyl problem began under Trump, how easy we forget. Biden is cleaning up his mess across the globe.
@4:43
Bless your heart
It's in the indictment and I included it in the post. Try reading the damn post.
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