Precursor Providers to Sinaloa and CJNG DTO's

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: Universal

June12, 2018

The names of Ezio Benjamín Figueroa Vázquez and his son Hassein Figueroa Gómez first sounded in 2012, when they were designated drug lords by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC, for its acronym in English) of the US Department of the Treasury. .

The accusations were formalized after, in November 2011, Figueroa Vázquez was captured due to his links with Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

These are the main distributors of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine that  Mexican cartels employ dedicated to producing methamphetamine for the US market, using a network that goes from Europe and sub-Saharan Africa to our country.

According to the Federal Court of the Eastern District of Virginia, they resorted to suppliers in countries where such chemical precursors are legal. In the investigation Belgium cooperated , as "part of a global effort to intercept the access of Mexican drug trafficking organizations," said the DEA.

Of Arab origin,  Figueroa wove a network of 15 companies in Mexico, mostly in Jalisco and one in Panama, whose addresses are located in the municipalities of Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta and, mainly, Zapopan Jalisco, through which they supplied the precursors .

Figueroa Gómez, born on May 9, 1973, is a fugitive and maintains active companies and properties valued at 4.34 million dollars in the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus, according to the Sandcastles-Tracing Sanctions Evasion Through Dubai's Luxury Real Estate Market  private intelligence center C4ADS Report.

According to consulted sources, Figueroa Vázquez had ties with the Sinaloa Cartel, while his son is linked to the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG), a group that dominates this market and has unleashed a climate of violence in the country.

In March 2016, the Belgian prosecutor's office investigated three pharmaceutical companies for supplying ephedrine to Figueroa Vázquez, while in January 2017 the managers of a family company of the same line of business were tried in Brussels - their names are unknown - for allegedly providing precursors to the CJNG.

This year, during the Operation Escudo Titán, launched by the federal government after the failed attempt against the former attorney general of Jalisco, Luis Carlos Nájera,  Javier "N" " El Peque" was detained, CJNG operator in charge of importing chemical precursors from China arriving in Colima, Jalisco, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Sinaloa.

The Gran Diario de México asked the UAE embassy in our country for its opinion on this report, without having received a response.

Note: See Otis Post on "El Peque" from May, 29, 2018