El Chapo: More Powerful than Ever

Anabel Hernandez-- Proceso (2-23-13)   Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat

Far from being dead, El Chapo Guzman seems to be stronger than ever. His organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, is getting established in Mexico and expanding throughout the continent, according to an analysis from  Mexico's Office of Attorney General

(PGR: Procuraduria General de la Republica). The agency's intelligence section warns that, in its conflict with rival organizations over control of national territory, Guzman's mafia will spill much more blood in the country than has already been spilled in recent years.

MEXICO, D.F. (Proceso).-- Although he has control in 20 of the 32 states and is expanding his power beyond Mexico, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquin Guzman Loera -- designated as Public Enemy No. 1 in Chicago, equal to the legendary Al Capone, according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration -- seeks to expand his empire even more.

Classified by Forbes magazine as one of the foremost multimillionaires in the world, in recent months El Chapo began to restructure his criminal organization and also recruited minors, who he puts to work as "informants"; now, in addition to trafficking marijuana, heroin and cocaine, he has personnel who help him manufacture, distribute and sell synthetic drugs.   

El Chapo does not only want to maintain his domination, but also to enlarge his domain and finish off his rivals in the next few months, according to a document drafted towards the end of the Calderon administration by researchers in the PGR's Center for Planning, Analysis and Information in the War against Crime (Cenapi: Centro de Planeacion, Analisis e Informacion para el Combate a la Delincuencia). According to the document, the Sinaloa capo modified his organization and redefined his strategy for maintaining his power, expand his territory and acquire protection from the new PRI government.

And, although for Pena Nieto and his collaborators El Chapo is unmentionable and the word "cartel" has been erased from official speeches -- as if the criminal organizations no longer existed --, the Sinaloa Cartel is repositioning itself to take on its rivals.

According to the information obtained, the criminal group that El Chapo leads has the deepest roots, which "provides him flexibility and considerable ability for social and institutional penetration, and projects him internationally.  It is the most complex of Mexican drug trafficking organizations, bringing together several entities and criminal groups."

Unlike other criminal groups, El Chapo and his followers have been able to maintain organizational cohesiveness most of the time and, the PGR admits explicitly for the first time, today they are the most powerful.

His institutional protection networks are more developed, that's why they can deploy greater logistical capabilities"; the Sinaloa Cartel is omnipotent and omnipresent, for it is present also in Central and South America. And the report warns:

"He will reinforce his positions in Central and South America. His institutional protection functions are more developed than those of its competitor, the Zetas (cartel). They have more land-based and coastal trafficking routes, in addition to storage areas."

The Sinaloa Cartel is present in at least 20 of the 32 states in Mexico. From what can be determined from the analysis, there will be an increase in violence in at least 16 of the states in the (Mexican) Republic.

New "modus operandi"

Since January, 2001, when he escaped from the maximum security prison in Puente Grande, Jalisco, innumerable myths have been woven about El Chapo: that he was captured and they let him get away, that he was executed -- this story has gone around at least a dozen times --, like what happened on Thursday, (February) 21, in the Peten Department in Guatemala, which turned out to be false.

The truth is that in the last 12 years, the Sinaloa capo became an all-powerful drug trafficker. The Cenapi analysis asserts for the first time that the Sinaloa Cartel -- rechristened the "Pacific Cartel" by the agency-- is the most powerful organization because because it has greater protection from the institutions responsible for fighting crime and drug trafficking. 

"Its institutional protection networks are more developed; because of that, it can deploy greater logistical capabilities," the document states; it points to businesses, businessmen, current and former municipal presidents, judges, and even regional prosecutors in different states, as the organization's suspected accomplices.

El Chapo already controls the trafficking of marijuana, cocaine and heroin within and without the country, and is now more aggressively venturing into the production of methamphetamine.  This is true in Jalisco, where narcotics laboratories proliferate, as well as in the so-called "Golden Triangle," which encompasses the States of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.

The PGR investigation indicates that there are laboratories in the Golden Triangle with "different levels of sophistication and capacity installed."

It cites the one in Tamazula, Durango, "that was notable for the great size of the building that allowed, simultaneously, its use as a large capacity warehouse for precursor chemicals and drugs, and as housing for personnel who worked in the installations." The laboratory was dismantled on August 6, 2009.

In addition to the drug business, the official report admits that there are "related illegalities" in which Sinaloa Cartel members are engaged in, among them "extortion, unlawful deprivation of freedom, (constituting) kidnapping (of low and medium profile businessmen)", as well as abductions of rival gang members.

To increase control of the territory where he maintains a presence, it adds, El Chapo recruits minors to prevent his organization from being affected by casualties suffered during confrontations with gunmen from other organizations or with police, Army and Navy forces; they (the minors) are not subject to criminal penalties equivalent to those applicable to adults, which allows them to avoid prison and to resume criminal activities quickly.

In its "information follow-up" the PGR indicates that members of gangs such as "Los Antrax" and "Sanguinarios del M1" are in charge of hooking minors in the schools, especially high schools.

"It can be seen that that sector constitutes the bulk of the organization's base, while they are given specific tasks based on the behavior and loyalty they demonstrate, because they are so easy to manipulate and are replaceable in case they are arrested or killed by rivals or by authorities," states the document.

The majority are used as informants, whether it's "around the neighborhoods and colonias where they live, or through the Internet and social networks." In addition, they tend to join gangs and groups similar to the organization in the states where (the Cartel) has a presence.

One of these groups is known as Los Chapitos and it members are considered the "youth wing of the organization." According to the document, they are present in Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juarez.

(Portion of the main report in Proceso 1895, already in circulation)