CJNG displaces Sinaloa after the fall of "Chapo"; already operates in Europe, Asia and throughout America

The CJNG currently controls ten thousand kilometers of the Pacific coast, on a route that extends from the southern cone to the border of the United States and Canada

While the fragmentation of the Sinaloa cartel exploded after the fall of Joaquín Guzmán Loera and his children, "Los Chapitos", disputed control over the group of "Los Licenciados" - who testified against "El Chapo" in the federal court of Brooklyn -, the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) extended its geographical reach to Europe, Asia and all of America.

It currently controls 10,000 kilometers of the Pacific coast for the trafficking of cocaine and methamphetamine, on a route that extends from the southern cone to the border of the United States and Canada. Now, it is the most violent and the most powerful organization, according to US intelligence reports.

Prepared by the Congressional Reserve Service with databases of the DEA, the FBI, the Department of the Treasury and companies specializing in intelligence and espionage services such as Stratfor, the report Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations, prepared on December 20, 2019, considers the CJNG the newest and extremely powerful organization dedicated to drug trafficking.

In addition, he points out that he has achieved that cartels that previously had great power for their penetration into the Mexican government, currently need them to operate, such as Los Beltrán Leyva.

The Congressional Reserve Service points out that, according to The National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA) 2018, the Beltrán Leyva became a group of factions that work under the umbrella of that name and mainly operate marijuana trafficking , cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

However, he mentions that to move drugs across the border these subgroups depend on alliances with elements of Los Zetas, the Juarez cartel and the CJNG, based in the second largest city in Mexico, Guadalajara, and a recognized presence in the minus 22 of 32 Mexican states.

The Beltrans maintain distribution links in the US cities of Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta, while in Mexico they remain influential in Morelos, Guerrero, Nayarit and Sinaloa, where the CJNG is also.

According to intelligence services, the Jalisco cartel dominates key ports on the Pacific and Gulf coasts, which "have allowed it to consolidate important components of the global narcotics supply chain."

In particular, the CJNG controls the ports of Veracruz, Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas, which has granted access to chemical precursors that flow to Mexico from China and Latin America. "As a result, it has been able to follow an aggressive growth strategy, signed by the US demand for Mexican methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl."

The Congressional Reserve Service states that the reputation of extreme violence of the organization led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, "El Mencho", also continues, and recalls that in August 2019, 19 bodies were found in Uruapan, in the southwestern state of Michoacán, including several that were dismembered and nine that were hung from an overpass.

The crime, he refers, is attributed to "El Mencho".

The structure of the Sinaloa Cartel is different. According to intelligence reports, the organization does not establish alliances with other cartels, but instead recruits local gangs from across the region that specialize in various crimes.

For the US, the CDS is now under pressure and its future remains unclear. He also says that some analysts warn that it is still powerful given its international dominance and its infiltration in the upper reaches of the Mexican government, but mentions that others maintain that it is in decline, citing its breakdown in factions and violence by intra-organizational tensions.

This break is due to the dispute of Dámaso López Núñez, "El Licenciado", and Dámaso López Serrano, "El Mini lic", against Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán, "Los Chapitos". The first two became collaborating witnesses of the United States since in January 2017 the Mexican government extradited Guzmán Loera, who was tried in the federal court of the New York district in Brooklyn between November 2018 and February 2019.

His lawyers argued that he was not the head of Sinaloa company and instead a "lieutenant" following orders. However, he was sentenced in February by a federal jury and sentenced by a district judge in July to life imprisonment in prison, with the addition of 30 years, and he was ordered to pay 12.6 billion dollars.

The report says that Los Zetas, divided into two main factions -  Cart del Noreste and Vieja Escuela - have expanded to other criminal operations, such as widespread extortion and fuel theft, in which the Gulf cartel is also involved. However, it places La Vieja Escuela and the CJNG as the main oil looters for the Pemex pipelines in the center of the country.

He quotes that in the NDTA 2018, the DEA said that the Gulf cartel, which has been existed for several decades, today focuses on the cocaine and marijuana trade, but "also recently expanded to heroin and methamphetamine ... [and] smuggles most of their drugs to southern Texas through the border region between Rio Grande Valley and South Padre Island.

Meanwhile, the Familia Michoacana states that, although observers reported that it had been largely expelled from Michoacán by the Knights Templar, it is still active through a group that calls itself The Nueva Familia Michoacana, which is active in parts of Guerrero and Michoacán , specialized in the production of methamphetamine and contraband, along with other synthetic drugs, but "it has also been able to traffic marijuana and cocaine, as well as tax and regulate the production of heroin."

The Capitol research body also warns that cartels are more fragmented and more competitive than in the past.

In addition, he mentions that analysts are not sure if smaller organizations will be easier to dismantle.

It exemplifies that groups such as Los Viagras in Tierra Caliente and Los Cuinis have solid structures and have expanded.

Of the latter, he said that he was identified as an important organization in 2015. In addition, he states that according to an OFAC statement, Los Cuinis can become "one of the most powerful and violent drug cartels in Mexico."

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