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Mexican Cartels are known best for their drug smuggling operations and history of violent crime, but now it appears that the organizations have opted to branch out.
Karol Suarez of USA Today reports that several of the country’s biggest cartels have sought ways to make money beyond selling and smuggling drugs.
Though the new methods are also anything but above board.
“Drug cartels have diversified their operations since their inception,” security analyst David Saucedo told Suarez. “Many of them started as criminal organizations whose main activity wasn’t drug trafficking.”
So, what exactly are they doing to make money beyond drug selling and smuggling?
“The Sinaloa Cartel is most closely identified with drug trafficking but is also engaged in extortion, the theft of petroleum and ores, weapons trafficking, migrant smuggling, and prostitution,” the 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment said.
But while the Sinaloa Cartel is the most well-known operation, they’re far from the only one. There’s also the Jalisco New Generation, which allegedly “directs the theft of fuel from pipelines, extorts agave and avocado farmers, migrants and prison officials, and taxes migrant smugglers,” according to the report.
Mexican Cartels Are Doing Big Business In Industries Other Than Drugs
Despite the various business avenues, Saucedo says that drug trafficking is still king.
Why are they also extending into other avenues then? Saucedo says that it all has to do with how quickly the cartels can turn a profit.
“The portfolio is extensive. However, while drug trafficking is the most profitable activity, it has a longer recovery time for the investment compared to other … criminal activities, which yield almost immediate profit,” he said.
But make no mistake, the other methods are still plenty profitable.
According to the report, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, Pemex, lost $730 million from illegal pipeline taps in just the first nine months of 2022.
Meanwhile, Jalisco New Generation and local gangs allegedly demand $135 to $500 montly payments per hectare monthly payments from local avocado farmers which they label as “protection fees.”
The report claims that cartels are also extorting Mexican citizens in several other businesses, such as Tortillerias and chicken farmers.
Basically, if there’s a business in Mexico, you can bet that a cartel has its hands in it.