Drug trafficking in Mexico has expanded its area of influence outside national borders, but what is known according to reports from foreign authorities?
The Central Directorate of Anti-Drug Services of Italy (DCSA) joins the alerts about the expansion of the activities of Mexican cartels in cocaine trafficking and the production of crystal methamphetamine on European soil.
Italian justice emphasizes the hypothesis that drug traffickers are trying to consolidate their presence in the Old Continent to use it as a base to supply the synthetic drug markets in Australia and New Zealand.where the value of stimulants scales exponentially.
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Furthermore, he warns about the logistical control that Mexican drug traffickers have in South American portsthe attempt to produce Mexican cocaine and the dangerous collaboration in the field of access to chemical precursors between the Sinaloa and Nueva Generación (CNG) cartels.
The information appears in the 2025 report of the DCSA, a unit belonging to the Ministry of the Interior. According to the report, “from the point of view of criminal actors, The most recent investigations related to major methamphetamine seizures in Europe suggest an expansion of Mexican criminal organizations into the most lucrative markets“. He maintains that for several years they have been dedicated to the production of methamphetamine in the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, while “Italy has not yet registered a consolidated and organized presence of Mexican crime (…). The European Drug Agency, Europol and the DEA have repeatedly stated that Europe is becoming one of the preferred routes for methamphetamine trafficking to Australian and New Zealand markets.“.
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This is because Mexican methamphetamine has a very competitive price, costing less than a third of that produced in Myanmar.another major illicit supply center, is highly potent and of high quality, using the P-2-P (phenyl-2-propanone) method. Besides, shipping to Oceania is highly lucrative. While 1 kilo of methamphetamine sells for $656 in Mexico City and in the US it costs $5,000, in some countries in the European Union it costs up to $20,000 and in Australia it goes up to $190,000. To minimize detection risks, traffickers would be using the ports of Hong Kong and Busan, South Korea. “The port of Hong Kong is the main channel for methamphetamine produced in areas adjacent to the Mexican ports of Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas.”
In relation to cocaine, the Italian police assure that “given the constant presence of representatives of Mexican cartels in several Latin American countries, it can be stated that Mexican organizations have assumed the role of global intermediaries for cocaine produced in Andean countries [Colombia, Perú y Bolivia] and destined for global illicit markets“To reduce risks, the cartels are moving their cargo to warehouses located in Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
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Some cocaine shipments are sent in containers from the Atlantic coastal ports of Veracruz, Matamoros and Tampico to those in northern Europe, the Mediterranean or West Africa. Other shipments leave the ports of Mazatlán and Manzanillo and cross the Strait of Panama bound for western markets..
Another important evolution, the Italians highlight, is the attempt to produce Mexican cocaine, particularly by the Nueva Generación Cartel, although production is still on a small scale and the result is a drug of much lower purity than the Andean one. In the extensive report, the Sinaloa and Nueva Generación cartels are protagonists, with descriptive sheets about their history and current situation.
Described as the largest and most powerful organization in the Western Hemisphere, “The Sinaloa Cartel has resisted changes in the international drug scene and the capture and death of its leaders”. “The CNG, despite the capture of some of its main leaders, remains one of Mexico’s main criminal threats.”
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He points out that, at the international level, maintains contacts throughout South America, as well as in the US, Canada, Australia, China and Southeast Asia; It has its own supply network for chemical precursors from China, it traffics all types of narcotics and although its reference market is the United States, Asia, Australia and Europe are increasingly frequent destinations.
“Currently, the CNG is the main rival of the Sinaloa Cartel. However, the two organizations have begun to collaborate in some phases of the drug supply chains.for example, by sharing suppliers of chemical precursors for the production of methamphetamine and fentanyl.”
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OA