From the lush mountain valleys of Peru to America's toughest streets, ruthless Mexican gangs are grabbing control of the multibillion-dollar cocaine and crystal meth smuggling trade.When Pablo Escobar and other Colombian cartel leaders were the undisputed kings of cocaine in the 1990s, Mexico was just one of several supply routes to the United States and its traffickers were no more than junior partners.
Now Mexican kingpins Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, both from the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa, are widely seen as the most powerful traffickers in the Americas.
US agents say Mexico's cartels are the main traffickers in almost all regions of the United States and active at every stage of the business. It starts at production, buying coca leaf from farmers in Bolivia and Peru and turning it into cocaine, and extends all the way through to the retail market on US streets.
Mexican gangs have for long controlled cocaine sales in the US southwest but are now taking more of the trade in the east, traditionally dominated by groups from Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
"I'd say 90 percent of the cocaine that comes into New York City comes across the southwest border and is tied to a Mexican organization in some way, either through transportation or a Mexican trafficking group owns part of the load," said John Gilbride, a Drug Enforcement Administration special agent.
Mexicans have also replaced outlawed motorcycle gangs as the main dealer
s in methamphetamine, or crystal meth, the drug of choice in many rural areas and small towns across America.Several top Mexican traffickers have been arrested and extradited or killed in recent years and the government has deployed more than 20,000 troops this year to fight them. The power vacuum in some gangs triggered vicious turf wars as Sinaloa's cartel moved to crush rival groups based along the US border.
About 1,400 people have been murdered this year, and almost daily discoveries of tortured bodies or severed heads have given the impression the government may be losing control, but none of it has slowed the flow of drugs.
Sinaloa's capital, Culiacan, is now the nerve center of the most powerful drug gangs in the Americas, who are merciless when dealing with rivals but as astute as top business executives.
Mexico was already an opium, heroin and marijuana producer when its gangs began moving Colombian cocaine in the 1980s. After Escobar was killed in a 1993 shootout with police and a war against other Colombian "capos" put them on the defensive, the Mexicans began to take control. About 90 percent of US-bound cocaine now moves through Mexico.
Colombian cartels are still major players, producing 60 percent of the world's cocaine, but are fearful of extradition to the United States and see less risk in the growing European cocaine market. With little or no violence, they have let Mexicans take control of US shipments. "They set the conditions now. They are practically running the business," Luis Hernando Gomez, a jailed leader of Colombia's powerful Norte del Valle cartel, said of the Mexicans earlier this year.
Mexico's cartels are sidestepping Colombians to buy directly from impoverished coca leaf farmers in Peru and Bolivia. They have set up labs inside Peru and ship processed cocaine straight to Mexico for the US market.
Mexicans are the main traffickers in Central America, running cocaine in speedboats, fishing trawlers and cargo ships up the Caribbean and Pacific coasts while US biker gangs such as the Hells Angels have become distributors inside the United States.
Major traffickers south of the border have set up superlabs that churn out hundreds of kilograms of the drug daily and police say there are up to 3,000 small- scale labs in Tijuana, many in tin-roofed shanties. REUTERS
