Migrant smuggling, fishing, lime and avocado plantations. Cartels are not just about drugs

IN Mexico criminal groups are expanding their influence into other areas business activitiesand fighting between them results in thousands of murders every year.

In the latest December report by the American organization Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), Mexico was ranked fourth in terms of the intensity of brutal conflicts. The group assessed that there was a “cartel civil war” in the country.

The influence of criminal organizations on Mexican politics was visible during this year's campaign for the presidential, parliamentary and local elections. About 750 political attacks were reported then, including 231 election-related assassinations, and the campaign was described as the most brutal in history. More than 30 candidates were murdered, mainly for local government positions.

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In 2020, the American newspaper “Washington Post” reported, citing a classified report of the American intelligence agency CIAthat groups linked to drug trafficking exercise actual control of 20 percent. Mexican territory. In 2022, the resolution of the US Senate included estimates of up to 35%. area of ​​the country under the control of cartels.

The findings of the US Ministry of Finance revealed in November show that Mexican gangs are responsible for, among others, behind the illegal fishing in the Gulf of Mexico that has been observed for years. “Commercial fishing and drug cartels may seem an unusual combination, but for criminal organizations it makes perfect sense,” the AP wrote.

According to the authorities USA Fishing boats used to smuggle drugs and migrants catch tons of fish in American waters along the way. Then, some of them are transported across the border and sold on the American market, which is an additional “lucrative business” for criminals.

In recent months, the media have also reported on the increased interest of gangs in avocado and lime plantations in the state of Michoacan. In October, the Mexican authorities sent over 600 soldiers and gendarmes there to protect lime crops, and the press wrote about an alliance formed by cartels to jointly extort tribute from farmers.

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Experts point out that Mexican cartels and gangs differ in their methods of exercising control. The once largest Sinaloa cartel was associated – as Brookings Institution analyst Vanda Felbab-Brown wrote in 2022 – with “predictability and moderation in the use of violence”, even when extorting racketeering, while the growing Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) cartel is famous for its great brutality .

The analyst cited the statements of entrepreneurs who were satisfied with the end of the fighting and the Sinaloa cartel taking over their area. “You no longer have to pay men waving guns in front of you every week, only once every three months. And it's peaceful, you don't have to look at guns,” said one businessman in Acapulco.

Some interviewees also pointed out that gangsters protect them from corrupt sanitary officials and state tax collectors. The cartels also fought street crime to some extent, and during the Covid-19 pandemic, they distributed food parcels and small amounts of cash to residents.

However, the relative peace in some areas controlled by the Sinaloa cartel ended this year when the leader of one of its factions, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, was arrested in the United States. This sparked a war for supremacy in the gang and wave of violence in the state of Sinaloa. About 400 murders were recorded there from September to November.

Violence by organized criminal groups is considered one of the greatest challenges facing Mexico's first-ever president, Claudia Sheinbaum. In the first two months of her rule, from October 1 to the end of November, four thousand people were murdered in the country. The victims included politicians, local officials and representatives of religious groups.