Meeting with a member of one of the most powerful criminal networks in the world
The man sitting in front of us belongs to the Sinaloa Cartel — one of the most powerful and feared criminal networks in the world — and one the US government recently designated a foreign terrorist organization.This is a gang that “murder, rape, torture and exercise total control… posing a great threat to (the United States’) national security,” according to US President Donald Trump, who has promised to “wage war” against Mexico’s cartels.It’s taken weeks to reach this man, verify his identity, and persuade him to talk with us. Our contact on the ground here in the Mexican state of Sinaloa has repeatedly reassured him we are not the police. Or DEA agents. Or the CIA.We arrive at a nondescript house in a residential area on the southern side of Culiacán city and are instructed to cover our camera on the way in. It’s a neighborhood that’s known to be populated by cartels. Once inside, we’re taken to a dimly lit bedroom at the back of the house. A giant painting of Jesus Christ is nailed to the wall, above a rusty looking bed caked in dust. An older, beefy man stands by the window, holding a walkie-talkie close to his ear and anxiously glancing up and down the street where cars and military vehicles pass by.The cartel member — now a terrorist in the eyes of the US government — sits in one corner of the room. He has a firm handshake and a hefty build. He wears a “Joker” movie baseball cap pulled down over his head, a scarf wrapped tightly around his face, sunglasses to disguise his eyes, and blue latex gloves to cover the tattoos on his hands. Propped up by his chair is an assault rifle. Next to that are two more walkie-talkies, from which cartel look-outs provide a constant stream of feedback on the movements of the Mexican military.NOW PLAYINGCNN speaks with Mexican cartelCNN00:07/01:03He says he produces fentanyl — the synthetic opioid that has become the most common drug involved in overdose deaths in the United States.“Of course, of course, things are sad,” says the man, who didn’t give his real name. “(But) you have to continue… Families have to eat,” he shrugs.For nearly two decades, Mexican authorities have been waging a battle against the cartels, with limited results. And for over five decades, various US presidents have declared wars on drugs. But amid fresh waves of cartel violence and pressure from Trump in the form of threatened US military intervention and higher import tariffs, President Claudia Sheinbaum has adopted a more head-on approach to tackling the issue. (Her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” stance proved woefully ineffective.)Around 10,000 members of Mexico’s National Guard have been sent to their northern border, in part to stop the flow of narcotics from entering the US. And hundreds of soldiers are believed to have joined preexisting armed forces, marines, National Guards and law enforcement already stationed in Sinaloa state, home to the infamous Sinaloa drug cartel previously led by the notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.Officials told CNN the first six months of Sheinbaum’s administration saw over 17,000 suspects arrested for high impact crimes nationwide, and more than 140 tons of drugs seized, including 1.5 tons of fentanyl and over 2 million fentanyl pills. Meanwhile, US Customs and Borders Protection seized over 24,000 pounds of fentanyl last year. Just two milligrams — the size of a few grains of sand — can be fatal.
