{"id":13913,"date":"2023-04-19T08:52:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T13:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/?p=13913"},"modified":"2023-04-19T08:52:54","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T13:52:54","slug":"mexican-drug-cartels-shift-operations-to-colombia-ecuador-peru-and-bolivia-suffer-spillover-effect-cuencahighlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/mexican-drug-cartels-shift-operations-to-colombia-ecuador-peru-and-bolivia-suffer-spillover-effect-cuencahighlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican drug cartels shift operations to Colombia; Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia suffer \u2018spillover effect\u2019 | CuencaHighLife"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"eo5QuHzWK8\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/cuencahighlife.com\/mexican-drug-cartels-shift-operations-to-colombia-while-ecuador-peru-and-bolivia-get-spill-over-effect\/\">Mexican drug cartels shift operations to Colombia; Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia suffer &#8216;spillover effect&#8217;<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Mexican drug cartels shift operations to Colombia; Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia suffer &#8216;spillover effect&#8217;&#8221; &#8212; CuencaHighLife\" src=\"https:\/\/cuencahighlife.com\/mexican-drug-cartels-shift-operations-to-colombia-while-ecuador-peru-and-bolivia-get-spill-over-effect\/embed\/#?secret=c8X2B76lc7#?secret=eo5QuHzWK8\" data-secret=\"eo5QuHzWK8\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Source: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/cuencahighlife.com\/mexican-drug-cartels-shift-operations-to-colombia-while-ecuador-peru-and-bolivia-get-spill-over-effect\/\">Mexican drug cartels shift operations to Colombia; Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia suffer \u2018spillover effect\u2019 | CuencaHighLife<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"et_pb_row_inner et_pb_row_inner_1_tb_body pac_drh_tab_col_two pac_drh_phone_col_two\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_1_3 et_pb_column_inner et_pb_column_inner_1_tb_body\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_post_title et_pb_post_title_1_tb_body et_pb_bg_layout_light  et_pb_text_align_left\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_title_container\">\n<p class=\"et_pb_title_meta_container\"><span class=\"published\">Apr 18, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_1_3 et_pb_column_inner et_pb_column_inner_2_tb_body et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_code et_pb_code_0_tb_body  et_pb_text_align_right\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_code_inner\">\n<div class=\"post-views content-post post-123116 entry-meta\">\u00a0<span class=\"post-views-label\">Views:<\/span>\u00a0<span class=\"post-views-count\">1,132<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_row_inner et_pb_row_inner_2_tb_body\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et_pb_column_inner et_pb_column_inner_3_tb_body et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_post_content et_pb_post_content_0_tb_body\">\n<div class=\"at-above-post addthis_tool\" data-url=\"https:\/\/cuencahighlife.com\/mexican-drug-cartels-shift-operations-to-colombia-while-ecuador-peru-and-bolivia-get-spill-over-effect\/\"><\/div>\n<p><em><strong>By Robert Sherman<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Much attention has been put on fixing the problems of drug cartels in Mexico, with the U.S. and European nations putting pressure on the Mexican government to crack down on them. \u00a0This has led some cartels\u2019 operations to shift back to Colombia, where the illegal drug trade through the Caribbean and South Florida was a dominant business in the \u201980s and \u201990s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese people are much more brutal than you ever want to see on television. They\u2019re much more violent,\u201d financial crime consultant Kenneth Rijock said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_118859\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-118859\" src=\"http:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/port.png\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 492px, 100vw\" srcset=\"http:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/port.png 492w, https:\/\/cuencahighlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/port-480x358.png 480w\" alt=\"\" width=\"492\" height=\"367\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-118859\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-118859\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">As Mexican drug cartels shift their focus to the south, Ecuador has become a major shipping center for drugs headed to Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rijock used to help launder the Colombian cartel\u2019s money. He witnessed their rise to power \u2014 and also their retreat to the shadows.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy the mid-1980s, law enforcement had come into South Florida with a vengeance,\u201d Rijock said, which led to pressure on Colombia. Ultimately the U.S. squeezed the cartels and took down drug lord Pablo Escobar, but the business never died. The cartels just picked up shop.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey geographically moved their operation west, away from the Caribbean, and into Mexico \u2014 and that\u2019s basically been the route ever since,\u201d Rijock said. Now, the Mexican cartels run the show, producing drugs such as fentanyl in house, then sending them across the border into the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>However, the pendulum is swinging away from Mexico, as drug lords in the country are getting arrested. The notorious El Chapo, who formerly ran the Sinaloa cartel, is now behind bars, and his son was arrested earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Other kingpins, such as El Coss, of the Gulf Cartel, are now also locked up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s right now a significant amount of pressure that is being carried out all over Latin America, but Mexico has been the focus,\u201d Professor Eduardo Gamarra, of Florida International University, said.<\/p>\n<p>And with that, the spotlight is coming back to Colombia. Colombian President Gustavo Petro last month announced the capture of Sinaloa cartel members caught trying to outsource their production of fentanyl to the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese cartels run themselves like a Fortune 500 business,\u201d Derek Maltz,a retired Drug Enforcement Administration official, said.<\/p>\n<p>Drug cartels are also extending their reach into Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. \u201cThere\u2019s a spillover effect in the countries near Colombia,\u201d says Gamarra. \u201cDrug-related crime has soared in Ecuador\u2019s port cities in the past three years, with Guayaquil\u2019s murder rate increasing six-fold since 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that Ecuador is a \u201ctale of two countries,\u201d with crime remaining relatively low in the Andean region.<\/p>\n<p>Rijock hopes the U.S can prevail but says the cartels will always be a step ahead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re like chess players. and they have an infinite budget, which in the legitimate world, we don\u2019t have,\u201d Rijock said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re bloodthirsty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mexican drug cartels shift operations to Colombia; Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia suffer &#8216;spillover effect&#8217; Source: Mexican drug cartels shift operations to Colombia; Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia suffer \u2018spillover effect\u2019 | CuencaHighLife Apr 18, 2023 \u00a0Views:\u00a01,132 By Robert Sherman Much attention has been put on fixing the problems of drug cartels in Mexico, with the U.S. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/mexican-drug-cartels-shift-operations-to-colombia-ecuador-peru-and-bolivia-suffer-spillover-effect-cuencahighlife\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Mexican drug cartels shift operations to Colombia; Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia suffer \u2018spillover effect\u2019 | CuencaHighLife<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13915,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13913\/revisions\/13915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esterlund.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}