Said it now and will say it again ....as long as there are users .....there will be dealers ......just filling a void ....it will not deter a business that runs into billions ....if the users are still there ....the cartels will still be there ........supply and demand.!!!!!!!
Hit Hard by the Pandemic, Mexico's Drug Cartels Tweaked Their Playbook
CULIACĂN, Mexico — Like a lot of businesses, the Sinaloa Cartel was knocked back on its heels as the coronavirus swept the globe and travel ground to a near halt.
Government measures to contain the virus had fouled up its operations, interrupting the supply of chemicals for manufacturing synthetic drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine and cutting off trafficking routes across international borders.
But the cartel is not just any business. It established itself as one of the world’s most powerful drug trafficking groups with a trademark mix of business acumen, ingenuity and lawlessness.
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And so while many legitimate industries remain staggered by the pandemic, the cartel has quickly adapted, as have other organizations that dominate trafficking throughout the Americas, the source of nearly all of the world’s cocaine and most of the heroin consumed in the United States.
“The cartels have long demonstrated their resiliency,” said Scott Brown, the head of the Homeland Security Investigations office in Arizona. “They are going to continue to find new and innovative ways to try to move their product.”
The drug trafficking organizations have slashed payrolls and devised workarounds to traffic drugs and get them into the hands of consumers, according to interviews with sources close to the Sinaloa Cartel, law enforcement officials in the United States and Latin America and security analysts.
During the year, some traffickers have increasingly relied on newer tools like drones and cryptocurrency and on creative uses of older approaches like underground tunnels and sea routes.
American officials have also detected a growing emphasis on the recruitment of impoverished or drug-addicted Americans to smuggle drugs in their body cavities.
The changes, sources said, have allowed the Sinaloa Cartel and the region’s other major drug trafficking groups to rebound quickly even as the pandemic continues to devastate economies.
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