Beyond The Horizon
ICYMI: How The Kingpin Strategy Has Only Compounded The Problem
The "Kingpin Strategy" is a law enforcement approach aimed at dismantling major criminal organizations by targeting their highest-ranking leaders, or "kingpins." This strategy is based on the premise that removing the top leaders will cause disruption and disorganization within the criminal network, ultimately leading to its collapse.Here are the key elements of the Kingpin Strategy:
- Focus on Leadership: Law enforcement agencies prioritize the capture or neutralization of the top leaders of criminal organizations rather than targeting lower-level members. This approach aims to create a leadership vacuum that weakens the organization's structure and operations.
- High-Impact Arrests: By arresting or eliminating the kingpins, authorities aim to significantly disrupt the organization's operations, hinder its ability to function, and reduce its influence and power.
- Use of Intelligence and Technology: The strategy relies heavily on intelligence gathering, surveillance, and advanced technologies to locate and apprehend these high-ranking individuals. Collaboration between various national and international law enforcement agencies is also crucial.
- Legal and Financial Measures: In addition to arrests, the strategy often includes seizing assets, freezing bank accounts, and using legal measures to dismantle the financial infrastructure supporting the criminal organization.
- Collateral Damage Considerations: While effective in some cases, the Kingpin Strategy has been criticized for potential collateral damage, including power struggles within the organization, increased violence, and the emergence of new leaders who may be more ruthless.
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To contact me:
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source:
https://www.businessinsider.com/fragmentation-in-mexico-war-on-drugs-created-400-new-gangs-2021-10
- Duration:
- 26m
- Broadcast on:
- 29 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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Now, it sounds like a good idea, right? But what happens when they remove one of these people? Do these operations just cease to exist? Or is there a power struggle within that vacuum? We all know that it is a power struggle within that vacuum and it ends up leading to a lot of death and carnage. Now, we saw how this strategy was used to go after a Pablo Escobar and then what happened after Escobar was gone? Well, the Cali cartel slid right into his place, didn't they? Then after the Cali cartel was gone, you had a bunch of different groups in Columbia who were becoming enterprising, if you will, to sell cocaine and to provide huge shipments for the cartels. And the same can be said in Mexico. You had a few organizations for quite some time, you know, that you had the Gulf cartel, you had the Juarez cartel, Tijuana, obviously, Cinelloa. And then after the decapitation strategy was put into place and they started getting rid of all of these heads of these outfits, what happened was you ended up with a bunch of splinter cells. And in tonight's episode, we're going to talk about that. We have an article here from Insider. And the headline of this article is, Mexico's War on Cartels has created 400 new gangs that are taking on the police and cartels that are left. So when there is that power vacuum, right, what you have are a bunch of people vying to become the boss. And when certain people don't get their way, what they do is they create these splinter cells and then they go to war with their old organization for territory, for trade routes, and obviously for the drug shipment routes. Those are the most important things to them, the corridors. So what they do is they have, basically it ends up becoming a civil war and they vie for power and it's bloody and it is deadly. This article was authored by Luis Shapiro. Over the past 10 years, the makeup of Mexico's criminal landscape has shifted from a handful of big cartels and some splinter groups to more than 400 gangs operating all over the country, many of them with ties to the US. Look, everything that happens down in Mexico when it comes to the war on drugs goes hand in hand with the United States. And for all of the people that are so gung ho and so hell bent on building a wall, let's be very clear, okay? Most of these guns are coming into Mexico from America. So the drugs are coming into America and then the guns are going into Mexico in this never ending cycle of violence. And it's all fed obviously by America's appetite for drugs and then we get into the war on drugs and how that makes this even worse and it makes the problems escalate because whenever there's money involved, well, you know there's going to be criminal groups that show up trying to get their peace. A 2008 intelligence report by the Mexican Army detailed the first fragmentation of what then was Mexico's ruling cartel. Artero Beltranlevia split from the Federation of Sinaloa, which was run by Joaquin El Chapo Guzman and Ismail El Miles Mbata. So when the Beltranleva organization split from the Federation, meaning Sinaloa, who was basically the umbrella group that oversaw all of this, right? You had all these different groups like the Labas and Tijuana cartel and all of that, but really the power resided down here in Sinaloa. Beltranlevia founded his own cartel, naming it after himself. But by the end of 2009, Mexican Marines working with U.S. agents had located Artero Beltran, killing him in a raid in the resort city of Quaranabaca, just south of Mexico City. So there's a lot of backstory with stuff like that as well. A lot of times what'll happen with law enforcement, they'll work with other cartels or cartel members to take out rivals, right? So everybody gets a win. The government can say, hey, look, we're taking out these cartels, we're going hard in the paint. And what's really happening is they're working with a bigger cartel like Sinaloa to go after these splinter groups. And for Sinaloa, well, that's great because it's getting rid of some of their rivals cleaning up some of the mess. And for the government, they can say, hey, look, we're actually making progress here. When in reality, all that's happening is more of the product, more of the money, more of the action is just being funneled to Sinaloa. So it's not getting rid of the group, they're just moving things around on the chessboard to make it seem as such, right? The fragmentation has continued since then. Now more than 400 gangs operate in Mexico according to the most recent report by intelligence, a Mexican consulting agency specializing in criminal organizations and security analysis. So according to this group, Lantia, there are over 400 gangs that have their genesis, their origin story that was with the cartels. And after the decapitation process and the way the Mexican government and the United States government has one about trying to bring these cartels to heal, well, this is the end result because you're not going to get rid of these people, right? There's always going to be a need, a want. As long as Americans continue to do these drugs and as long as the cartels have these drugs to bring into America, you're going to continue to see this. And it's not going to slow down. I mean, when's the last time you heard of a drug use slowing down? And not just in America, either. We've talked about Europe and how the market's booming there as well. And you'll add on all of these miserable times that we're living through, pandemics, wars, and people are looking for an escape. So inevitably at times like this, boy, these are the best times in the world for these criminal gangs. And for the cartels, you can times that by about 10. Today, most of the 400 criminal cells are coalitions more than independent groups. According to Eduardo Guerrero, director of Lantia, which maintains a database on gangs, updated monthly. Guerrero said that the fragmentation was a direct consequence of the war against cartels that right-wing Mexican President Felipe Calderon escalated soon after taking office. Now, when Calderon came into power in 2006, he really ramped up the war on drugs down in Mexico, and it really sparked all of this off. Because up until that point, the cartels, while they were violent and up to no good, it was relatively kept to certain quadrants, right? Certain areas. It certainly wasn't happening down in Cancun or the Mexican Riviera. And we see how the violence has spilled over even into these higher-end areas. And a lot of that has to do with these smaller groups, right? They don't own casinos. They don't have shares in these casinos or hotels. They're just street groups that are trying to sell drugs and trying to take more and more territory. So inevitably, they have these clashes with the bigger, more established organizations who don't really benefit from all of these bodies being dropped all over the place. The DEA advised Calderon to start a strategic fragmentation between cartels. But Mexico police forces were not prepared, and the narcos bought the police at every level, Guerrero said, referring to pervasive corruption. And there's no doubt about that. I kind of touched on that a second ago. The Calderon administration made it look like they were getting rid of cartels, but in reality, they were just getting paid out by the bigger, more wealthy groups. So while it looked like they were conducting this huge war on drugs and going after all the cartels, really, they were just doing the dirty work for groups like Sinaloa. American officials have also pointed to that US supported strategy as a driver of violence in recent years. Look, there's no doubt that the strategy that we've employed in America and elsewhere is not working. And I just wish people would realize that, and I wish we would all be able to sit down and come up with a new strategy, leave all the stupid politics out of it as well. Because this stuff has real results. I mean, we're talking about 107,000 people roughly in the last year have died from overdoses in America. So obviously what we're doing right now is not working. The strategies we're employing, they're not working, and you know the hundreds and hundreds and billions of dollars we've poured into this. And for what, what have we got in return, folks? Our southern neighbor in Mexico engaged in this terrible war on drugs where everyday citizens are literally drawn into the mix on a regular basis. Meanwhile, you have an overdose pandemic happening in America, pretty much everybody you know has had somebody that they know or that's close to them be touched by this. And still our politicians aren't doing shit to change things. They're just gonna follow the same course. They're gonna go down the same roads that they've already went down. The Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels are the biggest players in Mexico today with a lot of partners Guerrero told insider. The Sinaloa cartel has split into more than 37 small and medium-sized sales according to the Lantia report obtained by insider. And we know that that's for a fact, right? Especially that accelerated in the wake of El Chapo's arrest considering his sons, they wanted a bigger share of what was going on. So they created their splinter group, the El Chapitos. And of course, they have been at war with El Mayo. So there is so much infighting that goes on here as these guys are jockeying for position within the organization that it's laughable to think that the decapitation strategy is the proper way to go about things. Look, I'm certainly no genius. As all of you who listen to this podcast, no, right? furthest thing from a genius. But when the writing is on the wall and it's this obvious, I mean, come on, we have to do better here because this has serious consequences that affect our everyday lives, folks. The CJNG, which was formed by a faction of the Sinaloa cartel, operates with more than 36 cells around the country. And not only that, I was just digging into an article and talking to a source here in Nevada. And there was an arms operation that was being run by an operator from CJNG that was based in perump an hour away from where I live. And their job was to collect military grade weapons and weapons to send back down to Mexico. So CJNG could continue on their murderous path. So that's definitely a story I'm going to add to the catalog real soon. I've just started to dip my toes into it. And I think I'm gonna take a ride out to perump even to speak with the source because very, very interesting ties here. And there has been a lot of talk obviously about the cartel here in Las Vegas and being relatively close to the border. You know that they are active here. And you know with all of the tourism and the drug trade here, you know that they have a big piece of the pie. So it's very interesting when stories like that start to pop up because usually you don't really hear about this stuff, right? You just hear about, oh, drug operator arrested or drug trafficker arrested. And then that's pretty much the end of it. You know, it dies on the vine. But when you got bigger stories like this with military grade weapons heading back down south while the drugs continue to come up north, it just hammers home the point that we're always talking about here. The vicious cycle that we see. Hey everyone. It is Ryan Seacrest here. Ready to heat up your summer vacation? Get ready. Things are about to get sizzling at Chumba Casino. Your summer getting a whole lot hotter with a special daily login bonus waiting just for you. So sign up now for reals of fun and reals of prizes right here at Chumba Casino with yours truly. Join me at Chumba Casino.com and dive into a summer of social casino fun. Sponsored by Chumba Casino, no purchase necessary. VGW Group, forward we're prohibited by law, 18 plus terms and conditions apply. Major criminal groups mostly have horizontal rather than hierarchical structures, Guerrero said. The Cinelloa cartel in particular is believed to be more adaptable because it operates as a group of cooperating factions. Yeah, they're all loosely linked, right? And at the end of the day, you have El Mayo making the calls, right? At least that's how the structure is set up. But the splinter groups, groups like El Chapitos and whatnot, you know, they're going to do their own thing. These are younger guys and they don't really have as much respect for the mustache peats, the older generation as the older generation did for their peers. But in some cases, especially with those small gangs, they do have a chain of command, Guerrero said. Not all sales cooperate with the larger group to which they're linked. Cartel Nueva Plaza, a Jalisco cartel cell with strong ties to Asia and the US, is believed to have challenged the Jalisco cartel on its home turf in Guadalajara, spurring a wave of bloodshed there in 2018. Now remember, we talked about the CJNG and their cannibal schools, right? Where they send their recruits to go and become trained to become operators for them. So Cartel Nueva Plaza, they gotta have a big set of stones on them for going against CJNG. I mean, you would have to think after watching those videos of what CJNG does to people, that's a big ass nope from me. I'm gonna go find somebody else to fight with. I'm not trying to get eaten. The Lantia report also describes once powerful organizations like Las Zetas, the Golf Cartel, Beltran Leyva, and Familia Mitrykana as almost non-existent, having fragmented into about 50 different groups with operations in 16 of Mexico's 32 states. And there was at one point the Golf Cartel was the King fish, right? That was, if you remember, watch the show Narcos, perhaps that's the Golf Cartel, how he set that all up. And that ended up obviously being splintered because of the decapitation process. And you see how we got to where we are now if you go back to the very beginning and watch the strategy unfold almost in real time. Local alliances, the proliferation of small gangs in the presence of powerful criminal organizations have overwhelmed Mexican law enforcement according to security experts. Oh, there's no doubt, when you look at these cities that are basically held under siege by cartels and the Mexican militaries even outgunned, it just goes to show you how serious the situation is. And again, another thing that really, really frightens me, folks, all of these weapons that are being dumped onto the battlefield in Ukraine. How many of these weapons are going to find their way into the hands of groups like these cartels and terrorists because believe me, the cartels are paying attention, these are not stupid people. They already have contacts all throughout Europe, they're already getting guns from God knows where as well as the United States. And if you think that they don't want to have some, you know, man pads and end laws and stingers and all the rest of this, you're crazy because they do. Now, can you imagine the CJNG with shoulder-fired missiles taking down planes and shit? Really not a scenario that is enjoyable to think about. But it's something that we need to be very aware of. And it's also a reason why in all of these other theaters, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, that we didn't dump these kinds of weapons into the battlefield because you don't know where they're going to end up. Once you introduce the weaponry to the battlefield, it can be dispersed in many, many different ways to many, many different people. And trust me when I tell you folks, we're gonna see that a lot of these weapons, some of them at the very least, end up in the hands of these cartels. The criminal organizations in Mexico are extremely empowered by the fact that they think there is no threat to them by the Mexican state. Said Manalic Castilla, who told who was the head of Mexico's federal police before it was folded in the country's new national guard in 2019. Well, we all know that the, how many of you heard the term Federally? Well, that was the Mexican federal police. And every single time I've been to Mexico, I have never ever been harassed by any citizen, any person drug dealer or otherwise in Mexico. However, I have been hemmed up by the cops before. Been pulled over, had to pay the fine. You know how it goes, right? Have the extra 20 stash in your shoe and shit. That's how that's the cost of doing business in Mexico, at least it used to be. I haven't been there in a while, so I don't know. But never once did any of the people even come close to even making me feel uncomfortable. But the Federally's, on the other hand, they had me shitting bricks when they pulled me over the first time. You know, I had no idea what to expect. I thought I was going to jail in TJ. But really, they're just looking to get a couple of bucks. So that's why the Federally's were folded into the national guard. They were corrupt and they couldn't be trusted as partners to administer justice. Castilla acknowledged that Mexico's law enforcement, authorities are actively participating in organized crime and that there are no solid authorities, especially at a local level. There is no doubt it's very corrupt. And when these police officers and law enforcement officials are being paid peanuts, folks, well, what do you expect them to do? So one offers them 10 grand to look the other way. They're going to look the other way. They have families to feed. They have business to conduct. And if everybody else is doing it, they're capped in the local politician. Why should they miss out? The fentanyl business changed everything. Since it is so profitable and it moves in such small quantities, fentanyl made cartels much more empowered and rich, overwhelming all levels of authorities, he said. And this is the unspoken truth about the fentanyl. It's coming from China for the most part. And nobody wants to talk about this. Nobody wants to get up in China's face and let them know that this bullshit has to end. But that's exactly what's happening, folks. The cartels have a foothold. In China now, they're bringing in the Coke and they're bringing in a lot of it. And in turn, the Chinese, they're shipping the chemicals and the fentanyl back down to Mexico so these cartels can get it in. Castilla said the small gangs proliferating in Mexico are not a threat to establish cartels, but rather support their power. Yeah, they're like hired muscle, right? They're like when, for instance, the mafia would need some hired muscle, they might go and hire the Hell's Angels or the Westies, something like that. They work under their directions, not against them. The roughest threat is for Mexican local authorities. Cartels that might not have had a strong local presence in many cities now do. And this is totally overwhelming, he said. Yeah, they have nothing that they can do about it. These Mexican cops show up and they're overpowered. The cartels show up in these armored trucks and shit, they're basically tanks. And you see these police officers, they're woefully under-prepared. Larger cartels might also be empowered by having local alliances in cities where they operate. A Cinaloa cartel operative in Kulikhan, the capital of Cinaloa state, said the cartel didn't feel a threat from gangs or small, organized groups. They don't have to worry about it, right? These groups don't have the firepower, they don't have the political connections and they certainly don't have the, you know, wherewithal to go toe-to-toe with a group like Cinaloa. The only groups that are going toe-to-toe with Cinaloa are groups like CJNG. They will never be a threat. We are the ones paying their bills, asking them to sport our organizations. And what they get in return, more than money is the support of a strong organization like the Cinaloa, the operative told insider, speaking in an anonymous fashion to avoid retaliation. The operative said that these local gangs look for us to have a brand behind them, otherwise they're on their own. So basically if you show up somewhere, right, and you're one of these local organizations and it's just you, well, you might not be as feared as if you show up and you're flying the colors or the flag or whatever of Cinaloa. You show up to extort shopkeepers and they know that you're part of the Cinaloa group, it's going to be a lot more effective than just some ragtag group that shows up. Criminal organizations have gained a lot of power and co-opted officials at many levels in recent years, but they aren't able to threaten the power of the Mexican state, Castilla said. It is a lie to believe that some of these organizations overpower the capacity of the Mexican state. They don't have the infrastructure or the training as Mexican law enforcement does, Castilla told Insider, well, that might be the case. A lot of times the Mexican police forces don't have the morale and to act like there's not a huge problem with corruption, that is throwing a very positive spin on things by Mr. Castilla. The issue Castilla has said is the approach that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has taken to fighting organized crime. The president elected in 2018 has been criticized for adopting a non-confrontational security strategy, which he has referred to as hugs, not guns. The president is trying to pacify the country with other ways than confrontation. And this has been very much used by criminals to get stronger, Castilla said. So look, there's really no good way to go about this. You can't go about it by saying hugs, not guns, that's not going to work with these psychopaths, they're eating each other. So what's the solution? Where do we go from here? Again, the only way out of this, in my opinion, is if we decriminalize drugs at the very least. You cut off the main source of income from these people, and then what you do is you get right to the heart of how they operate, and if they don't have the money to operate, well, they're not going to be as effective, are they? One thing is certainly clear, folks, and I don't need any more evidence to tell me that this is a fact, and that is our strategy of decapitation, trying to get rid of whoever the "bosses" does not work. All it does is lead to more criminal gangs, more splinter groups, and a harder job for law enforcement to wrangle all these sons of bitches up. So the federal government needs to come up with a better way, folks, a better way, because this is not going to work, this is not a sustainable strategy, as we can see. And until we figure it out, up here in America, the violence down in Mexico is only going to get worse. All right, folks, that's going to do it for this evening update. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that at bobbykapucci@protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter @B-O-B-B-Y_C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The links that we discussed in this episode can be found in the description box. - Every day when you log in to chumbacacino.com, the ultimate online social casino, you get a free daily bonus. Imagine if you got daily bonuses in other parts of your life. - I chose French fries over loaded French fries. - I asked Stewart from accounting about his weekend, even though I don't care. I updated my operating system without having to call tech support. - Collect your free daily bonus at chumbacacino.com now. - And live the chumba life.