LOS ANGELES – Despite the recapture of accused drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, his Sinaloa cartel has expanded and deepened its U.S. operations, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Guzmán's men have now seized control of almost all of New Mexico from the rival Beltran Leyva cartel, consolidated their dominance of California and reaffirmed their power along the East Coat of the United States, the DEA reported.

The agency recently published a map of the geographical distribution of drug cartels across the United States this year, showing that Guzman's Sinaloa cartel operates in most of the country, in an area far larger than it had in 2015.





Sinaloa is now a “mature” cartel that has solid alliances with a network of street gangs and tries to avoid law enforcement by reducing to the minimum the number of people involved in the transportation of illegal drugs, the DEA told Univision.

“Basically, they have become increasingly better and more efficient in the traditional methods” of smuggling and transporting drugs, said Timothy Massino, the DEA spokesman in Los Angeles, where virtually all of El Chapo's shipments are concentrated before trucks deliver them to the rest of the country.

The coveted Tijuana-Los Angeles corridor

Houses in the Inland Empire desert region of Southern California, the cities of western Riverside County and southwestern San Bernardino Count, are preferred by the cartel.

Years back, before the DEA first published its map, Tijuana belonged to the Arellano Félix organization, based in the Mexican border city. But then came El Chapo's cartel, which dug dozens of tunnels under the border with California. Now there's a battle in Tijuana against the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka El Mencho.

“Whoever controls the routes going up to Tijuana rules whatever happens in southern California, especially Los Angeles, which is a big transition area for drugs sold in the (rest of) United States, and which is controlled by the Sinaloa cartel,” said the DEA spokesman.

Guzman's expanding power in recent years has reduced the influence in Los Angeles of other cartels like Los Zetas, La Familia Michoacana, Gulf, Beltrán Leyva and CJNG. The DEA said the CJNG is trying to expand its turf in Mexico without raising alarms in the United States.

“They've been here for some time and they are making themselves felt,” Massino said about the CJNG. “I would say their influence has been growing slowly, but in a stable way.”

Using one of its distributing networks, known as Los Cuinis, the CJNG has brought shipments to California and already has a strong presence in Orange, Imperial and Sonoma Counties. A DEA report adds that the cartel also has taken control of cities in Arkansas, Florida and North and South Carolina that had been ruled by allies of El Chapo and the Beltrán Leyva cartel.

Advances by El Mencho

Gabe Morales, author of several books on the Mexican Mafia and founder of the International Latino Gang Investigators Association, said the Sinaloa cartel spread in California through the prison gangLa Eme, under an agreement reached when leaders of the two organization met in U.S. prisons.Law enforcement authorities say the Mexican Mafia steers the criminal activities of Hispanic street gangs. The DEA adds that El Mencho's men also cut deals with Los Angeles street gangs with the approval of La Eme, which has no “exclusive” partners.

“El Chapo controls 90 percent of the drug distribution from San Diego to Los Angeles, but now the people in (the cartel) Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) are joining the Arellano Félix family and gaining ground every day. That's why we're seeing a lot of people killed in Tijuana again,” Morales said.

The DEA said the Sinaloa cartel's use of truck drivers as smugglers who know nothing but their destination is also a signal that the group has grown more sophisticated.

“It's a natural progression for any organization. The limited information that individuals may have creates a specialization, handling only a small part of the supply chain, and that's what makes it a mature organization,” said Massino, the DEA spokesman.

Will the cartel lose power if El Chapo is extradited to the United States?

“We don't know,” said Massino.







