The Colombians and the Mexican cartels are more local and mostly in South and North America.
The 'Ndrangheta is active in pretty much the whole of Western Europe, Australia, Canada, United States and Venezuela. They are also active in far more businesses and criminal rackets.
Globally I would definitely rate the 'Ndrangeta above the cartels.
North America
Before continuing, however, it should be noted that a 2009 report by the National Drug Intelligence Center, of the U.S. Department of Justice, states: "Law enforcement reporting indicates that Mexican (drug trafficking organizations) maintain drug distribution networks or supply drugs to distributors in at least 230 U.S. cities." No figures are given as to the number of U.S. citizen cartel members, or drug buyers, traffickers and users, in Mexico.
As well, intelligence reports continue to identify the recruitment of gang members in the U.S., many with transnational ties to fellow hoods in Central America. Mexico's Sinaloa, Gulf, Juárez, and Tijuana cartels are reportedly leading the recruitment of the dangerous street and prison gang members in the U.S.
In Canada, "Mexico-type" drug gang on gang violence and targeted homicides have broken out in cities like Vancouver, British Columbia, generating significant media attention (particularly with the 2010 Winter Olympics scheduled for Vancouver). In this Canadian area, since January of this year there have been 17 fatal shootings according to news and warden reports.
"The Mexican cartels are a factor that has contributed to the violence. The situation is quite serious insofar as historically there have not been shootouts in public places here, so the people are concerned for their safety," Pat Fogarty, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police superintendent with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, told the Mexican newspaper El Informador (3/25/09).
"Almost all (of the) cocaine in Canada comes via Mexico, the hub for South American producers. Canadian-based organized crime groups buy the drug either directly from the cartels in Mexico, or from middlemen in Los Angeles and other American cities," The Canadian Press news agency wrote in a piece that ran March 4. "Although Mexicans aren't generally at the helm of Canadian gangs, organized crime here does have contact with the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels in Mexico."
Vancouver – "currently the scene of another drug war" – is also an important amphetamine and marijuana source for U.S. buyers, according to the Mexico City daily Excélsior (4/11/09).
Central America
Much of the cocaine from Colombia, destined for users in the United States, Canada and Mexico, is shipped north through logistically important Central America. Drugs are brought in by air or sea to area distribution centers and then forwarded to and through Mexico.
And, in addition to an ongoing Mexican drug cartel presence in the area, violent gangs (with U.S. and Mexican ties) are active in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Parenthetically, there are Guatemalan reports of an increasing number of Central American street gang members in Spain, where the latter have apparently been sent to oversee and stimulate drug sales rather than violence.
Guatemala, with its own record of violence and unrest, is now suffering even more due to Mexican drug traffickers who use the country as a way station and staging area for drug shipments, and a safe haven from Mexican military pursuit. At times with the same savagery and intimidating tactics the drug lords employ in Mexico, Sinaloa and Gulf cartel members especially deploy ready cadres from local training camps that have been set up for Los Zetas gunmen from Mexico, ex-Kaibiles (former members of the elite Guatemalan Special Forces) and other hit men. On occasion even cross border firefights have been reported.
Officials in Belize report increased activities in unpopulated areas, which include the stockpiling of drug consignments en route north.
Panama has also become an important center for both logistics planning between South American and Mexican drug traffickers, and the transshipment of northbound cocaine. It is especially important when one considers the proximity to Colombia.
South America
Without going into the history of coca, cocaine production, cartel trafficking and violence, and the involvement of rebel groups in countries like Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, suffice it to say that the longtime presence and collaboration of Mexican organized crime in those countries now may be growing. And the range of the Mexican cartels extends to other South American countries.
Regarding Peru, in March the Los Angeles Times reported:
"A recent surge in arrests and cocaine seizures in Peru points to an increased presence of Mexican drug cartels, counter-narcotics officials say.
"The cartels have also contributed to more drug-related violence in Peruvian cities, ports and in remote valleys in this Andean country where coca, cocaine's base material, is grown, the officials say.
"Peruvian claims of Mexican cartels expanding echo those by officials in other Latin American countries, from Honduras to Argentina, where Mexican gangs have supplanted once-powerful Colombian cartels as kings of the illicit-drug underworld."
(…)
Last December, authorities began to keep track of Mexicans entering Peru. Juan Alvarez, the head of Peru's office of Migrants and Naturalization (under the Interior Ministry), confirmed the monitoring, adding that the operation is supported by the General Secretariat of Interpol, in France.
The fact is, Mexican narcotraffickers and their henchmen are found throughout South America.
Argentina and Chile have become new rungs in the Americas ladder known as the "Ephedrine Route," weasel words for countries that supply raw materials for Mexican drug traffickers (Excélsior, 3/30/09). And a probably related case in Argentina last August is still making headlines today.
On August 7, 2008 three Argentinean pharmaceutical executives disappeared, with their dumped bodies found on the outskirts of Buenos Aires a week later. A "Mexican style" triple murder, committed "supposedly by Mexican hands," according to the media (Diario de Yucatán, 3/19/09).
In the ensuing investigation, Argentinean officials found evidence of a network of ephedrine sales and clandestine laboratories, with mention of a León Cartel, of Guanajuato, Mexico, being behind the trafficking in Buenos Aires (state officials in Guanajuato deny the existence of such a cartel or cell). Subsequently, however, it was concluded that Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was behind the trafficking and killings.
Europe
According to reports from the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) of the United Nations, Central American and Caribbean street gang members are being recruited by Mexican cartels in order to represent their interests in Europe, with the cities of Barcelona and Madrid, in Spain, and Oslo, Norway, being singled out. Those recruited, the UN research says, are working to expand their Mexican patrons' drug businesses and sales in European cities.
José Manuel Martínez, the INCB representative for Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, was quoted on the subject in the Guatemalan newspaper El Periódico last December. "Certainly the Sinaloa, Gulf, and Tijuana cartels are training young mareros (street gang members) and gang members. With them, they seek to spread to Europe and this shows that the time when the Maras were a Central American problem has now ended."
Italian law enforcement officials, based on investigations by the Carabiniere and information shared by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), confirmed in late 2008 that Mexico's Los Zetas have strengthened ties with Mafioso organizations in Italy, in particular with the ‘Ndrangheta. These Italian mobsters are home based in the Reggio Calabria area of southern Italy.
Since early last year the Carabiniere has been intercepting calls from people in the United States who are part of this transatlantic network that sends drugs from Mexico to Europe, according to a piece from the Mexican News service Apro (12/28/08).
In February of this year, Apro editors reported that Nicola Gratteri, the city attorney of Reggio Calabria, said that the 'Ndrangheta mafia and Mexico's Gulf Cartel leaders communicate via Blackberries and SMS messaging. Gratteri refused to give additional details, telling the reporter he didn't want "to give the mafia suggestions."
Antonio Nicaso, an expert on crime who has coauthored a new book on the Calabria mafia with Gratteri ("Blood Brothers"), added that the Mexican cartel and Italian mafia alliance is absolutely key. This because the 'Ndrangheta control all of the main seaports in Europe that are ports of entry for drugs, most of these being located in Spain and Holland, the Apro article said.
Last August, in Toronto, Canada, a 42 year old 'Ndrangheta member named Guiseppe Collucio was arrested, and Italian authorities recognized him as one of those in charge of sending cocaine to Italy by way of South America, Apro reported. Collucio belongs to one of the 'Ndrangheta families that settled in Canada, and it was from there that he was in contact with Colombian drug lords in order to buy cocaine that was then shipped to Europe.
Following Collucio's arrest, his Italian clients became uneasy and they decided to change contacts. And 'Ndrangheta leaders in Italy put them in communication with Mexico's Gulf Cartel, according to Piero Grasso, Italy's Director of Public Prosecutions for Mafia Crimes.
"In Rome, Public Prosecutor Grasso declared: 'The novelty in this international operation is the narco starting point role that Mexico has assumed, replacing Colombia and becoming the major drug distributor in the world,'" the Apro piece concluded.
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Also see: Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2008, International Narcotics Control Board, United Nations (MexiData.info posted 04/06/09)
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Barnard Thompson, editor of MexiData.info, has spent 50 years in Mexico and Latin America, providing multinational clients with actionable intelligence; country and political risk reporting and analysis; and business, lobbying, and problem resolution services.
