Alert of “criminal pact” between Mexican drug cartels and organized crime in Europe

A new collaboration pact has been created between Mexican cartels and European criminal groups to bring shipments of methamphetamine and cocaine produced in Latin America to European Union (EU) territory.

Alliances have also been established to produce illicit substances such as methamphetamine crystals and cocaine in salt form (cocaine hydrochloride) on European soil. According to a study, Mexican laboratories operating in the EU are using "unique production methods and are involved in particular stages of methamphetamine manufacturing." It also highlights that the cartels are "recycling and reducing chemical waste" of the substances with which they produce drugs, which allows them to generate "greater profits and higher yields from a very potent final product."

While there are no indications of fentanyl in the European drug market, the discovery of fentanyl production facilities and the seizures of chemical material used to produce the star substance of Mexican cartels raises concerns about the possible development of this business as part of the "criminal pact". The alerts stem from the first report carried out jointly by the DEA and Europol to analyze the threat Mexican cartels pose to the European Union.

The latest report on organized crime on European soil determined that European criminal networks are increasingly international, around 65% of the group's members are of multiple nationalities." The presence of Mexican criminal actors collaborating with EU-based actors in the drug market follows this trend," the document indicates.

The report mentioned as an example of the power of the Mexican cartels in Europe the seizure of 2.5 tons intercepted in Spain in 2021, as well as a shipment of 1.5 tons of the same substance that arrived in Slovakia from Croatia in 2020 and the 1.9 tons seized in Rotterdam in 2019. According to the report, "it is likely" that methamphetamine arriving in Europe from Mexico is only passing through, "to more profitable markets in Oceania and Asia."