Three drug cartels operate in Hidalgo, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) revealed.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)—with the largest territorial dominance—the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS), and the Northeast Cartel (CDN)—one of the offshoots of Los Zetas—are located in the state.
The administration of Morena candidate Julio Menchaca Salazar, like his predecessor Omar Fayad Meneses before him, has denied the presence of these criminal organizations and has attributed intentional homicides and other high-impact crimes—in some cases, the bodies were tortured or dismembered—to “criminal rivalry” between local groups fighting over drug dealing and fuel theft. In its National Drug Threat Assessment (NDTA), the DEA reports that the central region of the country is characterized by the territorial dominance of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, with a “significant presence” in Hidalgo, the State of Mexico, Mexico City, Querétaro, and Tlaxcala, but also in Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas.
The states in the western region of the country, bordering the Pacific Ocean, also have a “significant CJNG presence”: Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacán, and Guerrero, as well as those located on the opposite side, along the Gulf of Mexico (Atlantic Ocean), such as Veracruz and Tamaulipas.
“The cartel operates clandestine laboratories in Mexico where it manufactures illicit drugs (fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine) and utilizes vast distribution networks to transport them to the United States,” the NDTA states, also noting that, through its financial arm, the CJNG uses cryptocurrency exchanges, large-scale cash smuggling, trade-based money laundering, and other methods to launder drug trafficking proceeds.
It also warned that “the CJNG is likely increasing its involvement in non-drug trafficking activities, such as gasoline theft, extortion schemes, infiltration of legitimate industries, taxing human trafficking, and perpetrating real estate schemes—including timeshare fraud—for money laundering purposes.”
Hidalgo is the state most vulnerable to fuel theft through drilling into Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) pipelines, although the government has attributed the crime and its “bloody toll” to alleged clashes between local gangs, which it does not associate with cartels.
The Sinaloa Cartel is present in Hidalgo and neighboring states: the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Veracruz, and Puebla, but in San Luis Potosí, whose territory converges with Hidalgo and Veracruz through the Three Huastecas, its presence is “significant.” The DEA has also assigned this status to the nation’s capital.
On April 30, after noticing “toxic gas odors” coming from a wooded area, residents of the community of San Pedro Tlachichilco, in the municipality of Acaxochitlán—located in the Tulancingo Valley—made an anonymous call that led to the discovery of a laboratory for the production of synthetic drugs, according to the Hidalgo Security Cabinet.
Among other items, they found as “finished product” two bags containing a granulated substance with characteristics of methamphetamine, weighing approximately 6 kilograms and 600 grams, and 120 liters of liquid methamphetamine.
The state’s Secretary of Public Security, Salvador Cruz Neri, said that those responsible for the drug lab are from Sinaloa, although he specified that the two detainees are from Hidalgo. He did not elaborate on possible associations with large organized crime organizations.
Regarding the Northeast Cartel, the DEA’s mapping of its domain and areas of operation shows that it has a presence in Hidalgo and the neighboring state of Veracruz.
“The CDN is involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including kidnapping, extortion, car theft, human trafficking, money laundering, prostitution, and armed robbery,” the DNTA states, published on May 15.
However, it places its main center of operations in Tamaulipas: “The cartel is known to extort migrants crossing the Rio Grande in areas controlled by the CDN. CDN members, who primarily control the Ciudad Victoria area in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, bordering the southeastern corner of Texas, have used their corrupt influence to attempt to bribe state police officers and protect their drug and human trafficking networks. Additionally, the CDN has been establishing high-volume cash businesses in Ciudad Victoria to facilitate the cartel’s money laundering activities.”
Huachicol, the Financial Key
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration revealed that several federal and state agencies, both law enforcement and regulatory, are working to find a Mexican transnational criminal organization involved in smuggling methamphetamine, heroin, oil, and gas through the black market on the Texas-Mexico border.
“The investigation has identified multiple cartel leaders with significant ties to the CJNG, the CDS, the Familia Michoacana, and the Gulf Cartel. This investigation has uncovered that transnational criminal organizations obtain or steal, and then smuggle, Mexican crude oil from Peme (Petróleos Mexicanos, Mexico’s state-owned oil corporation) into the United States for sale to U.S. oil and gas companies, in a sophisticated trade-based money laundering scheme.”
This black market oil smuggling operation “is the primary means by which they finance their networks,” the DEA asserted, estimating that Mexico “loses tens of billions of dollars annually in tax revenue, while costing U.S. oil and gas companies billions of dollars annually due to the decline in oil imports and exports during this same period.”
Since 2018, Hidalgo has been the state nationwide with the most illegal taps through which huachicolero groups extract gasoline, diesel, gas, petrochemicals, and even jet fuel.
The NDTA cites that, as a first step in the DEA investigation, on September 10, 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration, sanctioned nine Mexican individuals and 26 entities involved in fuel theft, including a regional leader and founding member of the CJNG (CJNG).
“This designation was the first important step in dismantling one of the largest sources of financing used by drug cartels. Attention will now turn to the U.S. companies and members involved in facilitating this illicit Mexican oil smuggling operation,” it stated.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control revealed that one operator of this cell is Remigio Morfín Morfín, known as “El Primito,” formerly a member of the Gulf Cartel and later a member of the organization led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.”
Based on OFAC’s surveillance, El Primito operated out of Hidalgo—the hotspot for huachicol trafficking in the country—supervising local bosses involved in this crime and supplying stolen fuel to the United States.
Source: proceso
