Dozens of individuals allegedly linked to the most powerful cartel in Mexico were arrested and charged by federal agents in California and elsewhere in the western United States, the Department of Justice announced this week. 

The DOJ said that 14 “indictments were unsealed [on Wednesday] charging 47 alleged members of an Imperial Valley, California-based, Sinaloa Cartel-linked fentanyl-and-methamphetamine distribution network with drug trafficking, firearms, and money laundering offenses.”

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the biggest crime syndicates in the world, and has increasingly been the focus of law enforcement in the U.S. It is perhaps best known as the cartel that had long been run by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is currently serving a lifetime sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorao.

Describing it as a “coordinated takedown” executed on Wednesday morning, the Justice Department said that “more than 400 federal, state, and local law enforcement officials arrested 36 defendants and executed 25 search warrants in Imperial County; San Diego; Fresno, California; Los Angeles; Phoenix; and Salem, Oregon.” The agency said that, as of Wednesday afternoon, the search remained ongoing for 11 fugitives.

Court records show that, in June of 2021, “agents seized two pounds of methamphetamine and a cache of ghost guns and ammunition, including: 15 lower receivers, three upper receivers, multiple barrels and stocks, 18 magazines, 40 Luger 9mm rounds, and approximately 400 rounds of .223 Red Army ammunition, which are made in Russia,” the Justice Department said in the announcement on Wednesday.“

None of the firearms or firearm parts had any identifying serial numbers or markings. They were all ghost guns. Wiretap intercepts showed that defendant Cory Gershen supplied other members of the organization with ghost guns in exchange for methamphetamine. The investigation also revealed the assault rifles (depicted below) were destined for the organization’s source of supply in Mexico,” the announcement said.

On that same day in June of 2021, “agents seized additional ghost guns, ammunition, and methamphetamine from another member of the same drug trafficking organization,” according to the Justice Department, which added that “agents seized two AR-style ghost guns and a Colt .380 semiautomatic handgun, and additional Russian rifle ammunition from defendant Guadalupe Molina-Flores, one of the alleged members of the trafficking organization.” 

“According to a search warrant, after seizing the firearms, agents searched Molina-Flores’ residence and found 309.4 grams (0.68 pounds) of methamphetamine,” Wednesday’s announcement said.

The DOJ also noted that its investigation “revealed that the price per fentanyl pill has plummeted.” 

“For example, in June 2021, targets of the investigation were obtaining fentanyl pills in Imperial Valley at approximately $1.65 to $1.75 per pill. By December 2021, the prices being discussed had dropped to approximately $1.25 per pill. By May, the same pills were being sold at only 45 cents per pill — less than one-third of the price three years earlier. The precipitous drop in price reflects the increased supply and availability of fentanyl being smuggled into the United States and the close ties between targets of this investigation and their Sinaloa Cartel supplier of fentanyl pills,” the announcement said.

More from the DOJ’s announcement:

“Including seizures today and throughout the long-term investigation, authorities have confiscated more than four kilograms of fentanyl, which amounts to about two million potentially fatal doses; more than 324 kilograms (over 714 pounds) of methamphetamine; significant quantities of cocaine and heroin; and 52 firearms, including handguns and rifles. The investigation also resulted in the arrest of Alexander Grindley for alleged methamphetamine trafficking while employed as a U.S. Border Patrol agent and multiple spin-off investigations in this district and others. Crimes charged in the indictments include drug trafficking, money laundering, and gun-related offenses. Court documents indicated the defendants were operating throughout the Imperial Valley — in Brawley, El Centro, Westmoreland, Imperial, Calexico, Niland, Holtville, Calipatria — and in Mexicali, Mexico.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the takedown means the Justice Department has “dealt yet another blow to the Sinaloa Cartel and its associates.”

“I am grateful to the more than 400 law enforcement officers whose work in this operation resulted in dozens of arrests, charges against 47 defendants, and the seizure of firearms, meth, cocaine, heroin, and two million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl. We will continue to be relentless in our fight to protect American communities from the cartels,” Garland said in a statement on Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said that his department “and our federal, state, and local partners are unrelenting in our work to keep deadly fentanyl off our streets and bring those who traffic in it to justice.” 

“The indictments unsealed today are the direct result of our multipronged and coordinated law enforcement approach — one that utilizes all of our government’s resources and capabilities. Together, we are preventing fentanyl and other deadly drugs from being produced, distributed, or consumed, and saving countless lives,” Mayorkas said.

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A top member of the Sinaloa cartel responsible for allegedly distributing thousands of pounds of illegal cannabis was shot and killed in Southern California.

Eduardo Escobedo, 39, was found dead Thursday close to the intersection of Rosecrans and Towne avenues in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Escobedo and another man were both killed following a shooting incident.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office identified the second man who was shot dead as Guillermo De Los Angeles Jr., 47. Escobedo and De Los Angeles died at the scene after sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of shots being fired in an industrial area filled with warehouses. A third man was taken to a hospital close by with non-life threatening gunshot wounds. The third man was not identified.

Police officers and firefighter-paramedics arrived at the scene Thanksgiving morning after the shoot at an industrial property filled with warehouses.

ABC 7 reports that details about the shooting are scarce as officers sort through information. “We have no motive at this time. It appears that there was some type of gathering or party at the location from last night to early this morning,” sheriff’s Lt. Omar Camacho told ABC 7 Eyewitness News at the scene.

ABC 7 reports that details about the shooting are scarce. “We have no motive at this time. It appears that there was some type of gathering or party at the location from last night to early this morning,” sheriff’s Lt. Omar Camacho told ABC 7 Eyewitness News at the scene.

Video footage shows that investigators examined a black sedan that was near the bodies with its front doors open. Forty-foot shipping containers, semi trucks, and a forklift were all located nearby and provided a hidden spot where the crime could take place.

Who is El Mago, and What’s the Connection to El Chapo?

The Los Angeles Times reports that Escobedo is a convicted drug trafficker nicknamed “El Mago,” which is “The Magician,” in Spanish. Escobedo was the primary local cannabis distributor for Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Police believe Escobedo also allegedly put out a hit on a rival trafficker who was shot dead in his Bentley on the 101 Freeway in 2008. Escobedo was never charged in the murder, but his brother and another man were convicted and are serving life sentences.

In October 2013, Escobedo was wiretapped and allegedly recorded speaking with Guzmán Salazar about smuggling over five tons of cannabis through a tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border, prosecutors said.

Escobedo also allegedly laundered the drug earnings by purchasing exotic cars and shipping them to the cartel’s main hub in Culiacan, Sinaloa.

He served nearly five years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute more than 22,000 pounds of pot and laundering drug proceeds. For reference, 22,000 pounds is the equivalent of 11 tons or 10,000 kilos of pot. He was released in 2018 after serving time.

Then Escobedo eluded capture by police for over a decade. El Chapo, on the other hand, was arrested in 2014 in Mazatlan. In 2019, he was convicted by a jury of being a principal leader of a continuing criminal under his leadership of the crime syndicate known as the Sinaloa Cartel. 

In 2019, El Chapo was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, and was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture. The sentence marks the end of a 30-year drug trafficking career that saw Guzmán rise to the top of Mexico’s infamous Sinaloa drug cartel. 

Addressing the court at his sentencing hearing at the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York, Guzmán said he had not been given a fair trial and complained about being held in solitary confinement at Manhattan’s federal correctional facility before and during his three-month trial. “Since the government of the United States is going to send me to a prison where my name will never be heard again, I take advantage of this opportunity to say there was no justice here,” he said.

El Chapo’s wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was released in September of this year from a California halfway house. Aispuro was sentenced in 2021 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire. She had faced a minimum of 10 years in prison, but was spared under a so-called “safety valve” provision because she had no prior criminal record, was not considered a leader, and was not personally involved with violence.

Guzman Salazar is one of Mexico’s most wanted men.

Escobedo lived it up on social media in recent years, posting photos with Floyd Mayweather, Al Pacino, and others. He donned attire by Dolce and Gabbana and diamond-encrusted jewelry.

No arrests have been announced by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the results of a widespread drug operation spanning May to September, resulting in over 10 million fentanyl pills and what they say is 36 million lethal doses of the drug. DEA agents blame the mass production of the majority of these pills on two particular cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

While scooping up cartel-manufactured fentanyl off the streets sounds like reason to celebrate—keep in mind that this is only half the problem, and as many as 40% of opioid overdose deaths come straight from the doctor with a prescription, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Fentanyl kills indiscriminately, no matter what the source. According to the National Safety Council, young Americans are more likely to die of an opioid overdose than a car crash.

However, it’s highly likely lives were saved in the process during this particular operation. The DEA released the statistics in a September 30 press release.

As part of the One Pill Can Kill initiative—a public Awareness Campaign to educate the public of the dangers of counterfeit pills such as fentanyl—the DEA and its law enforcement partners seized massive quantities of opioid drugs.

How extensive is the opioid epidemic? The DEA seized over 10.2 million fentanyl pills and about 980 pounds of fentanyl powder during the period of May 23 through September 8.

Often, fentanyl is pressed into blue, round pills that appear to be pharmaceutical in nature, so people think they’re safe. Often, they’re not. In addition, they’ve been showing up in different colors, dubbed “rainbow fentanyl” by the media and the DEA itself. Even people with a tolerance to oxycodone or hydrocodone might not stand a chance with fentanyl or its analogs like carfentanil.

According to the DEA’s math, the amount of fentanyl seized is equivalent to over 36 million lethal doses of the drug removed from the supply. DEA agents also seized 338 weapons including rifles, shotguns, pistols, and hand grenades.

“Fentanyl is responsible for killing thousands of people in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV). We are working diligently with our federal, state, and local partners to mitigate this public health crisis,” said Jarod Forget, DEA Washington Division’s Special Agent in Charge. “Our team is actively seizing significant amounts of deadly fentanyl and working hard on impactful operations and community events to halt the distribution of these deadly drugs into our communities. Mexican cartels are pushing deadly fake pills, often laced with fentanyl, into our neighborhoods to exploit the opioid crisis. We will relentlessly pursue criminals who are bringing such deadly drugs and continue to work to keep you and your families safe. Many people who die from fentanyl poisoning unknowingly consumed it mixed into fake pills or other drugs. Our message to the public is that you never can be certain what is in them and that just ‘One Pill Can Kill’.”

Nearly 400 cases were investigated, and 51 cases are linked to overdose poisonings. DEA agents linked 35 of the cases directly to one or both of the primary Mexican cartels responsible for the majority of fentanyl in the United States, which is the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG.

Here’s how things have changed, however: According to the DEA, 129 investigations are linked to social media platforms like Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and TikTok. Anyone in the cannabis industry has seen plugs openly selling all sorts of drugs.

The last time statistics like this were provided was the One Pill Can Kill Phase II results, which were announced by DEA Administrator Anne Milgram last December.

The DEA says that fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat facing this nation. “In 2021, a record number of Americans—107,622—died from a drug poisoning or overdose,” the DEA release reads. “Sixty-six percent of those deaths can be attributed to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.”

The fentanyl problem is highlighted by specific events, including a recent incident in suburban Los Angeles that involved pills laced with fentanyl that were disguised as something else. The Pasadena Police Department seized 328,000 fentanyl pills in a single operation on September 24, bringing their total seized to approximately 708,500 pills. Then just minutes away in Whittier, police seized eight pounds of pills laced with fentanyl.

Additional resources for parents and the community can be found on DEA’s Fentanyl Awareness page, and the DEA created a new resource, “What Every Parent and Caregiver Needs to Know About Fake Pills.” 

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