El Chapo’s Mexican cartel flooding Melbourne with ice
Super-sized shipments of ice sent to Melbourne by a deadly Mexican drug cartel, run by the sons of kingpin El Chapo, are being seized by Australian authorities. Police are probing if the Sinaloa cartel or a rival is responsible for the drugs hauls.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A deadly Mexican drug cartel run by the sons of infamous kingpin El Chapo is supersizing its ice shipments to Melbourne — due to the huge profits to be made from the high street price of the drug here.
A few years ago most ice busts from Mexico were of less than 100kg. But now, Australian authorities are seizing shipments of hundreds of kilograms and even tonnes.
On Thursday, a Mexican national appeared in a Melbourne court charged over the recent seizure of 766kg of ice hidden in cow hides from Mexico and with a street value of $566 million.
The Australian Federal Police is probing whether the Sinaloa cartel or an equally vicious rival is responsible, and who the local distributors are. Sinaloa — run by Joaquin Guzman Loera, also known as El Chapo, before his 2016 arrest — is thought to ship the most ice to Australia.
His sons Joaquín Guzmán López and Ovidio Guzmán López are vying for full control of the operation.
The Sinaloa cartel has brought terror to northern Mexico as one of the major players in a 13-year drug war which has claimed 120,000 lives
Authorities believe the Sinaloa and rival Jalisco New Generation cartel — the other greatest ice-trafficking threat from Mexico — have built connections with criminal syndicates here including bikie gangs and Asian organised crime groups. They distribute illicit shipments.
On Thursday, Juan Manuel Plaza Lopez, 42, who is no relation to El Chapo’s sons, appeared at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court charged with an alleged plot to hide the 750kg of ice in 18 pallets of cow hides from Mexico.
The AFP has said more arrests could occur in Australia or overseas.
The cow hides haul was the latest in a series of big methamphetamine busts from Mexico destined for Australian drug users.
In May, 480kg of Mexican-produced ice was uncovered in Sydney. In January, authorities in California seized a world record 1.7 tonnes of ice headed for Melbourne.
The AFP is so concerned by the booming ice trade that it opened a Mexico City office in 2017 to combat the scourge at its source. The head of that office, Detective Superintendent Conrad Jensen, said sophisticated criminal enterprises had shifted their focus to synthetic drugs and were chasing new markets.
“A few years ago we were talking about shipments of 50kg to 100kg — whereas now we are talking about very large seizures which reflects the overall methamphetamine trade from Mexico,” he said.
“Australia is seen as a lucrative market for the drug cartels, with a significant price differential between it and the US market.”
There is demand — Australians consumed more than nine tonnes of methamphetamine last year.
Supt Jensen said his Mexico City office, with the help of local authorities, was determined to disrupt the cartels. “It is no longer a case of waiting for the container, boats and planes to arrive in Australia,” he said.
The “business orientated” Mexican gangs use a complex laundering system to ensure they get the hundreds of millions of dollars in drug profits from shipments.
Supt Jensen said there were about three or four different cartel factions, “a loose alliance, under the one umbrella with rivalries about who will be in charge”.
El Chapo, now 62, will die in the toughest prison in America, after a New York court gave him a life term earlier this year. He gained notoriety for escapes from custody in Mexico, including a 1.5km tunnel under a prison which he used to ride a mini motorcycle to freedom.
