Mexican drug cartels Sinaloa and CJNG could try to corrupt NZ Customs and police
The New Zealand Drug Intelligence Bureau has warned two of
the world's biggest drug cartels could be trying to infiltrate our police and
Customs services to corrupt their staff.
In 2019, Newshub broke the story about El Chapo's Sinaloa
Cartel, the likely group behind big methamphetamine and cocaine shipments
coming to New Zealand.
Now there is confirmation that the Sinaloa and Jalisco New
Generation Cartel (CJNG) Mexican crime groups are supplying drugs to New
Zealand, and police say they even have members working in Aotearoa as go-betweens
with local gangs.
And the Mexican influence is causing more violence among our
own street gangs as they jostle for control of local distribution.
Beheadings and public hangings are part of the work of the
cartel CJNG.
Customs investigations manager Bruce Berry told Newshub
cartels use intimidation to get what they want.
"These organisations have an international reputation
for violence as a method of intimidation, both to get their own means and
market share but also in dealing with Government agencies and officials."
Scott Stewart, who works for the geopolitical intelligence
firm Stratfor in Austin, Texas, says Mexican crime groups are particularly
ruthless.
"[You] quite frequently see abductions where members of
rival cartels are kidnapped, dismembered, tortured."
CJNG is just one of the foreign syndicates targeting New
Zealand, because Kiwis pay top dollar for drugs.
"In New Zealand a point of meth sells for between $80
and $100. In the US it sells for $5. So these groups look at New Zealand as the
golden nugget," National Organised Crime Group national manager Detective
Superintendent Greg Williams told Newshub.
CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel, formerly run by El Chapo, the
criminal featured in the Netflix series of the same name, are expanding their
influence internationally.
A drug intelligence report on Mexican organised crime says
"it's almost certain" such groups "will continue to export
illicit drugs, primarily cocaine and methamphetamine, to New Zealand".
"CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel are currently the only
identified cartels engaging in this activity, and are likely to remain the
dominant Mexican crime groups in terms of supply to New Zealand," the
report says.
Police say it's foreign meth made cheaply and in industrial
quantities by global criminal organisations that's addicting and crippling our
communities.
"It's having a huge effect in New Zealand right
now," Williams says.
Mexican cartels are well-known for corrupting public
officials to help them traffic drugs and launder the profits.
The report states: "It's possible that Mexican crime
groups will try to corrupt members of border and or law enforcement agencies in
New Zealand, to support their activities".
Mexican cartels are something to be worried about in New
Zealand.
"Law enforcement and security agencies in New Zealand
need to be very concerned about the potential for bribery," Stewart says.
But Berry says they already do work on organised crime
groups at Customs.
"There's always a concern of corruption. We have integrity
watchlines, we do regular quality assurance. We talk to our staff around how
these organised crime groups work."
While it's not likely New Zealand will see violent
shootouts, what's more likely, according to the report, is "domestic
inter-gang violence fuelled by competition for distributing these [Mexican]
drugs"
Authorities say local gang turf wars are already happening.
"That's a fairly clear inference from the level of
violence and gang warfare that we're seeing across New Zealand at the
moment," Berry says.
Williams says that gangs are all competing in the same small
pool for the same market.
And he added that members are now working in New Zealand to
help get drugs in and send the profits back offshore.
"We know they've got facilitators that they're putting
into New Zealand. So we know cartel members are coming into this country and
sitting here and acting as a conduit between those retail outlets."
Having global partners like the Drug Enforcement
Administration, FBI and Homeland Security is helping our authorities identify
risks and act.
But they say communities hold the real power. If they can
stand up, support those addicted and say no to anymore meth, organised crime
won't be able to flourish.
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