Major Mexican drug trafficking networks, which once had a strong presence in Venezuela's northwest Zulia state, have left as political changes contribute to a shift in criminal control.
Zulia is a key corridor for Colombian cocaine destined for international markets. The town of San Felipe was once so inundated with agents of Mexico's most notorious criminal group – the Sinaloa Cartel – that it earned the nickname “Sinaloa.”
“But not now,” a local social leader told InSight Crime.
Mexican traffickers withdraw from Zulia under President Nicolas Maduro consolidated control on the country's organized crime landscape. In an increasingly competitive criminal context, the government seems to favor local criminal actors.
How San Felipe became “Sinaloa”
When InSight Crime visited Zulia in 2020, the presence of Mexican emissaries was clear. Drug ballads known as narcocorridos blared from SUV speakers. The singers' distinctive Mexican accents were echoed by speakers on the street.
Mexican groups were attracted to Zulia importance to the regional dynamics of drug trafficking. Its proximity to Colombia's coca-rich Catatumbo region means that a significant portion of the cocaine produced across the border goes to Zulia. Systematic corruption on the Venezuelan side ensures that drugs can flow freely through the country and be shipped to the Caribbean and Central America as long as security force officials get their share.
But two years later, social leaders, journalists and other residents consulted by InSight Crime say the Sinaloa cartel's emissaries have either left Zulia or at least are keeping a much lower profile than before.
What has changed in Venezuela?
Representatives of the Sinaloa Cartel can sometimes leave a trafficking territory after building strong relationships with local criminals who work with them, independent security consultant David Saucedo told InSight Crime.
“Ultimately, the Sinaloa cartel becomes nothing more than a buyer,” he said.
However, in some cases, Venezuelan authorities have actively sought to disrupt the Sinaloa Cartel's operations in Venezuela. Soldiers arrested an individual they identified as a member of the Mexican group in the border state of Apure in April 2021, and in September the following year, Zulia's armed forces seized 2.6 tons of cocaine that the Venezuelan military said belonged to the Sinaloans.
Since these operations, Venezuela's criminal landscape has been more clearly divided into groups that are either allies or enemies of the government. Maduro and other top officials are often supportive local criminal actors who they can more easily influence or impact, with some of them even providing an extra layer of protection against potential dissent or function as tools of oppression against political opponents.
It is most likely a combination of factors, including changes in local and national dynamics, that are driving the apparent withdrawal of brokers linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.
Drug trafficking in Venezuela depends on corruption, with trafficking networks paying security forces and political actors to operate. As such, it is also possible that in Zulia, emissaries linked to the Sinaloa Cartel failed to pay the correct officials, or that officials demanded so much money for protection that the Mexicans decided this route was no longer economically viable.
Wider traffic dynamics have local impact
Around the same time that Mexican traffickers began leaving Zulia, reports also emerged of the disappearance of Mexican brokers from Catatumbo, Colombia, the source of cocaine flowing through the state. The exodus of buyers in Catatumbo between 2021 and 2023 has left many coca producers with no one to sell their product to. Some reports suggest that Mexican drug traffickers have turned to other parts of Colombia, but middlemen representing Mexican drug trafficking organizations began returning in late 2023, according to a Colombian newspaper. The Spectator reported.
Whatever the reasons for the change in trafficking dynamics, recent events suggest that Mexican brokers are unlikely to return to Venezuela anytime soon.
The US government has linked the Sinaloa Cartel to Cartel of the Sunsthe name given to the state-integrated drug trafficking system that operates in Venezuela, putting under the magnifying glass the links between all elements of the state and the Mexican group. At the same time, the US military has intensified its operations to combat drug trafficking from Venezuela to new heights, launch airstrikes against at least nine ships carrying drugs in the southern Caribbean have reportedly left the Venezuelan coast. Under these conditions, the Sinaloa cartel and other trafficking networks will likely turn to safer routes.
