Mexican Drug Cartels in Africa

May 18th-28th is Africa Week in Mexico. According to a press release from the SRE (Mexican Foreign Ministry) on the first day of Africa Week, Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco “highlighted Mexico’s commitment to strengthening its political, economic, academic, and cultural ties with Africa”.

Don’t worry, Chancellor Velasco. There is already a strong Mexican economic link with Africa, managed by the major Mexican drug cartels, which already have their claws in the continent of Africa.

According to Dagvin Anderson, Supreme Commanding General of US Africa Command (USAFRICOM), “Terrorist groups based in Africa are increasingly funded by Mexican cartels. In South Africa, we dismantled the largest laboratory, and it had members of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Jalisco New Generation is also involved with methamphetamine!”

From Nigeria: “Nigeria’s anti-drugs agency said on Wednesday [May 20] it had uncovered what it described as the country’s largest-ever industrial-scale meth lab in a southwestern remote forest and arrested nine suspects, including three Mexican nationals.

“The raid on a remote farm revealed an ‘industrial-scale clandestine laboratory, the biggest ever discovered in Nigeria hidden in a remote forest in Ogun state [SW Nigeria],’ the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said in a statement.

“The operation, which also included raids on two residential properties in an upscale Lagos neighbourhood, recovered chemicals worth $362,922,000, including crystal meth, it added.”

On the other side of Africa, “Mozambique has long been a key transit point for the trafficking of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and opioids, but recent arrests and government data show that the drug business is expanding alongside rising concerns of domestic addiction problems.“

“After months of investigating evidence and rumors of international cartel activity and at least two hidden drug labs in the nation’s capital, police arrested three men — a Mozambican and two Mexican nationals — during an April 11 anti-drug-trafficking operation at Maputo International Airport.”

“ ‘There is strong evidence linking the three detainees to international drug trafficking, document forgery and criminal association,’ the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) said in an April 16 statement. ‘The two Mexicans were identified as members of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and intended to establish themselves in the national territory, specifically in Matutuine district, Maputo province.’ ”

The aforementioned General Anderson told lawmakers of the United States House Armed Services Committee that “The convergence of terrorism and narco-trafficking further exacerbates these threats. African-based terror groups are financed to an increasing degree by drug cartels, expanding those terror group’s reach and lethality. This convergence not only destabilises the region but also poses a direct threat to US national security interests.”

“Since 2024, we have seen an increased flow of drugs emanating from the Americas through Africa into Europe, with a nearly sixfold increase of cocaine flowing across the Atlantic Ocean. Additionally, Mexican, Venezuelan, and Caribbean cartels seek to franchise industrial-scale drug production on the continent by exporting lab expertise to Africa and using Africa as a transshipment point to generate revenue.”

“Both the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and the Sinaloa Cartel have established methamphetamine production labs in Africa to exploit an expanding market in permissive regions. Mexican cartel members were arrested during raids in several African countries at some of the largest labs ever discovered.”