PDEA: Worldwide shakedown over Sinaloa chief’s arrest

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) expects a “major shakedown” in the worldwide narcotics trade following the arrest of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, an official said yesterday.

Reacting to the news that the world’s most wanted drug kingpin has finally been re-arrested, PDEA director general Arturo Cacdac Jr. sees better things ahead amid reports of illegal drug activities of the international drug syndicate in the Philippines.

“With Guzman’s downfall, he also brought with him his influence and network. Thus, we expect a major shakedown on the illegal drug trade in the global arena and will definitely affect the presence of the Sinaloa drug cartel in the country,” he said. 

Guzman was earlier arrested, but managed to escape from a high-security prison in 2001. He had been on the run since then. The Sinaloa drug cartel is based in the city of Culiacan in Sinaloa, Mexico.

According to the agency, the cartel is a dangerously powerful international drug trafficking organization that claimed thousands of lives in drug turf wars and is primarily responsible for the smuggling of tons of narcotics, including cocaine, heroin and marijuana, into the United States.

The cartel is also said to be into laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds from illegal drug trafficking activities that spanned continents.

“El Chapo” was arrested following an early morning raid on a seaside hotel-condominium in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.

According to the PDEA, the Sinaloa drug cartel has found the Philippines, being an archipelagic country demarcated by porous borders and bodies of water, as a possible market and transshipment point for methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.

The agency said the cartel had gained a foothold in the Philippines, as shown by the confiscation of some P420 million worth of shabu during a raid on a game fowl ranch in Lipa City, Batangas.

The confiscated illegal drugs were said to have originated from Mexico.