FGR Uncovers Sinaloa Cartel Plot to Ship Fentanyl to Israel

“Start looking into the possibility of opening up markets in countries like Jordan, Israel, and New Zealand,” one of the leaders of a Sinaloa Cartel cell told another member of the organization during a call intercepted by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) in October 2023.

The person on the other end of the line—identified in the case file as the operative responsible for smuggling drugs across the Mexicali-Calexico border and distributing them within the United States—took weeks to revisit the topic. However, when he did—according to the report by investigators who analyzed the audio—he confirmed that the plan would indeed go ahead: they would open markets in those three countries, starting with Israel, and divide up the territories as opportunities arose.

The call was recorded verbatim in the case file for trial—or criminal appeal proceeding—No. 21/2025, which was resolved on April 23, 2026, by the First Collegiate Court of Appeal of the Second Circuit (based in Toluca, State of Mexico) and to which MILENIO gained access. One of more than forty pieces of evidence—including intelligence reports, forensic chemistry analyses, search warrant records, and official correspondence from U.S. agencies—supports the prosecution of members of a Sinaloa Cartel cell. Their operational method—involving production in Culiacán and trafficking across the Mexicali-Calexico border for distribution in the United States—matches the modus operandi authorities attributed to Hernán Domingo Ojeda López (alias “El Mero Mero”), an uncle of Ovidio Guzmán who was arrested in December 2024.

According to the allegations currently under investigation, the group produced fentanyl in clandestine laboratories—concealed among drums of caustic soda and metallic packaging—before smuggling it across the Mexicali-Calexico border into the United States. Furthermore, up until last year, the Sinaloa Cartel’s plan included transporting the drug to countries in the Middle East and even Oceania.

Supplies closer to Eastern markets

According to court documents obtained by this newspaper, the organization had spent months—up until late 2023—discussing the possibility of diversifying its market beyond the United States. The three aforementioned regions appear at least twice in intercepted communications, suggesting that the idea was not merely a passing remark but a topic revisited and discussed at various times over the course of several weeks.

The ambition was not far-fetched, given the way the group manufactured the drug. According to the case file, the raw materials for producing fentanyl—caustic soda, benzene, and methylene—were purchased in China. One cartel operative explained this to another in a wiretapped call:

“The product you buy in China costs you $2,500, and bringing it over makes it $5,000 […] from one kilo, you get another kilo.” In fact, countries like Jordan, Israel, and New Zealand were geographically closer to that supply route than the United States, their traditional market.

They purchased ingredients such as caustic soda, benzene, and methylene in China, and according to them, the costs broke down as follows: “The product [bought in China] costs you $2,500, and bringing it over makes it $5,000 (…) from one kilo, you get another kilo.” They were likely explaining that every kilo of precursor purchased in China was converted—once in Sinaloa—into two kilos of finished product.

A report from the Federal Criminal Intelligence Center, dated December 2023, identified the destination of these materials: “The trafficking of fentanyl precursors originates in China, entering through seaports such as Mazatlán and Topolobampo.”

The terms they used to refer to the drug were simply “blue,” “purple,” “white,” or “green”—never fentanyl. In another audio recording cited in the FGR (Attorney General’s Office) case file—which is part of the *amparo* (constitutional protection) proceedings—a Sinaloa Cartel operative even compared their operation to a legitimate business: “We’re like a company, a company with business interests; lately, it hasn’t been profitable because prices are dropping and our margins aren’t high—it just hasn’t been profitable.” 

When the Sinaloa Trafficking Operation Stumbled

On September 21, 2023, a woman from Mexicali appeared at the intake office of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime. According to the formal complaint she filed, her daughter had been arrested months earlier at the Mexicali-Calexico border while in possession of drugs.

The exact date—later confirmed by an official communication from the U.S. Office of National Security—was May 10, 2023: agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained the young woman for illegal possession of methamphetamine.

Shortly after learning of the arrest, the mother received a call from an unknown number. A man confirmed the news and told her that “they would take care of getting her out of jail.” They were members of the Sinaloa Cartel. But he also threatened her: if she notified the authorities, they would kidnap both her and her granddaughter.

By September—four months after her arrest—her daughter was released by U.S. authorities; however, she had been forced to smuggle drugs into the United States for a man nicknamed “El Chacal,” who—according to the woman who filed the complaint—managed the “mules” trafficking fentanyl into California.

That anonymous tip, filed out of fear, was the starting point for everything. Four days later, on September 25, 2023, a federal ministerial police officer began tracking phone numbers and managed to identify one of the criminal groups operating in Baja California. It was one of the factions working for the Sinaloa Cartel.

That same day, an official communication from the U.S. Office of National Security confirmed that the name mentioned in the tip matched that of an individual who had been under investigation in the United States since August 2015 as the leader of an organization dedicated to trafficking methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin.

Records from that investigation revealed that the same individual had pleaded guilty in a California court in March 1996 to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin, and was deported to Mexico in November 2007 after serving a 135-month prison sentence in the United States.

Subsequently, the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime requested and obtained—securing approvals from successive judges—authorization to wiretap more than a dozen telephone lines; the initial authorization was granted on September 26, 2023, and the final ones extended through February 21, 2024.

During that period, investigators monitored the organization as it coordinated shipments, discussed prices, resolved production issues, and—between October and November 2023—began expanding into the international market.

The case file reveals that this same network is linked to the arrest of Hernán Domingo Ojeda López—alias “El Mero Mero”—an uncle of Ovidio Guzmán López. Mexican and U.S. authorities have identified Ojeda López as a key operator in the trafficking of fentanyl from Culiacán to the United States on behalf of the Sinaloa faction known as “La Mayiza.” He was arrested on December 16, 2024, in Badiraguato, Sinaloa, and formally charged on December 26 of that same year.

The Fentanyl Distribution Map

When the organization used code names like “Los Ángeles,” “Las Torres,” or “Disney,” they weren’t just referring to tourist destinations. According to the case file, these aliases masked actual U.S. cities where the network distributed fentanyl produced in Sinaloa: Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Jacksonville, Bakersfield, Arizona, and Ohio, among others.

According to the prosecution’s reconstruction based on wiretaps, the logistics worked as follows: the fentanyl was produced in clandestine laboratories in the municipalities of Pericos and Culiacán, Sinaloa. From there, it was packaged and transported to Mexicali, Baja California, where the person responsible for “providing the logistics for smuggling the drugs into the United States” coordinated its movement across the border into Calexico.

To transport the drugs, they used private vehicles, individuals known as “mules,” and heavy-duty trucks referred to as *trocas* or *fletes*.

In one of the calls, an operator explained how they evaded border checkpoints: they hid the product inside the gas tank in vacuum-sealed bags.

“When the X-ray beam passes through, it doesn’t show up as a square shape because it’s compressed,” he explained, referring to the X-ray scanners used by U.S. Customs.

On March 8, 2024, authorities raided at least nine properties linked to the organization. Among them was a location internally known as the “Casa Azul” (Blue House) in Culiacán, Sinaloa, where they found 499 glass ampoules containing a yellow liquid, eight bags of a crystalline substance, and documents “bearing various notations referencing potential shipments of chemicals from China to Mexico City.”

At another location, forensic experts found 41 containers of a colorless liquid, another 30 containers, eight bags of a white crystalline substance, and a blue powder that—according to the corresponding chemical analysis—turned out to be fentanyl.

An official document from the Federal Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris), dated December 27, 2023, confirmed what was already suspected: none of the individuals under investigation held any authorization to handle narcotics, psychotropic drugs, or controlled chemical substances.

Today, the formal indictment of the members of this network has been upheld by federal appellate courts in at least three separate rulings. The first concerned an individual who, according to the case file, coordinated fentanyl production and its transport to Mexicali alongside his son. This ruling was upheld on April 23, 2026, by the First Collegiate Appellate Court of the Second Circuit, based in Toluca.

The second ruling involved a man identified as the operation’s leader, who was responsible for acquiring precursor chemicals in China and coordinating their entry into and distribution within the United States. He was formally indicted on November 28, 2025—notably, by that time, he had already been handed over to U.S. authorities at some point during the proceedings. The ruling on his appeal was upheld on June 30, 2026.

These actions represent just a fraction of the efforts being made by authorities in both countries to limit access to precursor chemicals, as well as to curb the manufacturing and subsequent distribution of the drug to multiple locations—not only within the United States but also in distant countries on the other side of the globe.

Source: Milenio