What is ‘El Mencho’ Doing in the Basque Country?

On November 18, the Spanish National Police revealed the results of a secret operation carried out with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Dutch anti-narcotics agency: the long reach of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, ‘El Mencho,’ extends through the Basque Country, the autonomous community in northern Spain that includes cities like Valencia and Bilbao.

The discovery of industrial machinery used as secret compartments, warehouses, vehicles, and routes was described in international media as the discovery of an “office” of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), established in alliance with the Italian Camorra mafia and Spanish drug trafficking groups that control the routes to Africa.

In other words, the fastest-growing criminal group in Mexico had a criminal embassy 9,300 kilometers from Jalisco, where it controlled massive drug shipments with the help of mobsters, drug traffickers, and “first-world” officials.

Beyond the figures for drugs and money seized, it’s worth asking what this “office” of “El Mencho” overlooking the French Pyrenees means: that we must stop thinking of the Jalisco cartel as a group of mere drug traffickers and rethink it as the criminal enterprise with the greatest logistical reach in the world. More agile than DHL, more competitive than UPS, lighter than FedEx.

That is their strength: the promise that no one else can transport highly profitable goods—like cocaine, which increases in value by up to 5,000% depending on the distance—from point A to point B as efficiently, securely, and at the lowest possible cost to a portfolio of millionaire clients with a presence in more than 60 countries worldwide.

The choice of an “office” in the Basque Country is no coincidence: Bilbao is home to the largest container terminal in northern Spain, connected to 900 ports worldwide. It is modern, sophisticated, and, best of all for organized crime, incredibly busy. To operate with the necessary speed and avoid costly traffic jams, its workers can only inspect between 5 and 8% of the containers. If everything else goes unchecked, the odds favor the traffickers, not the law.

Given its capacity and infrastructure, the port of Bilbao is a blend of the ports of Veracruz, Altamira, and Tampico, cities already controlled by cells of the Jalisco Cartel. According to figures from the Basque Country, the transit time between Mexico and Spain is 22 days, but organized crime can cut that time by half by bypassing bureaucracy and resorting to bribery.

Furthermore, nearby is the Port of Pasaia, smaller and with a fishing tradition, ideal for light and discreet shipments, such as fentanyl, which only needs a few kilos of pure product to equal the value of bricks of cocaine. Or the Port of Santurtzi, where its more than 719 berths are perfect for concealing drugs and contraband in sardine boats that float by unnoticed.

The Basque Country is strategically important. Located right in the middle of the narcotics route to Central Europe—France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, where drug consumption is skyrocketing—and the African Route, which supplies an emerging market in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Morocco, and beyond.

Moreover, Europol identifies it as a territory controlled by diverse, yet discreet, criminal groups. Low-profile criminals who don’t usually attract large-scale operations, such as Galician smugglers, Colombian drug traffickers, Moroccan hashish smugglers, and Balkan and Italian mafias, all want a large, robust criminal enterprise with a well-known global reputation to move their products: that’s the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and its CEO, born in Aguililla, Michoacán, overseeing its global dominance.

The new Mexican organized crime doesn’t operate on whims. The “office” of “El Mencho” in the Basque Country demonstrates its high level of sophistication and its constant, international operations: how many ports in the world are currently receiving containers that have sailed under the banner of the four-letter cartel?

Sources: Milenio, Cartel Insider Archives