Sinaloa cartel gets meth feed stock from China "triads"

South China Morning Post:
Two Hong Kong triads have linked up with one of Latin America's largest and most notorious drug cartels to supply the burgeoning global market for methamphetamine, the Sunday Morning Post has learned.

Members of the 14K and Sun Yee On triads are supplying Mexico's Sinaloa cartel with the raw materials needed to produce methamphetamine, or "crystal meth", as demand skyrockets.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of Mexico's most powerful organised crime groups and has played a deadly role in the country's drug wars, which have claimed 60,000 lives since 2006.

The connection emerged a week after one of the biggest drug busts in recent years saw a massive methamphetamine production racket closed down in the eastern Guangdong city of Lufeng. China is one of the world's biggest producers of methamphetamine, also known as Ice, and of its precursor chemicals. Hong Kong triads have long been significant players in the regional narcotics trade, but recent developments suggest they are seeking to build networks further afield.

Details of the Mexico connection come in the wake of the arrest on Christmas Day of three known affiliates of the Sinaloa cartel in a US intelligence-led raid on a cock fighting farm south of Manila.

Philippine anti-drug agents smashed a meth lab and seized 84kg of the powerful and addictive stimulant in the raid.

"The Mexicans are already here," said drug task force chief Bartolome Tobias, adding that he believed they were getting help from "Chinese drug syndicates".

Informed sources have identified the 14K and Sun Yee On as being among the syndicates known to smuggle the raw material used to make meth - ethyl phenylacetate - into the Philippines.
...
There is a culture of corruption in all three countries that allows these operations to flourish.  The drug culture is one of the few businesses in the world where people get rich by taking money from the poor.

This story from the Business Insider says the Sinaloa cartel also has been cutting deals with the US DEA.

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