Luego de que Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán fue sentenciado a cadena perpetua, los hijos del capo del Cártel de Sinaloa encaminaron el negocio familiar hacia el fentanilo y establecieron una red de laboratorios que produce enormes cantidades de esa droga barata y letal que trafican a Estados Unidos, dieron a conocer fiscales en un acta de acusación reciente.
Aunque el juicio a “El Chapo” giró en torno a cargamentos de cocaína, el caso contra sus hijos pone al descubierto el funcionamiento interno de un que experimenta un relevo generacional en el mando a medida que trabaja para “fabricar el fentanilo más potente del mundo y venderlo en Estados Unidos al menor precio”, de acuerdo con el acta de acusación desprecintada el 14 de abril en Manhattan.
Los opioides sintéticos —principalmente el fentanilo— matan actualmente a más estadounidenses al año de los que murieron en las guerras de Vietnam, Irak y Afganistán juntas, ante lo cual algunos políticos han argumentado que los cárteles deberían ser catalogados como organizaciones terroristas, y también han surgido exhortaciones, antes impensables, de que Estados Unidos intervenga militarmente en México.
“Como me dijeron unas personas del Departamento de Estado, tenemos que replantear el problema del fentanilo; no es un problema de drogas”, dijo Alejandro Hope, analista de seguridad de México que falleció el pasado viernes. “Muy poca gente sale deliberadamente a buscar fentanilo”.
Hope pronosticó que probablemente el fentanilo sea un tema influyente en las elecciones estadounidenses del año próximo, pero él se oponía a una intervención militar de Washington en México.
Las bases para la epidemia de fentanilo en Estados Unidos fueron establecidas hace más de 20 años, luego de que los médicos empezaron a recetar ampliamente el opioide sintético oxicodona. A medida que las autoridades estadounidenses actuaban para que ya no fuera recetado, los usuarios cambiaron la oxicodona por la heroína, que el Cártel de Sinaloa les suministró gustoso.
Pero el fabricar su propio fentanilo —mucho más potente y versátil que la heroína— en pequeños laboratorios fáciles de ocultar fue un cambio radical. En menos de una década, el cártel pasó de desarrollar su primer laboratorio improvisado de fentanilo a tener una red de laboratorios concentrados en el estado de Sinaloa, en el norte de México.
“Estos no son súper laboratorios, porque le dan a la gente la impresión de que son como laboratorios farmacéuticos, ya saben, muy sofisticados”, comentó Mike Vigil, exdirector de operaciones internacionales de la DEA. “Estos no son nada más que tubos de metal, y usan cucharas de madera —e incluso palas de metal— para mezclar las sustancias químicas”.
Un sólo “cocinero” del cártel puede puede prensar fentanilo en 100.000 pastillas falsificadas cada día para engañar a los estadounidenses, haciéndoles creer que están tomando Xanax, Percocet u oxicodona. Las pastillas son contrabandeadas a través de la frontera para abastecer lo que Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, uno de los hijos de “El Chapo”, dijo que son “calles de drogadictos”, según la acusación.
El fentanilo es tan barato de producir que el cártel obtiene ganancias enormes, incluso vendiendo la droga a 50 centavos la pastilla, de acuerdo con los fiscales.
La potencia de esa droga la hace especialmente peligrosa. La dosis de fentanilo para generar efectos narcóticos está tan cerca de la dosis letal que una pastilla destinada a garantizar el “viaje” para un consumidor habituado puede matar fácilmente a una persona menos experimentada que tome algo que no sabía que era fentanilo.
Entre agosto de 2021 y agosto del año pasado, más de 107 mil estadounidenses murieron por sobredosis de narcóticos, la mayoría por opioides sintéticos. El año pasado, la DEA incautó más de 57 millones de pastillas con fentanilo que simulaban ser fármacos que requieren receta para su venta, según el acta de acusación de Nueva York.
Para proteger y expandir ese negocio, los “Chapitos” —como se conoce a los hijos de Guzmán— han recurrido a una violencia grotesca, según los fiscales.
Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar y Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar son los principales acusados entre 23 socios imputados en el encausamiento en Nueva York. Ovidio Guzmán López, alias “el Ratón”, que supuestamente impulsó al cártel hacia el fentanilo, está acusado en otra acta en el mismo distrito. México lo arrestó en enero y el gobierno estadounidense ha solicitado su extradición. Joaquín Guzmán López está acusado en el Distrito Norte de Illinois.
De acuerdo con la imputación de los Guzmán Salazar, el cártel realiza algunas pruebas de laboratorio de su producto, pero lleva a cabo más pruebas macabras en humanos en rivales secuestrados o adictos a los que inyecta hasta que sufren una sobredosis.
La pureza del fentanilo del cártel “varía considerablemente dependiendo del método y la habilidad del fabricante en particular”, señalaron los fiscales. Después de que un usuario sufriera una sobredosis con un lote, éste se siguió enviando a Estados Unidos.
Cuando “El Chapo” Guzmán e Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada dirigían el Cártel de Sinaloa, operaba con cierto grado de moderación. Pero ahora que Guzmán cumple una sentencia de cadena perpetua y se cree que Zambada sufre problemas de salud, los “Chapitos” se movilizaron enérgicamente para evitar un vacío de poder que pudiera fragmentar al cártel.
“Lo que era realmente una ventaja única del Cártel de Sinaloa y de ‘El Chapo’ era la capacidad de calibrar la violencia”, dijo Vanda Felbab-Brown, investigadora principal del Centro Strobe Talbott para la Seguridad, la Estrategia y la Tecnología del Instituto Brookings.
La amplia acusación presentada en Nueva York contra los hermanos Guzmán Salazar detalla su afición a alimentar con enemigos a sus tigres mascotas, y describe cómo torturaron a dos agentes federales mexicanos, desgarrando los músculos de uno de ellos con un sacacorchos y rellenando los agujeros con chiles para después balearlo.
El acta de acusación también brinda un poco de contexto a algunos hechos violentos recientes en México.
En agosto de 2022, hombres armados comenzaron a disparar al azar en Ciudad Juárez, en el estado norteño de Chihuahua. Dos reclusos y nueve civiles fallecieron. Fiscales estadounidenses señalaron que el brazo de seguridad de los “Chapitos” ordenó a sus socios de organizaciones locales que perpetraran los actos violentos, dirigidos contra los negocios de un cártel rival.
“Este no es el Cártel de Sinaloa de su padre”, comentó Felbab-Brown. “Estos tipos simplemente operan con una mentalidad muy distinta a la de su padre”.
El acta de acusación de los hermanos Guzmán Salazar hace un primer intento de interrumpir la cadena de suministro del cártel, nombrando a cuatro personas vinculadas a una empresa de sustancias químicas de China y a un intermediario de Guatemala que supuestamente ayudó al cártel a obtener las sustancias e incluso les enseñó las mejores recetas para fabricar fentanilo.
«Cuando hablan acerca de laboratorios y uno trata de enfocarse en los laboratorios, eso no va a tener ningún impacto a menos que uno obtenga el producto acabado o los precursores químicos”, dijo Vigil.
El gobierno de México ha tropezado con mensajes contradictorios, en los que sus fuerzas de seguridad destacan el desmantelamiento de laboratorios, incluso luego de que el presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador ha afirmado que el fentanilo no se produce en México.
En un testimonio ante el Congreso el jueves pasado, la administradora de la DEA, Anne Milgram, fue cuestionada acerca de si México y China están haciendo lo suficiente para cooperar con Estados Unidos.
“Queremos que los mexicanos trabajen con nosotros y queremos que tomen más medidas”, dijo Milgram, y añadió que la DEA no dudaría en ir tras funcionarios públicos de México o de otras partes si encuentra pruebas de que tienen vínculos con los cárteles.
Los expertos dicen que López Obrador es un obstáculo en el intento de frenar la producción de fentanilo del cártel. Luego de que fiscales estadounidenses anunciaron la ofensiva coordinada contra el Cártel de Sinaloa, el mandatario mexicano se molestó. López Obrador acusó a Washington de “espionaje” e “intromisión abusiva”, insinuando que el caso había sido construido con base en información recopilada por agentes estadounidenses en México.
El presidente ya había reducido fuertemente la cooperación de México con la DEA, de acuerdo con expertos.
Hope, el analista de seguridad, dijo que un problema fundamental es que López Obrador no parece entender la amenaza que supone el fentanilo. El presidente arremete contra el deterioro de los valores familiares en Estados Unidos y retrata las adicciones como un fracaso moral.
“Está entrampado en un universo moral de hace 50 años”, señaló Hope.
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