Despite Sinaloa cartel leader’s arrest a year ago, drugs still enter US en masse

Global Business

This month marks the first anniversary of the arrest of Mexico’s top drug lord, Chapo Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. His imprisonment was expected to be a crushing blow to the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States, but one year later, U.S. authorities have conceded that there’s no clear evidence of a decrease in drugs crossing the border. CCTV’s America’s Now reporter Mike Kirsch reported this story.

Americans from coast to coast consume $100 billion worth of illegal narcotics every year, according to a recent US government study. Until recently, the main supplier has been the Mexican drug lord Guzman, whom U.S. authorities considered public enemy No. 1 until he got caught – one year ago this month.

Despite Sinaloa cartel leader\'s arrest a year ago, drugs still enter US en masse

This month marks the first anniversary of the arrest of Mexico’s top drug lord, Chapo Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. His imprisonment was expected to be a crushing blow to the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States, but one year later, U.S. authorities have conceded that there’s no clear evidence of a decrease in drugs crossing the border. CCTV’s America’s Now reporter Mike Kirsch reported this story.

His arrest was compared to taking down U.S. gangster Al Capone, said Jack Riley, the third person in charge at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Anytime you take one of the leading criminals in the world off the set in terms of capturing him and taking him away from his criminal empire you see tremendous damage at all levels of the organization,” Riley said.

But despite Guzman’s arrest, there’s no definitive evidence that fewer drug loads are crossing the U.S. border.

In September 2014, authorities made the biggest money seizure in U.S> history when more than 1,000 federal and local agents raided 75 locations in Los Angeles’ fashion district and seized about $90 million, mostly in cash, from the Sinaloa Cartel.

The operation was proof that the criminal organization is running business as usual, even after Guzman’s arrest.