Mexican drug trafficking organizations have infiltrated criminal networks worldwide to spread their destabilizing influence far beyond their continental borders. The Trump administration has hit back against cartels that ship deadly drugs into the U.S. through sanctions and terror designations, in addition to continuing previous administrations’ policies of assisting Mexico with intelligence and strategic planning, and sending special operations forces (SOF) units to advise their Mexican counterparts.
War photographer Jonathan Alpeyrie tells SOAA about the areas where cartel growth is expanding despite the U.S. crackdown, and we highlight one effort underway to close loopholes that could allow drugs to continue entering the U.S.
Push to Europe
According to Alpeyrie, Mexican cartels have been moving outside the region for decades, creating mergers with Nigerian, Moroccan, and Albanian trafficking networks to gain entrance into European and North African markets.
Moving drugs has become easier with increasing globalization, Alpeyrie said. Criminal organizations were “quick to recognize” how easily drugs could be moved through container ships, and how difficult it is to interdict goods being sent by tanker. “Let’s say Holland one day decides to check 100% of the containers,” Alpeyrie explained. “They will stop the flow of commercial goods around the globe and their prices will go up and they will accelerate inflationary price trends.” Instead, officials typically go through 15 to 20% of shipped materials. Criminal organizations know “they can take the loss,” Alpeyrie contends.
To continue flooding drugs into the worldwide marketplace, Alpeyrie says that cartels are always improving their efficiency. As a result, he explained that governments “are always playing catch-up. They can never really anticipate what will be next.”
Alpeyrie says that the primary drivers behind the foreign trafficking groups gaining strength throughout Europe are two major Mexican drug cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). While those cartels “are the middlemen” for cocaine production, Alpeyrie says that they are central to producing meth, crack cocaine, and MDMA.
‘Alpeyrie says that in the face of the increasingly capable drug trafficking nexuses operating throughout Europe, “the European Union (EU) is completely unable to deal with the criminal organizations who are making money and expanding their power bases because of drug sales.”
In May, the European Parliament likewise stated that increasingly sophisticated drug trafficking networks are a “growing threat to citizens’ wellbeing, and to EU security and the economy.”
While the U.S. has been cracking down on drug cartels at home, Alpeyrie argues that their continued explosion in Europe is a “problem” for U.S. security. He suggests that the U.S. “needs strong alliances that they can rely on” in Europe.
Americans Under Threat
The main threat to the U.S. is closer to the homeland. In Alpeyrie’s mind, the level of infiltration the cartels in Mexico have achieved into the government is concerning. He estimates that about 30 to 35% of Mexican government personnel are receiving direct or indirect payoffs from cartels. The figure tracks with U.S. Army estimates that Mexican cartels controlled about one-third of the country as of 2024.
The danger of living near “a partial narco state” should have been “controlled…decades ago,” he argues. “You can’t have your southern border…dissolve into a narco state,” he elaborated.
Americans have already faced dangers from the escalation of violence due to cartel instability. Following the killing of CJNG leader Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Rubén Oseguera Cervantes in February, numerous American tourists found themselves stranded in Mexico and even subject to violence as cartel members torched cars and blocked interstates.
Safer Skies Act
While much of the movement of drugs throughout the world takes place on cargo ships,
SOAA is tracking developments that could close additional loopholes that might be exploited by criminal organizations. In recent years, would-be drug smugglers have attempted to utilize air travel to move drugs and drug money. This has included bribing flight attendants and other “known crewmembers” to carry drugs and trafficking proceeds aboard commercial planes because they are able to escape some scrutiny while passing through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints.
Rep. Gary Peters (D-MI) has put forward the Safer Skies Act of 2025 (H.R. 2353) which would ensure that passengers of charter planes that have passenger loads of more than 10 persons who do not enter or exit their flight through a TSA screening area to the standards of the Aircraft Operator Standard Security Program.
Final Words
While Alpeyrie praises the Trump administration’s counter-trafficking efforts, he says that strengthening the “multi-pronged” effort to combat drug proliferation is still needed. In his mind, this means going after and eliminating criminal organizations, and simultaneously addressing drug addiction in the consumer base.
As one final effort, he suggests rethinking the glamorization of the underworld in the entertainment industry. “When I used to work in Mexico in the cartel territories, I remember asking these small kids, ‘What would you want to do?’ They all wanted to be sicarios [hitmen], and they wouldn’t hesitate. Because they would watch the U.S. Netflix shows. It’s because they grew up in that environment,” he explained.
