Mexican drug cartels are operating in Southern Colorado, DEA says

(COLORADO) — Two Mexican drug cartels that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said are responsible for the fentanyl smuggled into the U.S., are operating in Colorado.

As part of an exclusive, new partnership with the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division , FOX21 News spoke to Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Pullen about the unprecedented action the DEA is taking to target every aspect of the global fentanyl supply chain.

“We use technology to identify who they are, where they are, who they are communicating with, and we try to identify the entire network; so the distribution side, the supply side, and the money laundering side and we try to go after all of those folks at the same time,” said Pullen.

According to the DEA’s website, the Sinaloa Cartel, and the Jalisco Cartel also known as the CJNG Cartel, are operating global criminal enterprises and rely on a global supply chain to smuggle fentanyl into the U.S.

“They operate in all the major cities and they are responsible for bringing drugs into our state,” said Pullen. “The men and women of the DEA are out investigating drug trafficking organizations across the state, including in Southern Colorado and right here in Colorado Springs, and we identify members of cartels regularly who are involved in importing drugs into the state and distributing drugs on our streets.”

In May of this year, “ Operation Cash Out ” was launched across Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana to target and stop the supply of money to cartels.

“Cartels do not care about the 100,000 Americans who died last year, they only care about the money they make,” Pullen said. “They are making billions of dollars; these pills are incredibly cheap to make, two to three cents to make per pill within Mexico.”

According to Pullen, the DEA is involved in looking at the entire network when it comes to drug trafficking organizations and a big piece of that is looking at the way cartels move their money.

“The cartels are making a fortune,” he said. “In some places, we even see pills being sold, say on an Indian reservation for $50 or $60 per pill, so they are making an incredible profit.”

In May 2023, the DEA gave a glimpse into “ Operation Last Mile ,” where federal, state, and local law enforcement worked together to track down distribution networks connected to the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels across the U.S.

The year-long operation resulted in the following arrests, drug seizures, and money confiscated:

• 3,337 arrests
• 44 million fentanyl pills
• 6,500 pounds of fentanyl powder
• 91,000 pounds of methamphetamine
• 8,497 firearms
• More than $100 million

“Cartel figures from the Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG Cartel operate all over the globe,” Pullen said. “I used to work in Asia and we would see Sinaloa Cartel guys in Tokyo, in Beijing, and Australia and Bangkok, because they are peddling their wares everywhere across the world, and if you know they are in Tokyo, you know they are here in Colorado Springs and Denver… and they are working on behalf of these giant criminal organizations within Mexico.”

As the DEA works to disrupt how cartels are moving their finances, during “Operation Cash Out,” nearly 200 money service businesses and financial institutions were contacted by investigators.

“We work with federal, state, and local partners to identify those networks that specifically move the money,” Pullen said. “We work with the banking industry that helps us identify if that money is moving through their systems [and] we work with other money service businesses that also, perhaps, transfer money.”

According to Pullen as a result and in past investigations, the DEA has seized cash, cryptocurrency, and assets, that can be anything from vehicles to airplanes.

“What we are seeing a lot is… that cash is generated and sometimes that cash gets accumulated and driven straight back down to Mexico [and] a lot of the times, that cash is run through certain businesses and it goes through the banking system,” he said. “Sometimes that money goes all the way to China and it gets turned into goods and those goods end up in Mexico.”

As the DEA continues its efforts to dismantle the fentanyl supply chain, Pullen said another piece to the puzzle is tracking down criminals and getting them off the streets, especially in areas that have high rates of violence and overdoses.

“We have an operation called “ Overdrive ,” and we are doing that nationally,” he said. “Essentially what it does, is it looks at the confluence of violent crime and drug trafficking in certain areas and neighborhoods and when we identify that, we deploy teams there to work on those neighborhoods and that specific problem set, and we work with our state and local counterparts to help us identify that and to go after those folks.”

As FOX21 continues its partnership with the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division to share this vital information, our next series will go more in-depth into where the chemicals used to produce fentanyl are being made, how those chemical precursors are then brought into Mexico, and what happens to them after landing in the cartels’ laboratories.

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