A Mexican drug cartel has infiltrated the lucrative red snapper industry, using fishing boats to smuggle drugs and plunder U.S. waters.
Long a battlefield, the blue waves of the Gulf of Mexico may surprise you as the newest fighters. Not only are law enforcement authorities and smugglers engaged in a high-stakes game, but the Gulf’s valuable red snapper has become the unusual prize in a profitable criminal industry.
U.S. officials and fishermen have warned about widespread illicit fishing in the area for years. However, the infamous Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal groups, has emerged as the culprit.
The U.S. Treasury Department has targeted important members of the cartel’s operations to disrupt this unusual cooperation between drug traffickers and poachers.
They are not only smuggling drugs and immigrants, but they are also plundering the Gulf’s declining red snapper numbers using fishing boats, also known as “lanchas.”
The cartel finds it to be a convenient marriage. On both sides of the border, the Gulf’s red snapper, a sought-after catch with delicate white flesh and flaky texture, commands a top price.
Concurrently, the vast network of smuggling channels and the experienced sailors of the cartel provide the ideal setup to support illegal commerce.
The cartel operates simply: their lanchas enter American territory, utilize large lines of baited hooks, and collect tons of red snapper.
The cartel then returns the catch to Mexico, sells it in border communities, and occasionally even imports it into the United States, thereby undermining the efforts of law-abiding American fishermen.
The Treasury Department said in its sanctions release, “Apart from their use for IUU (illegal, unregulated, or unreported) fishing in U.S. waters, lanchas are also used to move illicit drugs and migrants into the United States.”
Driven by the Gulf’s abundance of red snapper, this illicit business has grown to be a multimillion-dollar operation for the cartel.
But the harm goes well beyond the bottom line; the cartel’s careless fishing methods are destroying fragile marine life.
The activity of lancha camps generates millions of dollars annually. Furthermore, the Treasury Department said it results in the killing of other marine life unintentionally trapped by the cartel’s lengthy lines.
Authorities on both sides of the border have not missed this alarming trend. In 2022, the U.S. administration decided to ban Mexican fishing boats from visiting American ports in the Gulf of Mexico, aiming to reverse the flow of illicit activity.
But the cartel’s reach is extensive, and its stronghold on the Gulf’s red snapper trade still presents a difficult task. The future of the region’s prized fish is in jeopardy as officials try to sort out this web of crime and conservation.
The stakes are significant for the welfare of the Gulf’s aquatic life as well as for the lives of the honest fishermen who work these waters.
With the destiny of the red snapper and the very fabric of the Gulf itself hanging in the balance, this struggle sets greed against sustainability.