If you’ve seen Blow or Sicario then you know that drug cartels are difficult and dangerous to deal with.
Now, President Rodrigo Duterte is saying that a major player in the illegal drug trade is in his territory.
During a speech in before members of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), President Duterte said that the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, one of the largest syndicates of contraband smugglers in the world, is operating in the Philippines.
They supposedly transfered their operations to the country after the United States started implementing strict policies on illegal drugs.
“Is Mexico into us? Yes. Sinaloa iyong cartel nila, tayo ang transshipment. Kasi in-eradicate sila ng mga Amerikano. Binomba sila. Kaya dito sila active ang Sinaloa.” Duterte said in a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
(We are the transshipment of the Sinaloa cartel from Mexico because they have been eradicated by the Americans. They were bombed. That’s why Sinaloa has since been active here.)
In December 2013, the Philippine National Police (PNP) revealed that the Sinaloa drug cartel was in the Philippines but Mexican envoy Julio Camarena Villaseñor denied the reports.
In 2015, a Mexican national suspected to be a high-ranking member of the Sinaloa drug cartel was nabbed in Makati, the country’s central business district.
President Duterte did not reveal where he got the information but, “I never, never, never hoist a lie,” he said
Furthermore, he warned that the Philippines would be run by narco-politicians if his administrations fail to address the illegal drug trade in the country in the next seven years.
The Sinaloa drug cartel is one of the most powerful drug syndicates in Mexico. They are believed to be operating in 50 countries around the world.
