Top Reads, Listens, Follows & Takeaways of the week
Fentanyl and the Sinaloa Cartel
Six years after the capture of famed drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the Sinaloa Cartel is thriving under new leadership as Mexico further descends as a narco-state. Since the arrest of El Chapo, the Sinaloa Cartel has been led by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and run operationally by El Chapo’s brother and four sons (“El Chapitos”). Under El Mayo’s leadership the Sinaloa Cartel has grown their international footprint to span more than 50 countries and taken a majority share of the fentanyl trafficking to the United States over their primary rival, the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación.
The average number of fentanyl pills per seizure in Mexico since 2018 has exploded by 15x to 117,000 pills per seizure. The scourge of fentanyl is deemed by the CDC to be the “third wave” of the opioid epidemic and has had a devastating impact. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49, killing more people than automobile accidents, gunshots, and suicides.
The numbers are astounding, and there seems to be no end in sight. US-Mexico cooperation to fight the Cartels has dropped precipitously under Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policy of “abrazos, no balazos” - “hugs not bullets.” All the while the Sinaloa Cartel continues to legitimize itself as a de facto government entity building social capital with citizens. Notably, during the spring of 2020 while COVID was raging, the Sinaloa Cartel was handing out social packages of cash, food, and hand sanitizer. They’ve also exerted control over entire industries while maintaining order and increasing relative stability. The fishing, fish processing, and seafood sales along the entire vertical supply chain in Mexico are controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel.
I find this topic fascinating, even more so as it’s occurring so close to home. I highly recommend you read the tremendous Washington Post series on the fentanyl crisis in the United States powered by Mexican drug cartels.
Reads:
A DEA agent tracked the source of fentanyl in Mormon country - a Mexican cartel (here)
How the Sinaloa Cartel rules (here) & gruesome testimony against El Chapo (here)
Venture Capital Red Flag Checklist by Bill Gurley (here)
The Detour Is The Path by Paul Podolsky (here)
Lessons From Volcker's Inflation Fight (here)
Expectations and Reality by Morgan Housel (here)
Nuclear-Fusion Breakthrough Accelerates Quest for Limitless Energy Source (here)
Mars convinces emerging market consumers to eat more chocolate (here)
Listens:
Howard Marks on a Sea Change in markets (here)
The All-In podcast on doxxing at Twitter, nuclear fusion, and markets (here)
Larry Swedroe on Evidence Based investing (here)
Follow, Watch & Other great content:
Lex Fridman & Ed Calderon: Mexican Drug Cartels (here)
A Football Life: Barry Sanders dominates the NFL (here)
NFL Films: Setting The Edge, The Art of Stopping The Run (here)
Jamie Dimon, Face the Nation (here)