(NewsNation) — Two major Mexican drug cartels are now stealing oil and extorting American mining firms and could be partnering together to form what federal officials are characterizing as a “super cartel,” according to a new report from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The DEA’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment report stated that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the Gulf Cartel and other transnational criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel, are expanding their operations to include both violent and high-profit crimes. The report said that CJNG and the Gulf cartels are directly involved in the stealing of crude oil from a Mexican-owned company.
The oil is then smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border and into Texas and sold on the black market, the report said. Other cartels are smuggling weapons across the Mexico-Guatemala border, while the Sinaloa cartel is profiting from trafficking and prostitution and is also laundering drug money through U.S. real estate and digital platforms.
The DEA report also said that there may be a shift in cartel leadership across Mexico in progress, as infighting among high-ranking members of the Sinaloa cartel continues.
An alliance between “Los Chapitos” and CJNG, led by Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, could be developing as the conflict among the two main factions of the Sinaloa cartel continues.
The report said that CJNG could partner with the sons of the Sinaloa Cartel’s former leader, Joaquin Guzman Loera, known more commonly as “El Chapo,” to help CJNG expand its territory, resources and firepower.
The possible collaboration would also give CJNG more access to corrupt leaders within the Sinaloa cartel, which would shift the power structure among cartels and away from Guzman Loera and another Sinaloa founder, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the report said.
Such a power shift could allow for an increase in drug flow across the U.S.-Mexico border and in weapons moving from the U.S. to Mexico.
