[Bertrand Monnet est professeur à l’Edhec (école de commerce), titulaire de la chaire Management des risques criminels. A ce titre, il s’intéresse au cartel de Sinaloa depuis 2014. Il lui a fallu des années pour identifier des intermédiaires capables de garantir à la fois la fiabilité de ses interlocuteurs et sa sécurité. Cette enquête sur le fentanyl, qui a donné lieu à une série vidéo en trois volets diffusée sur Lemonde.fr, a nécessité de nombreux séjours au Mexique et un long travail de mise en confiance. « Les narcos ont accepté de témoigner par volonté d’afficher leur puissance sur la scène internationale », estime le chercheur.]
Culiacan, the stronghold of the Sinaloa Cartel, in northwestern Mexico. The Toyota Land Cruiser of Pablo, a driver for this criminal organization, drives slowly on a main artery in the city. He takes me to a meeting with the leader of an important cartel clan. In the past few weeks I have been able to observe the production of fentanyl tablets in the laboratories, which the “narcos” produce by the ton. We now need to understand how they export this opioid to their main market, the United States.
The market leader in question is one of the largest suppliers to New York drug dealers. This interview is risky for him: he knows how much the cartel is threatened by operations by the Mexican army and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA, the American anti-drug agency). If he agreed to meet me, it was only at the request of someone close to him.“El Chapo”, the organization’s historic leader, imprisoned in the USA. This “facilitator,” now out of the organization after serving a prison sentence, retains such moral authority over the drug dealers that he can facilitate such a meeting.
Before you reach the meeting point – a ranch near Culiacan – you have to stop at one place safe housea “safe house” on the outskirts of the city, with that Punteros, The “lookouts” who follow us on motorcycles ensure that we are not under police or military surveillance. Suddenly five motorcycles race past us and stop 150 meters away in the middle of an intersection as if they wanted to block the road.
Other motorcycles come and go around the pickup like a swarm of wasps to keep other cars away. The next motorcycle gets stuck to our vehicle and its passenger waves his hand quickly to the right twice. “There’s a problem, let’s get out.” Pablo said in a calm voice as he passed by punteros placed at the intersection. “See, it’s like that over there safe house “, he whispers to me as he points to a house below the street, in front of which two army Jeep Hummers are stationary, 12.7mm machine guns in battery on the rear platform. About ten soldiers are preparing to enter.
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