The Real Impact of COVID on Mexico’s Drug Cartels

By Michael Vigil

Mike Vigil is the former Chief of International Operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration. He is one of the most highly decorated agents within the agency and was responsible for numerous multi-national operations, the largest involved 36 countries. He was also responsible for developing global intelligence sharing platforms. He is the author of DEAL and Metal Coffins: The Blood Alliance Cartel and Narco Queen.  He is also the author of The Land of Enchantment Cartel.  Vigil was made an honorary General by the government of Afghanistan and given the key to the city of Shanghai by China. He was also given an Admiral’s sword by the former president of the Dominican Republic, Hipolito Mejia.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, law enforcement has kept a close eye on the impact the virus might have on drug cartels.  Supply chains of all sorts around the world have been impacted by the spread of COVID, but so have supply chains that provide necessary chemicals for the manufacturing of illegal drugs, one of those factories located in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak began.

Some of the largest cartels in Mexico used the pandemic as an opportunity to provide ‘humanitarian aid’ to those who were being hit the hardest by COVID, something not lost on Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez, who has used the opportunity to talk about the possibility of amnesty for some cartel members.

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