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| The Grand Turk | |
| Meet DEA agent who spent years hunting El Chapo: Ray Donovan's take on Mexico's cartel crisis | |
| 2025-11-26 | |
| [TurkiyeToday] Generation Z protests, which have erupted in different parts of the world in recent months, have now reached Mexico. Young people are mobilizing against cartel violence, disappearances, and a state they see as unable or unwilling to protect them. Their anger grows in parallel with a deepening tension between Mexico City and Washington, where every new incident on the border quickly turns into a political clash. In October last year, Chilpancingo’s newly sworn-in mayor, Alejandro Arcos Catalan, was beheaded just six days into office, his head dumped on a pickup truck in a cartel show of power. At the start of this month, Uruapan’s mayor, Carlos Manzo, was gunned down in public during Day of the Dead celebrations, a killing that exposed how openly cartels now execute officials. Meanwhile, with over 130,000 people still missing and new mass graves surfacing across the country, Mexico’s security collapse is no longer a crisis on the margins but a nationwide emergency hitting young people and entire communities.
During his first term, President Donald Trump tightened border policies and repeatedly framed the cartels as enemies of the United States, a narrative he has continued throughout his second round of campaigning. Building on a stance he first floated in his initial term and revived on the campaign trail, Trump moved quickly after returning to the White House in January, this time formally designating several Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Lastly, he also spoke openly about using military force against cartel targets inside Mexico, saying he was “OK with it” when asked whether he supported such strikes. None of this was unexpected. For months, U.S. reports had pointed to unilateral intelligence monitoring of cartel networks and quiet discussions about limited military options, keeping the prospect of American action in the headlines. But these developments sit inside a much bigger market. Recent analyses drawing on UNODC data suggest the global drug-trafficking economy is worth several hundred billion dollars a year, with some estimates placing it roughly between $400 billion and $650 billion. At the sharp end of that business sits the Sinaloa Cartel, which has pushed far beyond Latin America, building partnerships with criminal groups in Europe and the Middle East and working with Turkish networks. For security officials in Ankara and European capitals alike, Türkiye is now a key transit hub on the routes that carry Latin American cocaine into Eurasian markets, and inside the country, this role is increasingly treated as a national security problem and a direct threat to Turkish citizens. In light of these developments, our interview turns to Special Agent Ray Donovan, a senior DEA figure whose career placed him at the centre of its most sensitive intelligence-driven operations. | |
| Posted by:Skidmark |