Mexican drug cartels "have their tentacles in Canada," reports Montreal newspaper

Guadalajara -
Mexican drug cartels are rapidly expanding their influence in Canada, worrying the Ottawa government that more violence on national territory and and more dead Canadians involved with international narcotics trafficking will be the inevitable result.

Such were the conclusions Friday of La Presse, a prominent French language daily. Founded in 1884 and published in Montreal, the paper is owned by a subsidiary of the Power Corporation of Canada. The Apr. 19 La Presse report is here: Les cartels mexicains étendent leurs tentacules au pays.

The article was noted by the Mexican press this weekend, including a redaction in SinEmbargo and another one in Mérida's Diario de Yucatán

La Presse reported that federal authorities are focused on the increasing presence of Mexicans in the Ontario and Quebec underworld, and the growing number of "Mexican style executions." It claimed its analysis was based in part on documents obtained under Canadian freedom of information laws.

A quote from SinEmbargo's redaction published yesterday:

"More and more, Canadian crime groups prefer to deal directly with Mexican drug cartels, eliminating the middleman so they can enhance their profits. There are lawless regions in Mexico, despite the efforts of authorities to put a brake on the violence, but that actually helps the Canadians make direct contact with criminals. Many Canadians involved in trafficking have been traveling to Mexico for years as tourists, so they already know the territory well. And the intense drug war being fought in Mexico, coupled with increasingly tight security along the U.S. border, have motivated Mexican traffickers to set up their own local operations in Canada. At least nine Canadians with connections to Mexican cartels and organized crime were killed between 2008 and 2012. Canadian public security could be affected if the cartel influence continues unchecked."

The La Presse report mirrors the conclusion of a CBC story in May 2012 (video clip below). And the Canadian government's preoccupation with rising domestic violence connected to the Mexican drug trade echoes similar warnings by the European Police Office last week. Mexican drug cartels have strong foothold in Europe.

La Presse noted the following Canadian drug trafficker executions in Mexico in recent years:

Gordon Douglas Kendall and Jeffrey Ronald Ivans, shot to death in Puerto Vallarta, September 2009.

Thomas Gisby, murdered in front of customers in a Nuevo Vallarta Starbucks in April 2012. Nuevo is just minutes up the coast from its larger and more prominent sister city (Puerto Vallarta: Tensions linger after brazen narco attack).

Salih Abdulaziz Sahbaz, a Canadian gang member shot in the head multiple times in Mazatlán, in January 2012. MGR reported on that case here: Canadian murdered on Pacific coast - but lingering questions and mystery remain.

Elliott Castañeda and Ahmet Kaawach Ahmet, Canadian gang members who belonged to a group known as the United Nations. They were executed in Guadalajara in July 2008.

Because of its relative proximity to the Canadian border, Ottawa authorities are particularly concerned about the escalating influence of the Sinaloa Cartel in Chicago and other cities in the United States, reported La Presse.

Chicago calls El Chapo Guzmán "Public Enemy # 1"
Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel has 90% market domination in U.S.
The Chicago Connection: Sinaloa Cartel moves cocaine from Windy City to Australia, says DEA

Jan. 16 - Canadian gunmen arrested in Playa del Carmen
Jan. 6 - Mexican drug cartels enjoy global presence via cocaine
May 10, 2012 - "Naive" Canadian gangsters pay heavily doing business with Mexican drug cartels

CBC News report on Canadian drug traffickers in Puerto Vallarta, May 2012


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