HomeNewsBriefMexican Cartels Move into Prescription Pill Market
BRIEF

Mexican Cartels Move into Prescription Pill Market

MEXICO / 5 OCT 2012 BY CLAIRE O NEILL MCCLESKEY EN

US authorities have reported the rise of a new breed of "pharma cartels" in Mexico, which sell illicitly obtained prescription drugs to buyers in the United States, and pay fees to traditional drug trafficking groups.

According to an October 4 press release from the US Attorney's Office in southern California, Mexican drug trafficking organizations are moving into the lucrative black market for prescription drugs in the US.

These organizations, many of which are based over the border from California in Tijuana, use the Internet to sell painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin to clients in the United States, often making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in profits.

US Attorney Laura E. Duffy told NBC San Diego that in addition to diverting drugs from hospitals and pharmacies, some pharma-cartels create their own versions of painkillers in makeshift laboratories. 

Traditional cartels have begun charging these new groups money in exchange for allowing them to operate.

InSight Crime Analysis

While Mexico's traditional drug cartels have so far focused on taxing existing pharma-cartels rather than entering the market themselves, the shifting nature of the US drug market suggests that this could change as the market for prescription pills grows.

The most recent US National Survey on Drugs, released in September 2012, reported that 6.1 million US citizens, or 2.4 percent of the population aged 12 or older, used prescription pills non-medically in 2011. While this is a slight decrease from the previous year, these numbers indicate that prescription pill abuse is now the second most prevalent form of illicit drug use in the United States after marijuana.

As prescription drug abuse has become more common, cocaine use in the United States has fallen from 2.4 million users in 2006 to 1.4 million users in 2012. While the user populations are probably different (cocaine users are unlikely to be switching over to painkillers), this shift does have serious implications for Mexican cartels, who depend on cocaine profits as their top source of income. As cocaine use drops, and as US authorities try to tamp down on prescription drug abuse by strengthening enforcement at clinics and pharmacies, traditional drug cartels may try to muscle in on the market further.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Tags

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 12 OCT 2021

Arms trafficking in Mexico has turned to digital mediums that offer both broad visibility and anonymity to an ever-increasing flow…

FENTANYL / 21 MAR 2023

The complex history of the "drug war" in Mexico is hindering its collaboration with the US on the synthetic opioid,…

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME / 27 AUG 2021

Seizures of illegally harvested octopus off Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula are shedding light on how corruption in a coastal community facilitates…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…