HomeNewsBrief'Tijuana Cartel Operators' Captured in Bolivia
BRIEF

'Tijuana Cartel Operators' Captured in Bolivia

BOLIVIA / 1 APR 2015 BY ARRON DAUGHERTY EN

Bolivia's capture of two Peruvians who allegedly worked for the Tijuana Cartel highlights Bolivia's central role in the region's cocaine "air bridge," and raises the possibility that the once-mighty Mexican crime group still has some international reach. 

The Peruvians, Percy Santos Santillan and Sosimo Teofanes Bermudo Crepo (whose Bolivian identification provided him with another name) worked as intermediaries for Mexico drug trafficking group the Tijuana Cartel, local press quoted Bolivia's Minister of Government Hugo Moldiz as saying. He also said the two coordinated aerial shipments of cocaine traffickeed between Peru and northern Bolivia.  

Bolivia's anti-drug trask force, the FELCN, was able to capture the two Peruvians thanks to intelligence shared under a cooperation agreement signed by Peru and Bolivia in October 2014. Santillan and Bermudo are wanted by Interpol as well as in their home country, where they are accused of smuggling cocaine out of Peru's Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro River Valleys (a region known as the VRAEM), according to reports

Moldiz emphasized that the arrest of the alleged Tijuana Cartel operators did not mean foreign drug trafficking cartels are present in Bolivia, describing the two as "emissaries." 

InSight Crime Analysis

Bolivian officials have typically been careful to draw a distinction between the drug cartel "emissaries" they say are coordinating drug shipments in the country, versus the well-established presence of foreign drug cartels. As InSight Crime reported last year in a special investigation on Bolivian organized crime, local, family clans control much of Bolivia's underworld, while Colombian groups handle much of the transnational drug trade. 

The capture of Santillan and Bermudo follows the arrest of Alberto Santillan Zamora, alias "Chang," in July 2014. Santillan's Peru-based group allegedly supplied the Tijuana Cartel with cocaine, shipped to Mexico via sea routes. 

The Tijuana Cartel is a shell of what it used to be -- all of its founding members have been killed and captured, and the organization came out badly fragmented following its violent war with the Sinaloa Cartel. The arrest of these alleged associates in Peru and Bolivia suggests that although weakened at home, the Tijuana Cartel could be expanding its international presence. The precise nature of the connections between the two Peruvian detainees and the Tijuana Cartel, however, is unclear -- they may have been coordinating drug shipments on the Mexican group's behalf, but could not really be considered full-fledged members of the group. 

The arrest also underlines Bolivia's role in the air bridge used by traffickers to move cocaine from Peru to Brazil. On top of being a coca producing nation, Bolivia is now seen as a major hub for drugs being shipped to the world's second largest consumer, Brazil, as well as onwards towards Europe, often via West Africa. In response, Peru and Bolivia have been searching and destroying clandestine airfields and have both enacted controversial shoot-down laws, with Peru reportedly downing a plane in early March.

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.

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

BOLIVIA / 1 APR 2022

Millions of young people around the world document their experiences at work, at school or with their friends on TikTok.

AUC / 30 AUG 2021

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was the pioneer in industrial-scale cocaine trafficking.

ECUADOR / 14 FEB 2022

Peru has convicted a gang of shark fin traffickers for the first time in history but more is needed to…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

All Eyes on Ecuador

2 JUN 2023

Our coverage of organized crime in Ecuador continues to be a valuable resource for international and local news outlets. Internationally, Reuters cited our 2022 Homicide Round-Up,…

WORK WITH US

Open Position: Social Media and Engagement Strategist

27 MAY 2023

InSight Crime is looking for a Social Media and Engagement Strategist who will be focused on maintaining and improving InSight Crime’s reputation and interaction with its audiences through publishing activities…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Receives Great Reception

27 MAY 2023

Several of InSight Crime’s most recent articles about Venezuela have been well received by regional media. Our article on Venezuela’s colectivos expanding beyond their political role to control access to…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Chemical Precursor Report Continues

19 MAY 2023

For the second week in a row, our investigation into the flow of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of synthetic drugs in Mexico has been cited by multiple regional media…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime’s Chemical Precursor Report Widely Cited

THE ORGANIZATION / 12 MAY 2023

We are proud to see that our recently published investigation into the supply chain of chemical precursors feeding Mexico’s synthetic drug production has been warmly received.