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DEA says Mexican cartels behind Colorado fentanyl trade | 2024: A LOOK BACK

DEA fet seizure may (copy)

Every fentanyl distribution case throughout Colorado in 2024 could be tracked back to two major Mexican cartels — Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation, agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Field Division (RMFD) told The Denver Gazette.

“You might be focusing on a single distributor here. But if it’s elicit fentanyl, it will trace back to one of them,” Field Intelligence Manager Scott Rowan said of the cartels. “You may have to go back a few levels. An operation here may stem back to California and Arizona before Mexico, but it will go back there.”

Only a few days after that interview, agents seized more than 50,000 pills of fentanyl and more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine in one of the biggest drug busts of 2024.

While David Olesky, the assistant special agent in charge at RMFD, noted that Colorado isn’t necessarily a pinpointed place for cartel business, it is a significant location for illegal commerce, with Interstate 25 and Interstate 70 serving as passageways from the border to various other metropolitan cities. 

The cartels’ presence in the state was spotlighted by a December indictment by the Denver District Attorney’s Office that charged 17 suspects of a car theft ring with 222 counts of vehicle theft, menacing, drug smuggling and identity theft.

The group allegedly stole over 190 vehicles, transporting them to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico in exchange for drugs they brought back into Colorado.

“When folks hear cartel, they’re like, ‘Really? In Colorado?’” Olesky said. “They are here. You can’t think that it’s so far away.”

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