When cartels start to diversify

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Indicator from Planet Money

Episode Title: When cartels start to diversify
Date: October 8, 2025
Hosts: Adrian Ma & Waylon Wong
Notable Guests: Douglas Farah (security consultant), Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez (lawyer, environmental consultant)
Main Theme:
Exploring how transnational cartels are diversifying beyond drug trafficking—venturing deeper into wildlife trafficking and environmental crimes—and examining the consequences for Central America’s society and ecosystems.

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Episode Overview

This episode unpacks the evolution of Latin American drug cartels, focusing specifically on their diversification from drug trafficking into other illicit activities, including wildlife trafficking and environmental crimes like illegal logging and gold mining. Using vivid examples—from seized capybaras to deforested rainforests—the hosts and their guests illuminate how these shifts are devastating both communities and biodiversity across Central America.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Changing Face of Cartels

• Initial Illustration: Costa Rican authorities seized crack cocaine, marijuana, and five capybaras in what was the first recorded case of capybara trafficking in the country. (00:14–00:51)
• Cartels are moving beyond drugs into wildlife trafficking—a growing illegal business now often linked with drug smuggling.

"Wildlife trafficking is a business that is increasingly intersecting with the illicit drug trade as cartels diversify their operations."
— Waylon Wong (00:51)

2. The Business Logic Behind Diversification

• U.S. demand for cocaine and fentanyl continues to fuel cartel wealth.
• Major Mexican cartels (Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generacion) dominate the trade, but Jalisco has set itself apart by branching into all kinds of territorial rackets, from gambling to contraband cigarettes. (02:31–03:27)

"They got a piece of it. And so that gave them a multi source of revenue coming in, besides cocaine... They’ve been able to adapt to situations, see new opportunities in ways that the Sinaloa cartel perhaps was much slower to recognize."
— Douglas Farah (03:27)

• The Jalisco cartel’s strategy involves franchising out illicit activities within their territory, collaborating with local gangs. (03:55)

3. Cartels, Poverty, and Recruitment

• Harsh economic realities—widespread poverty and unemployment—have made recruitment into cartel operations easier. Many locals join simply to survive, sometimes drawn in by small “loans” they must then repay through criminal labor. (04:15–04:50)

"It's not that people are looking to get involved in transnational organized crime. They're looking around for survival..."
— Douglas Farah (04:33)

4. Violence as Transaction

• Cartel turf wars resemble economic bidding, resulting in sudden, localized surges in violence as rival gangs compete for access to key infrastructure like ports. (05:05–05:55)
• This transactional logic is explicitly capitalistic and driven by short-term utility.

"It's all mercantile or transactional. What can you do for me today?... If you can't do it tomorrow, I may need to kill you or I'll find someone else."
— Douglas Farah (05:40)

5. Environmental Consequences: Narco Degradation

• Cartel activities are causing severe environmental damage, referred to as narco degradation.
• Key impacts include:
  • Deforestation: Typically used for cattle ranching (a tool for money laundering), illegal gold mining, and logging. (06:32–07:16)
  • Wildlife trafficking: Expansion to exotic animals such as capybaras. (07:52)

"Researchers eventually figured out that cartels were cutting down trees to build cattle ranches that would be used to launder illegal drug money."
— Adrian Ma (07:16)

• Notable statistic: As much as 30% of deforestation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua over a decade is linked to cocaine trafficking, with much loss in protected areas. (07:37)

6. Creative Tactics and Enforcement Challenges

• Cartels are hiding cocaine in mangrove root systems in Costa Rica. (07:23)
• Law enforcement and conservation efforts are siloed—governments lack the budget and expertise to control the vast forest areas, while police aren’t trained in environmental detection. (08:23–08:52)

"The governments of the region do not have the budget to actually cover every single inch of the forested areas that exist in the country. And the security institutions do not have the knowledge of the ecosystems..."
— Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez (08:33)

7. Hope and Community Solutions

• Some successes: arrests and prosecutions of illegal ranchers, and indigenous communities reclaiming protected lands (example: Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala). (09:07)

"In Guatemala, for example, the government has been working with locals to reclaim land in a protected area called the Maya Biosphere Reserve."
— Adrian Ma (09:07)

8. The Fate of the Seized Capybaras

• Of the five seized capybaras, one died, but four recovered and were relocated to a new habitat in a Costa Rican wildlife rescue center. (09:23)

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Notable Quotes

• "You have to constantly reexamine your assumptions. What you always held to be true may no longer be true."
  — Douglas Farah, quoting Bertrand Russell (03:12)
• "You're starting to see more exotic things coming through or going out of here in order to be sold..."
  — Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez (08:09)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:14–00:51: Intro & capybara trafficking case, intersection of wildlife and drug trades
• 02:31–03:27: How Jalisco cartel’s strategy differs, multi-revenue streams
• 04:15–04:50: Economic desperation fueling local cartel recruitment
• 05:05–05:55: Cartel violence described as economic "bidding wars"
• 06:32–07:16: Deforestation and cartel investment for laundering
• 07:52–08:23: Wildlife trafficking trends and expansion
• 08:33–08:52: The difficulty of policing environmental crime
• 09:07: Community and legal pushback; indigenous land reclamation
• 09:23: The aftermath for the rescued capybaras

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Memorable Moments

• The opening surprise seizure involving not just drugs but five capybaras.
• The vivid analogy and self-description from Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez: “As a profession, I am a platypus” (06:16), signifying his hybrid expertise.
• Douglas Farah’s bleakly transactional explanation of cartel logic: “If you can do this for me today, then we're good for today. If you can't do it tomorrow, I may need to kill you or I'll find someone else.” (05:40)

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Conclusion

This episode offers a concise yet vivid window into the fast-evolving world of transnational organized crime, showing how the criminal business model now encompasses environmental and wildlife crimes—often with dire societal and ecological consequences. Local circumstances like poverty and state fragility provide fertile ground for cartel expansion, while enforcement lags behind in a context where violence and environmental devastation are treated as separate problems. Yet, the episode ends with a glimmer of hope in localized, community-driven interventions.

Transcript

[Douglas Farah]

Npr.

[Adrian Ma]

This is the Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Adrian Ma.

[Waylon Wong]

And I'm Waylon Wong. In May of this year, along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, federal law enforcement officials chased down a vehicle that tried to flee a highway checkpoint. When police searched the car, they found crack cocaine, marijuana and and five capybaras.

[Adrian Ma]

Bet you didn't see that coming.

[Waylon Wong]

No. I mean, think of a 170 pound guinea pig with partially webbed feet. And these things are kind of social media famous for being cute.

[Adrian Ma]

And they're also part of a growing illegal exotic animal trade. Costa Rican authorities said this seizure was the country's first recorded case of capybara trafficking.

[Waylon Wong]

Wildlife trafficking is a business that is increasingly intersecting with the illicit drug trade as cartels diversify their operations. The result is something called narco degradation. This refers to environmental harm caused by the illegal trade in cocaine and other drugs.

[Adrian Ma]

This week on the Indicator, we're bringing you a special series on the evolving business of crime. On today's show, we look at what's driving cartels to expand into areas beyond drugs and how this is wreaking havoc on ecosystems in Central America.

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Comes from Capital One. With the Capital One Saver card. Earn unlimited 3% cash back on dining and entertainment. Capital One what's in your wallet? Terms apply [e-mail] American demand for cocaine.

[Adrian Ma]

And fentanyl has driven the transnational drug trade to new levels. Within that industry, Mexican cartels are among the top traffickers of cocaine into the US and they're some of the biggest producers of synthetic drugs like fentanyl that accounted for around 60% of overdose deaths in the US last year.

[Waylon Wong]

The two major Mexican cartels are Sinaloa and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, or Jalisco for short. Douglas Farah has been following these cartels for years. He's a former journalist who went on to start a security consulting firm in Latin America called IBI Consultants. And in his line of work, things are changing all the time. He's reminded of the 20th century British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell.

[Douglas Farah]

I think, as Bertrand Russell said, you have to constantly reexamine your assumptions. What you always held to be true may no longer be true.

[Adrian Ma]

Douglas says, when it comes to how Mexican cartels have evolved, Jalisco developed a particular strategy that set it apart from Sinaloa.

[Douglas Farah]

If you did anything illicit in their territory, prostitution, gambling, kidnapping, whatever it was, they got a piece of it. And so that gave them a multi source of revenue coming in, besides cocaine, although cocaine is obviously incredibly important to them. And they've also been incredibly flexible. They've been able to adapt to situations, see new opportunities in ways that the Sinaloa cartel perhaps was much slower to recognize or some of the other trafficking organizations.

[Adrian Ma]

And by territory, Douglas is talking about huge swaths of land in countries like Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru. Jalisco recruited local gangs to hold that territory. And these smaller gangs are often involved in their own illicit activities, like selling fake pharmaceuticals and contraband cigarettes. The cartel, of course, gets a cut of that business.

[Waylon Wong]

Douglas says economic conditions in Central America have made it easier for Mexican cartels to recruit, recruit these foot soldiers. There's poverty and a lack of job opportunities in the region, especially in the formal sector. Douglas has met people who turned to the cartel for a loan, maybe to cover a medical bill, and then had to work off that debt.

[Douglas Farah]

So you have somebody who says, okay, $500 to move this package from here to here. It's not that people are looking to get involved in transnational organized crime. They're looking around for survival. It's a recognition of the reality of the fragile state of economics, and particularly in democracies across the region.

[Adrian Ma]

These local groups also help cartels like Jalisco claim additional territory. In Ecuador, for example, cartels from Mexico, Colombia, and even Europe have fought over control of Ecuador's ports. And they rely on local gangs for that muscle.

[Douglas Farah]

So it's sort of like an open bidding process. I say, oh, I can do it. And so I will kill anyone who gets in my way to provide that access to that port. So you have these huge spikes of violence, and then two weeks later, there'll be zero homicides in that particular area because somebody won that war, and that territory is now secure. So the fight will now move 2km away. So it's almost day by day and route by Route.

[Waylon Wong]

The way you speak about it is in economic terms, like it's a bidding war, Right. So what is the price of securing this particular piece of infrastructure, the port that you need to move your product and the price that's paid is in human lives.

[Douglas Farah]

That's exactly right. So I think it's very capitalistic. It's all mercantile or transactional. What can you do for me today? If you can do this for me today, then we're good for today. And if you can't do it tomorrow, I may need to kill you or I'll find someone else.

[Adrian Ma]

The fight for regional territory and the expansion of illicit activity have brought a new level of violence to countries like Ecuador and Costa Rica. There's also been a heavy toll on the ecosystems in the region.

[Waylon Wong]

Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez is a lawyer and consultant who's been studying the impact of narco activity on the environment for the last decade. Although he describes his job in more.

[Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez]

Evocative terms, as a profession, I am a platypus.

[Waylon Wong]

You know, a platypus is a mammal, but it also has a duck bill and lays eggs. And Bernardo has a PhD in natural sciences, but also a law degree and a master's in economics. So he's like an academic platypus.

[Adrian Ma]

I had a different image in my head at first, so thank you for explaining that. Bernardo's interests have kind of coalesced into this study of narco degradation. And one example of this phenomenon is deforestation in Central America. So researchers noticed a patch of cleared land here and a patch of cleared land there in the tropical forest there. And then they noticed that these patches would expand and join up.

[Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez]

It was larger tracts that would require normally more capital in order to actually clear that sort of space.

[Waylon Wong]

In other words, whoever was clearing this land had resources. Researchers eventually figured out that cartels were cutting down trees to build cattle ranches that would be used to launder illegal drug money.

[Adrian Ma]

Bernardo says cartels are also using this land for unauthorized gold mining and logging, as well as for transportation and storage of drugs.

[Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez]

One of the patterns that we found is that in the mangrove areas in Costa Rica, for instance, they use the rooting systems in order to actually store the packs of cocaine.

[Waylon Wong]

One study from 2017 estimated that in the previous decade, cocaine trafficking accounted for up to 30% of deforestation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Much of this loss happened within nationally and internationally protected areas.

[Adrian Ma]

There's also wildlife trafficking and the illegal trade in exotic pets. Bernardo says the most common animals that get caught up in this are the smaller ones like amphibians and birds. But remember those five capybaras that were seized in Costa Rica? That suggests that wildlife trafficking is expanding.

[Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez]

You're starting to see more exotic things coming through or going out of here in order to be sold either privately or, you know, to tricky pet shops.

[Waylon Wong]

And this narco degradation is difficult to stamp out. Bernardo says one reason is that historically governments have treated conservation and law enforcement as separate issues.

[Bernardo Aguilar Gonzalez]

The governments of the region do not have the budget to actually cover every single inch of the forested areas that exist in the country. And the security institutions do not have the knowledge of the ecosystems as to be able to perform in the most efficient way.

[Adrian Ma]

The result is that park rangers aren't always equipped to patrol these protected forests in the same way police officers are. And a police officer may not have the kind of expertise that would help identify whether a track in the forest was made by a wild animal or a trespassing human.

[Waylon Wong]

Bernardo says there have been some arrests and prosecutions of illegal cattle ranchers. And he says indigenous communities have been instrumental too. In Guatemala, for examp, the government has been working with locals to reclaim land in a protected area called the Maya Biosphere Reserve.

[Adrian Ma]

As for those five capybaras, they were taken to a wildlife rescue center in Costa Rica in pretty rough shape. One of them unfortunately died, though the remaining four got better and were moved into a new habitat. And actually, if you want to, you can visit them.

[Waylon Wong]

Tomorrow in our Vice series, we bring you an episode on the threat of AI in manipulating financial markets. This episode was produced by Cooper Katz McKim with engineering by Robert Rodriguez, was fact checked by Sierra Juarez. Kicking Cannon is our editor and the indicator is a production of npr.

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