More and more US states have legalized marijuana.
Mexico's share of the US market has been eroded by domestic production.
The Sinaloa Cartel sees an opportunity in Mexico becoming the first country in the world to legalized marijuana.
Over the past decade, producers in the US have lost a business that had long belonged to it.
Even though marijuana is not yet legal in Mexico, the biggest drug gang in the world is trying to get a piece of the market.
The financial impact of the legalization of weed in the US began to be felt by the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Mexican Institute of Competitiveness calculated in 2012 that if marijuana were legalized in Colorado and Washington state, the drug's value would be lost to the group.
Mexican marijuana has largely been replaced by domestic-produced marijuana in US markets according to the 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
More than one million kilograms of weed was seized by US authorities at the border with Mexico. The amount of pot seized at the border had fallen by the end of the year.
The criminal organization formerly led by Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn has made up for lost revenue by entering other illegal and pseudo-legal businesses.
The regional manager for marijuana operations in Culiacn told Insider that this is a business that belongs here. We lost a bit of the business, but we will make the best weed in the world again.
Three of El Chapo's sons are in charge of the weed operations.
After Guzmn was extradited to the US, he was sentenced to life in prison for drug dealing.
Following the arrest of "El Chapo" in Mexico in January 2016 and the decline in drug-trafficking revenue, "Los Chapitos" decided to invest in the weed industry.
The "juniors," which the sons are called in Culiacn in order to avoid using their real names, gave us the trust to start producing the best weed in Mexico. They wanted to know if I knew what I was doing. They became the originators of the project through another person.
Insider was told that the move into the marijuana industry is currently in an experimental phase.
This is not the finished product. We are buying seeds from all over the world to create our own strain, to produce top-notch Sinaloa weed, and to develop a strong brand even better than the gringos.
Culiacn, a city of just over a million people, is the only place where you can buy weed.
The juniors are also investing in other things. They are trying to get Mexico's top politicians to allow the use of marijuana.
According to the operatives and others in the business, the Cartel is very interested in the legalization of weed. The plant's supposed benefits are believed to be the reason for its popularity. Some think it's a business decision.
The junior men are smart. They know that once weed is legal the organization will be ready to go legal and will already have the best quality weed in Mexico.
Efforts to legalize weed in Mexico have been put on hold. Lawmakers in the lower house tried to raise the amount of pot that consumers could carry in public higher than the proposed limit of 28 grams, but the bill was held up by them.
The juniors are not the same as the seniors. They are aware of what's going on. They want to live well and stop being a target for the government. They could go out of the illegal trade and become successful businessmen in Mexico and not have to worry about crime anymore.
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