America’s Cocaine Is the Cheapest in Years, Courtesy of Mexico’s New Drug Lord
Photo by ROMAIN COSTASECA/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)
Cocaine is surging back into the U.S. like it’s the 1980s all over again—cheaper and purer than it’s been in years, according to a recent report by The Wall Street Journal. The sudden influx of high-quality, low-cost cocaine is largely being driven by a powerful new figure in the Mexican drug world: 59-year-old Nemesio Oseguera, better known as “El Mencho.”
El Mencho heads the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), a rapidly expanding criminal empire that has overtaken the long-dominant Sinaloa cartel. Over the past few decades, Oseguera has built CJNG into a global drug-trafficking powerhouse. Its dominance has disrupted Mexico’s underworld and shifted the balance of power in the international drug trade.
The Sinaloa cartel, once the top player in fentanyl trafficking, has been weakened by U.S. enforcement efforts under President Donald Trump. As federal authorities ramped up their crackdown on synthetic opioids, including with tougher penalties and broader classifications under the HALT Fentanyl Act, it created space for CJNG to ramp up its cocaine operations.
“What we’re seeing is a pivot to much more cocaine distribution in America,” said Derek Maltz, former acting chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). “Mencho is the most powerful drug trafficker operating in the world right now.”
Cocaine use has been rising sharply in recent years. Millennium Health, a drug-testing firm, reported a 154% increase in cocaine use in the western U.S. since 2019, with a 19% jump in the east. Meanwhile, fentanyl use has been declining since mid-2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
To combat drug trafficking, Trump signed the HALT Fentanyl Act into law in July, classifying all fentanyl analogues as Schedule I substances. This expanded law enforcement’s power to go after synthetic opioid traffickers.
Military efforts have also intensified. On Monday, U.S. Southern Command launched a maritime operation against a suspected drug-smuggling vessel from Venezuela, resulting in the deaths of three individuals on board. This marked the second such mission in the region as part of Trump’s broader directive to target Latin American cartels using military resources in the Caribbean.
As the drug trade shifts, so does the threat landscape—moving from synthetic opioids back to the familiar terrain of cocaine, now fueled by a new cartel kingpin and a changing U.S. enforcement strategy.
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