By Mike Bedigan

Copyright independent

Cocaine use is now more popular than ever in the U.S., with a major resurgence in recent years allowing the Mexican drug lord largely responsible for the boom to cash in.

Consumption of cocaine in the western U.S. has increased by 154 percent since 2019, according to data from drug-testing company Millennium Health. In the same period, use is up 19 percent on the East Coast.

At the same time, use of the deadly drug fentanyl has been declining ever since mid-2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Trump administration has vowed to crack down hard on cartels, even imposing harsh economic sanctions on Mexico to stymie the flow of fentanyl and other illicit products into the U.S.

A main target has been the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) led by Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, which is believed to have the highest cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine trafficking capacity in Mexico.

Sources familiar with the operations of CJNG told The Wall Street Journal that record amounts of cocaine are currently being produced in Colombia, driving the volume in the U.S. up and the price down.

Morgan Godvin, a researcher with the community organization Drug Checking Los Angeles, told the outlet that pure cocaine prices have “plummeted” to an average of $60 to $75 a gram, a decrease of around half compared with five years ago.

Oseguera Cervantes and four other cartel leaders have also been hit with U.S. sanctions with a $15 million reward on offer from the U.S. government for information leading to their capture.

Oseguera Cervantes, who has been indicted several times in the U.S. since 2017, still appears largely untouchable, rarely leaving his heavily-guarded hideout in the Sierra Madre mountain range in Mexico, according to The Journal.

Sources close to the operations of the CJNG told the outlet that those visiting the compound are hooded for the six-hour car journey through the area, which is dotted with land mines. Armed guards protecting Oseguera Cervantes are reportedly equipped with RPG-7 heat-seeking, shoulder-fired rocket launchers, which can pierce the armor of tanks.

Oseguera Cervantes benefited in recent years from America’s focus on the fentanyl epidemic, and the resulting capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in 2016, which created a power vacuum in the rival Sinaloa cartel.

In addition, Donald Trump’s intense campaign to arrest and deport migrants from the U.S. has taken multiple federal agents away from drug-trafficking enforcement operations.

The Journal reports that two border patrol checkpoints in Arizona, positioned along a major fentanyl-smuggling corridor, have been left unstaffed after officers were reassigned to process migrants.

CJNG also benefits from migrants on the other end, according to the outlet, charging those attempting to travel to the U.S. thousands of dollars to pass through territory it controls. According to the Treasury Department, in recent years, it has also operated call centers to scam elderly citizens out of hundreds of millions of dollars in fake timeshare schemes.