Businesswoman Ana Gabriela Rubio Zea was a key player and partner of “Los Chapitos” for fentanyl trafficking, according to the US.

A trip that Guatemalan Ana Gabriela Gaby Rubio Zea, 32, planned to make to China to visit the factories that supplied him with chemical precursors for fentanyl should be paused, because your next stop will be an airport in USA to go straight to jail and a trial for international drug smuggling.

Blond Zea operated like a skillful businesswoman in command of the Guatemalan branch of a clan attached to the Sinaloa cartelone of the main Mexican mafias in global drug trafficking, which operated to export precursors of China to Guatemala and re-export them to Mexico to process and produce fentanyl which was introduced to USA.

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In an event that shook the criminal scene in the area and that is part of a vast global investigation into the illegal business of fentanyl and its criminal offshoots, the Department of Justice of USA presented this Friday a package of charges against 28 Mexicans, Guatemalans and Chinese of the Sinaloa cartel and from its core ofthe little boys”.

In the list of the 28 stood out Gabywhose name appeared as the centerpiece of a report that THE UNIVERSAL published April 1 based on a discovery that an undercover officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration of USA (DEA) achieved from 2021 to 2023 in Guatemala on the trail of the precursors in their transfer from Asia to America.

In a hearing on March 28 at the Third Criminal Sentencing Court in the Guatemalan capital on the extradition of Rubio and the Mexican Sergio Duarte Frias27 years old, to USA as alleged drug traffickers of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Guatemalan Extraditions Prosecutor provided crucial information that the agent obtained from Gaby.

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The officer got Blond share data as an importer of precursors of China and exporter to Mexicowith a company that “she controls to cover up, hide and promote her drug trafficking activities,” according to the Prosecutor’s Office.

Ana Gabriela Rubio Zea after her arrest. (Guatemalan Public Ministry).

Since 2014 he worked as a key supplier

“Since approximately 2014 and continuing to the present (2023), Blond has worked as a key supplier of fentanyl precursor chemicals to China for drug traffickers in Mexicoincluding members of the Sinaloa cartel”, claimed.

Rubio always knew that “these chemicals are used to manufacture fentanylwhich is imported and distributed to USA”, he added.

In September 2021, Mexican authorities seized 25 kilograms of precursors that Blond bought to China to send them “to drug traffickers in Mexico for the manufacture, import and distribution of fentanyl”, he specified.

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Underlining that the officer gained the trust of the Guatemalan, the Prosecutor’s Office revealed that after that seizure, the agent “had multiple in-person meetings and communications with Rubio that were legally recorded.”

“During these meetings and communications, Rubio spoke openly about his relationship with the Sinaloa Cartelincluding a high-ranking member of that organization, and mentioned his plans to visit China to tour the companies where he regularly purchased large quantities of chemical precursors from fentanyl”, added.

In a maneuver that intensified at least since 2010, although the first indications emerged in 2007 and 2008, the illicit goods were sent to Guatemala by sea of China and India, by the Pacific, and the Netherlands and Turkey, by the Atlantic.

Synthetic drugs were produced in Guatemala or its primary ingredients transferred to Mexico to reprocess and traffic them to USA. Guatemala established itself as a bridge for precursors from China to Mexico.

A fact exhibited the importance of Blond In the chain. Although the Guatemalan woman was imprisoned on March 17 in Guatemala and on the 28th of that month she accepted in a court in that country to be extradited to United States territory to face the charges against her, The US State Department announced on April 14 that it had offered a $1 million reward “for information leading to the conviction” of Rubio.

The Los Chapitos clan worked with Gaby

the clan of the little boyscommanded by the sons of the convicted Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin El Chapo Guzman LoeraI work with Blond in a vast conspiracy to supply precursors from China, via Guatemala, to the clandestine laboratories in Mexico for the production of fentanyl, according to the Department.

The conflict over the deadly synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine this year strained relations between Mexico and USAwith an exchange of attacks and reproaches in an environment that evidenced the growing power of the Mexican cartels in both countries.

Prosecutors from the Department of Justice accused of supplying precursors to process fentanyl, running laboratories to manufacture drugs and providing security and weapons for drug activity to Mexicans Ovidio and Joaquin Guzman Lopez and jesus alfredo and Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, sons of El Chapo and with the fame of directing one of the bloodiest chains of the cartel. Of the four, Ovid He is the only prisoner, since he was arrested last January.

The report in this newspaper revealed that the agent’s finding seemed to barely infiltrate a thread of the enormous skein of fentanyl and other narcotics smuggling led by Chinese, Mexicans and Guatemalans, but reconfirmed that Mafias from Mexico, China, and Guatemala forged a powerful alliance to supply cocaine, heroin, and synthetic drugs to the United States. The Sinaloa mafia appeared as the counterpart for Mexico.

With the behind the scenes of the case, the DEA official exposed a trilateral apparatus and confirmed that the Mexican and Guatemalan networks diversified in the 21st century their traditional cocaine and heroin businesses to extend them to synthetic drugs.

The agent’s revelations led the Attorney General’s Office and the Guatemalan National Civil Police to capture, on the previous March 17 in the capital of that country and for extradition purposes, USAthe Mexican Sergio Duarte Frías, 27, to Rubio, as presumed guilty of trafficking fentanyl to USA. Rubio agreed to be extradited and Duarte refused.

Gaby used her connections with suppliers and manufacturers

In its report this Friday, the State Department reiterated that Rubio “is a broker who works with the Cartel (among other traffickers). Blond Zea uses its connections with chemical suppliers and manufacturers” in China “to acquire fentanyl precursor chemicals for the cartel.”

“In addition, it puts traffickers in direct contact with suppliers” in China “knowing that these chemicals will be used to make fentanyl for final distribution” in USA and elsewhere, he added.

According to DEA, “the Sinaloa Cartel is largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl” to USA in recent years, he stressed.

By narrating that the little boys “and his confederates use various means to buy fentanyl chemical precursors from chemical and pharmaceutical companies” in China, he reported that “the use of intermediaries in other countries” is included to acquire these elements “on behalf of the Cartel.”

A federal grand jury from the Southern District of NY issued on the 4th of this month “a formal indictment” against Rubio and others accused “of conspiracy to import fentanyl, conspiracy to traffic fentanyl, and money laundering conspiracy,” it detailed.

The capture of the Guatemalan in March was achieved based on a “provisional arrest warrant associated with charges in the anticipated indictment of April 4, 2023”, for which he mentioned that Gaby remains in custody pending his extradition to USA.

So the dream of Gaby to travel to China must remain on pause for an indefinite period.

Source: Elcomercio