Cártel del Mar leaders arrested, narcos trafficking the totoaba and killing the marine vaquita

Semar, the Secretariat of the Navy managed to capture two leaders of the Cártel del Mar, a criminal group of illegal fishing of totoaba

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

The Semar, the Secretariat of the Navy managed to capture two alleged leaders of the Cártel del Mar, a criminal group that for decades has been carrying out the illegal fishing of totoaba, a fish considered the "cocaine of the sea", which poachers fish to take the their swim bladders, which are dried and smuggled by Chinese organized crime to be sold on the black market.

We have already talked about the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), it is a fish in danger of extinction due to fishing and is also sold on the market for 100 thousand dollars. Blisters are used in traditional medicine as a panacea for various ailments, but remember that there is no scientific basis for this practice.

"The group was fishing for endangered species and has a lot of power," said President López Obrador.

According to sources from the Attorney General's Office (FGR), one of the detainees is Sunshine Rodríguez, already known to the police for possession of drugs. The other detainee is Juan Luis García Ruiz “La Yegua”, an alleged operator of the cartel.

But it would be Sunshine Rodriguez to lead the criminal group behind the totoaba trafficking, whose poaching also affects the vaquita, another Mexican cetacean that is endangered precisely because it is confused in fishing.

They inform me that Sunshine Rodríguez, alleged leader of the cartel del Mar, who traffics in totoaba and kills the vaquita marina, was arrested for organized crime. He is one of those who threatened me with death, and who we denounced in the documentary #SOSMarDeSombras #SeaOfShadows

- Carlos Loret de Mola (@CarlosLoret) November 11, 2020

The totoaba is the real target of the illegal nets that are threatening the now imminent extinction of the vaquita porpoise. The two animals are of similar size, both endemic to the upper Gulf of California and both critically endangered. The similarity in size and habitat in which they live, means that the nets, placed to catch the totoabas, are perfect death traps for the last remaining vaquitas on earth.

Totoabas are captured to supply a very lucrative black market with their swim bladders, which are sold as "medicinal soup" in Asia. This threatened fish is killed to take only less than 5% of its body; the rest is thrown away and left to decompose.

Source: Latino