How Mexican drug cartels have infiltrated Hong Kong
Mexican cartels are using Hong Kong to launder money and source chemicals for narcotics trade
The brutal narcotics turf wars that consumed Mexico for the past decade have left more than 100,000 people dead or missing.
Bodies are frequently dismembered. Victims are often hanged from bridges. Decapitation is common.
Behind the violence and barbarity are the country's notorious drug cartels, which are now eyeing new clients overseas.
Following financial crises in the West, the syndicates sought to target lucrative new cocaine markets in Asia, as well as secure vital supply lines of drug chemicals for the booming American meth market.
Their corporate and criminal presence in Hong Kong has been laid bare in a new investigation by the South China Morning Post, which found evidence of drug cartels using the city for money laundering and sourcing vital chemicals.
One of Mexico's most powerful and violent crime groups, the Sinaloa cartel, has been using banks and shell companies in the city for a number of years to launder millions in dirty money, according to official Mexican documents and interviews with law enforcement sources.
A Kowloon-based pharmaceutical company has also been implicated by special investigators in the Latin American country for allegedly selling controlled chemicals that the cartels use to manufacture meth, also known as Ice.