'Aquatic Cocaine': Mexican Narcos Moving into Lucrative Fish Bladder Market Camilo Mejia Giraldo and James Bargent - InSight Crime
go to original August 8, 2014

Soup containing a totoaba bladder may go for $25,000 in China (Richard Herrmann/Corbis)

Samuel Gallardo Castro, alias "El Samy," who Mexican authorities have identified as an organized crime chief and drug trafficker in the Gulf of Santa Clara, was murdered on June 11.

Shortly after, a man handed himself in to the authorities and confessed to the murder, claiming Gallardo owed him $1 million for a shipment of bladders from the totoaba fish, which is endemic to the Gulf of California, reported local media.

While reports suggest that the man may be released, as authorities doubt the validity of his story and his mental faculties, his confession shines a light on a form of eco-trafficking that has exploded in the region in recent years, according to an investigation by Mexicali Digital.

The report details how the bladders, which can fetch between $7,000 and $14,000 a piece, are trafficked into the United States then exported to Asia, where they are made into a soup that can sell for as much as $25,000 a portion.

According to Mexicali Digital, Gallardo's ties to totoaba trafficking, which was facilitated by his role as director of the Alto Golfo Fisheries Cooperative in the state of Sonora, are an example of the growing involvement of drug traffickers in the trade, as groups operating in Sonora and Mexicali regard it as safer and easier than trafficking marijuana - another major local export.

Read the rest at InSight Crime

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