Organized crime weaves a new maritime trafficking network between Mexico and Guatemala

Organized crime has returned to the Pacific route for drug trafficking. Since the start of 2026, at least eight vessels have been detected on the “maritime bridge” between Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico with dozens arrested and several tons of cocaine seized. The detection and interdiction of these speedboats at sea is further evidence of the pressure the United States is exerting on the governments of Mexico and Central America.

On January 2, 2026, Colombian President Gustavo Petro accused U.S. troops of attacking and sinking an alleged narco-speedboat on the border between Chiapas and Oaxaca. “I warn all the governments in the area. This appears to be the exact zone where the boatmen who threw themselves from vessels that were bombed fell,” he wrote on the social network X. Petro said the information was obtained by the Colombian navy and shared with the international community. He added that it was known that three people died and some survivors had jumped into the sea.

After the president’s statements there was silence at sea and from the authorities, although they coincided with a sequence of seizures that have hit criminal groups, amid an evident increase in their maritime activity to avoid being visible targets on land.

Mexico’s two main criminal groups, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), have opened and maintained maritime trafficking routes for decades — hidden paths the government is trying to reclaim. This week, the Mexican Secretariat of the Navy reported a drug seizure in the Chiapas bay of Paredón, in the area bordering Oaxaca. Authorities seized 50 packages of cocaine and more than 60 50-liter jerry cans filled with gasoline. The find occurred in the maritime area where Petro reported the sinking of a vessel by the United States.

Ecuador-Guatemala-Mexico corridor

Around 7 p.m. on January 25, Guatemala’s anti-narcotics police launched a major operation in Puerto Quetzal, in the department of Escuintla, where they seized 4,927 kilos of cocaine hidden in seven containers loaded with sacks of flour, with an estimated street value of $85 million, according to the Interior Ministry.

The Guatemalan government described the seizure as “historic,” and investigations produced further leads: the shipment had come from South America and had made a stop in Costa Rica, with the final destination intended to be Mexico. Guatemala was unable to detect smaller vessels, but Mexico did.

On April 27, the Secretariat of the Navy intercepted a speed boat 65 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Puerto Chiapas. Six foreign nationals were on board, and inspectors found 18 bundles of cocaine weighing an estimated 904 kilos, with an approximate value of 349 million pesos ($20.2 million).

Another major seizure occurred in Guatemalan waters on May 17, when the naval force detected a vessel making unusual movements 600 nautical miles from the port of San José. By air and sea the boat was surrounded and six crew members were captured, including three Ecuadorians and one Mexican, who carried one and a half tons of cocaine in sacks.

A day later, on May 18, the Mexican Navy located another speedboat in waters off Puerto Chiapas. In that operation, which also involved a helicopter, five men were detained and 50 bundles containing one and a half tons of cocaine were seized, with an estimated value of 612 million pesos ($35.4 million).

The Navy has said this is the sixth seizure carried out in Pacific waters so far this year within Chiapas’s jurisdiction, though it did not provide details about other operations where drug shipments and arrests were reported.

In all the seizures in the maritime corridor between Chiapas and Guatemala, authorities’ investigations have shown that the vessels’ point of origin or cargo came from the Ecuadorian coast, a relatively new route for criminal organizations.

A stamp that connects the Americas with Asia

A sticker, a distinctive seal — something so small stamped on a brick of cocaine that reveals the enormity of the trafficking network. The seizures made in Guatemala and Chiapas share a characteristic: wrapped packages stamped with the word “Dior,” perhaps referencing the fashion brand. But this link goes beyond a simple tag found in the seas of Mexico and Guatemala: it reaches South Korea.

In early April 2025, the South Korean Coast Guard seized nearly two tons of pure cocaine aboard a Norway-flagged ship that had departed from Mexico. The Asian maritime authority did not specify which Mexican port the vessel set sail from.

The shipment, which was located after an inspection at an east coast port, was identified thanks to information provided by U.S. agencies, according to the South Korean government. The seized cargo was estimated at $697 million, one of the most significant blows to drug trafficking in South Korea. According to authorities, the ship made stops in Ecuador, Panama, and China; as a result, an investigation involving the United States has been underway since then to trace the origins of this vast “criminal web.”

The cocaine bricks seized in South Korea — thousands of miles from Puerto Chiapas, Puerto Quetzal, and Puerto San José — also bore the same Dior insignia that has alarmed U.S. agencies.

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