Derek Maltz: ‘Cartels Run the Largest Drug, Human, and Sex Trafficking Operations’ and ‘Make Billions’

Former DEA Special Operations Director Derek Maltz Sr. stated that cartels generate billions of dollars in profits from their smuggling and trafficking operations. Maltz made this statement in a post on X on August 11.

“The Mexican cartels are running the largest drug trafficking, human trafficking and sex trafficking operations in history, making billions of dollars from it,” said Maltz, former director of the Division of Special Operations.

According to a House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee hearing, the cartels earned an estimated $13 billion in 2021 alone. These profits were generated through human smuggling, in which migrants pay the cartels to transport them illegally across the border, and sex trafficking of migrants, primarily women and children.

Message from Maltz X. | X.

Meanwhile, Insight Crime reports that 4.5 tons of pure fentanyl and 434 tons of methamphetamine are produced annually in Mexico “to meet the demand of the U.S. consumption market.” The chemical components cost between $9 million and $22.5 million for fentanyl and $83.3 million and $126.5 million for methamphetamine. The wholesale market for fentanyl sold by Mexican cartels in the United States is worth between $27 million and $67.5 million, allowing criminal organizations to sell fentanyl in America for a large profit.

The New York Post reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 4 million fentanyl pills, or about 1,000 pounds, at a port of entry in Arizona in early August. The seizure was valued at about $12.6 million.

Maltz previously worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for 28 years, according to his biography. He was a Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Justice’s Special Operations Division for 10 years and received the Presidential Rank Award.