Four mafias control the north of Chile and three of them have contacts with Bolivia

José closes his business at 20:00 every day. He does it quickly, because he is afraid of being mugged. In the city of Iquique, as in several cities in northern Chile, Fear was installed by the mafias that arrived, the majority made up of foreign citizens. There are four criminal gangs that are dedicated to drug trafficking, contract killings, extortion, aggravated robberies, and human trafficking and smuggling. Three of them have ties to Bolivia.

“The situation is not like before. Most of the businesses close at eight (at night), before we were selling at midnight without problems. The fear of assaults forces us to close,” lamented José, a Chilean citizen who has a grocery and grocery business..

In the center of Iquique, the large stores -known as malls- close at 8:00 p.m. for security reasons. Same with restaurants and other small businesses. But the liquor stores and some nightclubs, where members of criminal gangs frequent, are still open. In the tourist area of ​​Iquique, which borders the beach, there is more security and businesses work until midnight.

In the north of Chile at least four criminal gangs that are dedicated to different types of crime were installeds, according to a police report from the neighboring country. El Tren de Aragua and La Mafia del Norte are made up of Venezuelan citizens. In addition, there are the Mexicans Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

The two Venezuelan mafias and the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel have ties to criminal groups in Bolivia. The first two are mainly dedicated to human trafficking and trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, but they also have connections to drug trafficking. The Mexican cartel is clearly dedicated to drug trafficking from Bolivia to Chile.

“We must take into account that three of the five most dangerous organizations in the world are located on this continent: the Aragua Train, Jalisco Nueva Generación and the Sinaloa Cartel. All of these organizations already have influence or presence in Chile,” reported the Undersecretary of the Interior and Public Security of Chile, Manuel Monsalve.

The Chilean authority stressed that these criminal gangs have replaced the individual crime typically registered to take them on a large scale. “The crime that used to be committed by one person is now carried out by sophisticated organizations who plan large-scale drug trafficking, immigrant trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling or cybersecurity crimes,” he said.

In the report of the Investigative Police (PDI) of Chile, it is established that the three criminal gangs have contact with similar groups in Bolivia due to the border connection with Chile. It does not mention names of Bolivian organizations, but it lists the border crossings of Colchane-Pisiga and Chungará-Tambo Quemado as the routes they use to transport drugs and traffic people from Bolivia to Chile.

In July 2019, The Bolivian Police detected the presence of the Mexican cartels of Sinaloa, Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) and that of Tijuana. These organizations were joined by the Calabrian Ndrangheta, one of the bloodiest Italian mafias.

At present, the Police speak of the presence of emissaries of cartels in the country, but rule out that there are organizations structured on national soil. About the Aragua Train, the law enforcement has the information that they operate with drug traffickings and human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

The Aragua Train operates in Bolivia. This Venezuelan mafia managed to set up a headquarters that works in the town of Pisiga, on the border with Chile. However, its members are in at least four capital cities: Santa Cruz de la Sierra, La Paz, Cochabamba and Oruro.

In these cities, this criminal gang “kidnaps” Venezuelan women who are on the streets selling candy, washing windshields or begging. Then, they are taken to Chile to be subjected to sexual exploitation. In order for them to be recovered, they contact their partners so that they can go look for them on Chilean soil, but on the condition that they take drugs to northern Chile.

The Aragua Train is a criminal gang of Venezuelan origin. This organization took over northern Chile and engages in the trafficking and trafficking of women for the purpose of sexual exploitation as its main source of income, even more than drug trafficking.

The other Venezuelan gang is the Mafia del Norte, which began its operations in the city of Chillán, in central Chile, and later spread to the north. Today, They fight spaces with the Aragua Train in the cities of northern Chile and are dedicated to hit men and drug trafficking, mainly.

“The Northern Mafia, here in Chillán, we are hunting, we are hunting, we are active, there, brother”. “In the movie my taita, you know and we are pure Venezuelans, willing to show our faces”, are two messages recorded by members of this gang on social networks showing long-range weapons.

In the report of theThe PDI also mentions that the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel uses roads with the Bolivian border to introduce drugs into Chile. In that country, this Mexican gang has representatives who commit crimes of kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking from Bolivia.