Elite Trader Group: 2025-10-26

Thursday, October 30, 2025

🐮 Cattle Smuggling : Mexico

Cattle smuggling into and through Mexico is a major criminal enterprise, primarily run by organized crime syndicates.

The illicit trade poses significant public health threats and has recently fueled a New World screwworm outbreak, leading the U.S. to repeatedly suspend livestock imports from Mexico since late 2024.

The criminal operation

• Source of smuggled cattle: Most illegal cattle are brought into southern Mexico from Central American countries, including Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

• Organized crime control: Drug cartels and other criminal groups have expanded their operations to include cattle trafficking, seeing it as a lucrative, low-risk business.

• Modus operandi: The animals are illegally moved across the border—often via rafts on rivers—and are then "laundered" into Mexico's legal supply chain using falsified health documents and black-market ear tags. In a single year, an estimated 800,000 cattle are smuggled into Mexico.

Consequences of smuggling

• Disease outbreak: The illegal movement of livestock is a major factor in the re-emergence of the New World screwworm (NWS) in Mexico. The pest, which was eradicated from the U.S. in the 1970s, has been found dangerously close to the U.S.-Mexico border.

• Economic disruption:

• The U.S. has closed its border to Mexican cattle several times since late 2024, halting a trade worth approximately $1 billion annually and contributing to higher beef prices in the U.S..

• Mexican ranchers have suffered greatly from the import ban, with losses estimated at $25 to $30 million per month.

• Environmental and social impact:

• Illegal ranching, fueled by this illicit trade, is causing deforestation and environmental degradation in protected areas in Central America.

• It has also been linked to violence against Indigenous communities in these areas.

Biosecurity and enforcement challenges

• Difficulty tracking origin: Smuggled cattle arrive in Mexico without proper documentation or sanitary inspections, making it nearly impossible to trace their origins.

• Corruption: Corrupt officials and lax enforcement at Mexico's southern border have allowed criminal networks to operate with little resistance.

• Inadequate resources: Mexican authorities often have limited capacity to address the problem, and cattle ranchers say federal action is needed to stop the illegal trade.

The path forward

• International cooperation: The U.S. and Mexico are collaborating on efforts to eradicate the screwworm, with the U.S. investing in a sterile fly production facility in Mexico.

• Improved traceability: Modernizing Mexico's livestock traceability system with harder-to-counterfeit technologies, such as electronic chips, has been proposed as a solution.

• Enhanced surveillance: Both countries are heightening surveillance along the border to detect and prevent further spread of the screwworm.