Exotic world of international drug cartels is right on our doorstep

Last week’s massive drugs haul is a reminder that the tentacles of powerful South American narcotics gangs such as Sinaloa are not just stretching from your nearest streaming device — they are ensconced in unsuspecting communities across Munster.

Mexican Navy soldiers escort Joaquin Guzman, known as ‘El Chapo’, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, at the Mexican Navy hangar in Mexico City, on February. 22, 2014. Picture: Jair Cabrera Torres

The Sinaloa Cartel has become an almost romanticised entity thanks to the portrayal of Mexican cartels in the hit series Narcos.

For die-hard Irish fans of the programme, the realities of cartels seemed thousands of miles away in the fields of Mexico where heroin and cannabis cultivation were key in the emergence of the Sinaloa as a dominant force in the global drugs trade.