Uncle of Co Kerry’s Sinaloa Cartel boss snapped bagging white powder
How Sinaloa Cartel ended up in Ireland
Níall Feiritear
THIS exclusive photograph shows Co Kerry Sinaloa Cartel boss Morris O’Shea’s uncle bagging up white powder on a clear table before being busted by Chilean cops.
In images obtained by the Sunday World, cartel chief Ricardo Salazar is captured bagging up powder in the back of a car on orders of his nephew.
Ricardo is currently serving 15 years in a Chilean prison for his role in flooding Europe and Ireland with coke.
He was convicted along with Morris O’Shea’s mother, Yolanda, last year for their role in moving cocaine into Chile from Bolivia.
In other images, Ricardo can also be seen strolling around in the sunshine whilst under surveillance by South American police.
A similar operation was being carried out at the same time on the other side of the pond by Spanish cops tailing his nephew, Killlorglin man and former FÁS applicant Morris O’Shea and his Irish Sinaloa gangster pals.
Ricardo Salazar and his sister Yolanda, relatives of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, former boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, are currently in prison for a combined total of 23 years.
Chilean authorities believe they had specific roles in the South American drugs ring.
However, the overall operation was controlled by ex-Kerryman Morris O’Shea who issued orders to his mother and uncle in Chile.
According to Chilean officials, Ricardo Salazar had dual responsibilities of building logistical networks and maintaining transport links.
After secretly entering Chile in early 2019, he recruited several people to transport Bolivian cocaine into the country while also building contacts in the local port and airport.
Today, the Sunday World can reveal how Morris O’Shea’s relatives were busted after a year-long undercover operation by Chilean police.
The secret investigation to nail the Sinaloans in Chile involved undercover agents who worked with the Salazars for months.
The police operation was first put in place following an alert sent by the United States anti-drug agency, the DEA, who warned Chilean cops about the secret entry of a senior cartel member.
Chilean officials were said to have been in a “state of disbelief” when Morris’s uncle Ricardo arrived in the country and set up business.
A luxury apartment on the Iquique waterfront, one of the most exclusive areas of the city, was waiting for Ricardo Salazar when he arrived in 2019.
He then began to travel under security escort, through every corner of the region.
Nightclubs, commercial areas and the port area of Iquique and Valparaíso were of particular interest.
However, every movement by Ricardo was recorded in secret police files.
A series of measures to infiltrate the Sinaloan operation was put in place.
Chilean sources indicate the group set up routes for their drugs; from Bolivia to Iquique and on to ports in Valparaíso.
The first route involved sending shipments of drugs to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.
The containers containing the cocaine were then be transported to the city of Antwerp, Belgium, where they would be delivered to European cartel members for marketing.
This is understood to mean Morris O’Shea and his Irish and European colleagues.
"There was information that came from abroad, because otherwise we would not have had this opportunity," Tarapacá regional prosecutor Raúl Arancibia said, indicating co-operation with Spanish authorities.
Morris’s mother, Yolanda Salazar, joined the international operation after her brother suffered heart problems.
The first shipment of drugs was 54 kilos of cocaine of high purity, according to prosecutors.
The Sinaloan crew then began working to establish logistics to transport larger volumes and Morris’s mum “undertook the search for drug collection zones in surrounding Iquique.”
The presence of the Sinaloa cartel in Peru is also mentioned by prosecutors as another “delegation” of Sinaloans was arrested there in March 2020.
That crew stashed 887 kilos of high-purity cocaine in the city of Callao, ready for export.
March 3, 2020 was a key date in the investigation.
That day Morris’s mother and uncle, Yolanda and Ricardo, travelled to Santiago unexpectedly for a business meeting.
They bought tickets to Mexico on March 10.
This helped the prosecutor's office to plan arrests as the pair were preparing to leave the country.
The boarding area of the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport became the focal point of the 400 day long investigation.
Urgent protection from the Sinaloa Cartel was given to the undercover officers who had used false identities to capture hundreds of images, videos and wiretaps over 12 months.
Cops pounced in broad daylight in front of hundreds of passengers in the International Airport.
In 28°C heat, cops nabbed former Killorglin resident Yolanda and her brother as they stood in line.
The arrest occurred without incident as Morris O’Shea’s relatives were handcuffed by police officers.
The arrest barely lasted a minute. There was no resistance, no shots fired, or injuries, according to witnesses.
The Drug Unit of the Tarapacá Prosecutor's Office concluded the siblings ran the operational arm of the lethal Sinaloa Cartel founded in 1989 by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and Héctor Palma Salazar.
Today, Ricardo and Yolanda Salazar are serving time in a high security prison in Santiago, while Killorglin man Morris O’Shea is believed to be hiding out in a Sinaloa controlled region of Mexico.
Kerry man Morris O'Shea in his youth
In a further Sunday World investigation into the European and Irish end of the operation, we can reveal that the Sinaloan gangsters were using two methods of shipment known as the ‘blind hook,’ (gancho ciego) and ‘business to business’ (empresa a empresa) to ship their illicit loads.
The ‘blind hook’ method is where traffickers smuggle drugs onto containers without the knowledge of either the sender or the recipient of drugs.
The ‘business to business’ method relies on using trusted firms to hide drugs shipments, rather than so-called front companies.
Chilean officials have stated Ricardo Salazar “was part of a macro structure that could resort to violence and corruption, that knew various ways of trafficking drugs to Europe and that managed various illegal ways of sending money.”
"’Mirror mode’ smuggling used encrypted communication systems not known in our country at that time,” they added.
A recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) provides further details of how legitimate firms are using to smuggle drugs.
“This modality is carried out in the country of origin or at the trans shipment port before the container arrives in the destination country.
“The success of this method is due in all cases to the existence of a conspiracy both in the country of origin or at the trans shipment port, as well as in the country of destination.”
“The cartels have tremendous infiltration power at an economic level, they are capable of buying anyone,” said Ainhoa Vásquez, a Chilean journalist.
According to the DEA, the Sinaloa Cartel has expanded to more than 100 countries throughout the world and has thousands of people working in a wide international network.
“Imagine all the money and power of coercion that comes with their motto: 'silver or lead',” says crime writer and academic, Ainhoa Vásquez.
“Chile is a very strategic country for any cartel, especially for Mexican cartels. A great lesson has to learn from what happened with Mexico.
“The violence came from there. The cartels became much more violent.
"Violence comes when you fight for territory. Either I buy you with millions of dollars or kill you and your family,” the expert added.