Sinaloa Cartel takes root in American neighborhoods: Where are they?

A retired Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) supervisory special agent says Mexico's notorious Sinaloa drug cartel is deeply entrenched in major U.S. cities and in smaller communities, describing its influence as so pervasive it's "woven into our communities."

The cartel’s reach, Brian Townsend said, is more expansive and destructive than many realize with its grip on both urban and rural areas across the U.S.

"We have some larger locations that are well known for Sinaloa control, like Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson, Dallas, Atlanta and New York City," he told Fox News Digital. "But they have distribution points throughout the United States, and from there, they use those hubs, and then [the distribution] spoke out from there into our communities."

The head of the DEA said last year that the U.S. is facing the "most dangerous and deadly drug crisis" in its history with fentanyl and methamphetamine flowing across the border — and that the "Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels are at the heart of this crisis." 

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Townsend noted that 300 people per day die from drug overdoses in the U.S.

The former DEA agent, who founded Eagle 6 Training, shared that the Sinaloa Cartel works with chemical suppliers to receive the materials for "pennies."

"It's primarily from China," he said. "There are other countries and other suppliers, like India, involved. But China is by far number one."

"From the ports, they are trucked to various locations where the manufacturing of fentanyl occurs. And then from there, they're smuggled into the United States."

Townsend said that the Mexican cartel is "very good at this," and by adding fentanyl to their distribution they are "making a lot of money killing Americans with it."

Irina Tsukerman, a U.S. national security lawyer and the president of Scarab Rising Inc., a security and geopolitical risk strategic adviser, said the Sinaloa Cartel "even surpasses the peak impact of the Sicilian mafia families."

"With cities like Chicago, Denver and even Oklahoma turning into major operation hubs, Sinaloa has a throttling national hold, a shadow state within a state waging a lethal war on the American people," Tsukerman told Fox News Digital.

Tsukerman said that what makes the Mexican cartel a "standout" is that they control "every stage of the drug supply chain."

Cocaine: Imported from South America, particularly from Colombia

Heroin: Grown in Mexico’s Golden Triangle (Sinaloa, Durango, Chihuahua)

Fentanyl: Manufactured in clandestine Mexican labs with chemicals from China

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Tsukerman said that since the cartel manages production, they can maximize profit and ensure the purity of the deadly drugs. 

Types of areas where the Sinaloa Cartel has established hold in the United States include:

Sinaloa's most notorious member is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The drug kingpin was convicted for running an industrial-scale drug smuggling operation and is serving his sentence at a maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.

Townsend said that unlike most vertical organizational charts, the Sinaloa Cartel operates on a "franchise model."

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"While many of us are used to major decisions being made at the top of the organization chart, in the Sinaloa Cartel, you have people who may be at the bottom of the organizational chart making huge decisions."

"They don't stop and say, 'Hey, we need to get hold of El Chapo in prison and see if he's OK with this,'" Townsend said. "These are major decisions happening throughout the organization."

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The Trump administration plans to designate more than a half dozen criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations. The move, to be carried out by the State Department, follows an executive order President Donald Trump signed on Jan. 20 calling for a crackdown on major cartels.

Townsend noted that Trump's more muscular approach to cartel violence has "a lot of advantages," but he noted that the U.S. should "tread lightly."

"It's going to give law enforcement additional resources within the United States. And that typically is more money and more manpower," he said. "It's going to make anyone who does business with these organizations illegal."

"I believe the reason why this is being done is it gives our government more negotiation power with Mexico," he said. "This gives us some leverage."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the DEA and the White House for comment.