Social Embeddedness, Multiplexity, and Criminal Collaboration within the Sinaloa Cartel

• In Event: Global Drug Markets, Trafficking Patterns, and Organized Crime

Abstract

This study investigates how social embeddedness shapes criminal collaboration within the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the largest drug-trafficking organizations globally. Drawing on trial transcripts from Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera's U.S. federal case, we coded multiplex social relationships—including familial ties, friendships, compadre relations, meetings, and collaborative transactions—into network data. Using social network analysis and Logistic Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure models, we assess the extent to which these relationships are associated with drug crimes and broader criminal collaboration. Our findings reveal that friendship and meeting ties are the strongest predictors of criminal collaboration, while familial ties, initially significant, lose their effect when controlling for shared cartel membership—suggesting a mediating role of organizational affiliation, as many family ties overlap with cartel membership. Conversely, ties such as compadre relations and prison connections show no significant association. These results highlight the pivotal role of trust-based relationships in sustaining organized crime and demonstrate the methodological potential of trial data for analysing criminal networks.

Authors

• Valentin Pereda, Université de Montréal, Montréal Canada

• David Décary-Hétu, Université de Montréal

• Francesco Calderoni, Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Milan