"He and his colleagues had developed a model to help understand the scale of the country's drug cartels, which revealed that some 175,000 people worked in these organizations, making the cartels the fifth-largest national employer. As one of the few attempts to quantify the size of Mexico's organized crime networks, the study received praise from diplomats and researchers alike."
"For decades, cartels have been a shadowy but pervasive force in Mexico. It's thought that the trafficking of illicit drugs such as heroin, cocaine and fentanyl makes up the bulk of their cash flow. Their influence reaches other industries by forcing local businesses, from farmers to clothing retailers, to pay protection money."
"Weathering backlash from political leaders isn't his only concern - the possibility of threats and harm from the cartels themselves looms at the back of his mind. It's a fear few mathematicians have to deal with in their careers, but Prieto-Curiel is determined to use his skill set to benefit society."
Rafael Prieto-Curiel published research in 2023 quantifying Mexico's drug cartel workforce at approximately 175,000 people, ranking them as the fifth-largest employer in the country. This groundbreaking study received international recognition from diplomats and researchers but faced dismissal from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who provided no evidence for his rejection. Prieto-Curiel now applies quantitative methods at Vienna's Complexity Science Hub to understand and address organized crime. Mexican cartels generate revenue primarily through trafficking heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl, while also extorting local businesses for protection money, costing approximately $1.5 billion in 2023 alone. These organizations remain major drivers of Mexico's escalating violence over the past decade.
#organized-crime-quantification #mexican-drug-cartels #mathematical-modeling #violence-and-extortion #scientific-research-under-pressure
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