Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is one of the most infamous figures in the Sinaloa cartel, who has made himself a billionaire off of selling drugs and the blood of countless innocent people throughout Mexico, Central America, and the US. Justice finally caught up with him, and he was extradited to the US where he is facing trial for his crimes.

During his trial, various secrets about the operation of the cartels in Mexico have been revealed. For example, El Chapo confirmed definitively the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel as Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, something which had been suspected for years but was never publicly proven.

Blog del Narco, which covers the drug trade and crimes in Mexico, pointed out that in light of El Chapo’s trial, evidence suggesting that the cartels who claim to be rivals, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juarez Cartel, are public rivals but secretly work together, and member often times will partake of both groups:

The issues related to organized crime remain latent in social networks and this time it is time to talk about a supposed alliance between the cartels in Mexico.

It all started when Tirso Martínez Sánchez, who worked as a drug diffuser in the United States, pointed out that before reporting the death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, an union was made between criminal cells, just as if a Telcel and a Movistar were allied. Tirso Martinez Sanchez, alias the Engineer, revealed that he worked for two different sides, both for the Ciudad Juarez Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.

The witness said that the two groups were mixed in 1990 and Amado Carrillo Fuentes was the owner of the Juarez Cartel, and Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán and Ismael Mayo Zambada the leaders of Sinaloa, which prompted the transfer of drugs from Mexico to the United States.

According to Tirso Martínez Sánchez, the cartels gained more strength, so they had the possibility of corrupting the politicians, the police and making more money by selling narcotics with apocryphal permits.

The mix made the squares shared in certain cities and ports, just as if it were a large buffet in which everyone could take their part.

Although Tirso Martínez Sánchez was arrested in Mexico in 2014 and moved to the United States, he now became a great informant when it comes to unraveling secrets in the El Chapo trial.

The process continues and in a few months the fate of El Chapo will be determined after its presence in the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most bloodthirsty in Mexico. (source)

In the film The Godfather II, there is a scene where a series of major corporations and representatives from the Jewish and Sicilian mobs meet in Cuba to discuss their mutual investment and cooperation in Cuba. This is in 1956, and in the film Michael Corleone suspects Hyman Roth, representing the Jewish mafia, who is in Cuba “turning over” his investments to his “friends”, is seeking to cash out before Castro’s revolution happens and effectively leave his “friends” with nothing before taking the money and, as the film depicts later, attempts to flee to Israel to hide from the police using the lie that he is a “poor Jew who wants to be with his people.”

There are many lessons to be taken from the scene, but one of them is the collaboration between business and mafia, and even rival mafias, for while there can and have been true rivalries, most of the times they help each other and are allies, sometimes even faking that they hate each other to give that as a public impression when in reality they are close friends, always have been close friends, and always will be close friends.

In history’s lessons from Europe, one notes that Germany and Turkey have been allies for centuries and have continued to be allies in spite of the supposed “fighting” between them, which is but a cover for their actions.

Recently, there was the “Brunson affair” with the US and Turkey, which upon closer examination seems to have been a cover for increased military cooperation between the US and Turkey, which is something that had been going on since the days of the Ottoman Empire and has continued since without interruption. “Pastor Brunson” had a vacation in Turkey, the US and Turkey made a show before the world, deals continued as normal, and if that was not confirmation, Brunson then proceeded to praise Erdogan in an interview and lobby for the expansion of Turkish militarism.

The same can be said about the Democrats and the Republicans, for while both emphasize different points in their politics, both operate from the same philosophical basis with the exception of a rare few, who usually and eventually become isolated from their own parties because of assuming a principled stance because none possess it. When the Congressional sessions are finished and the cameras are off, everybody goes together to drink from the same bars and eat at the same restaurants paid for by the taxpayers who actually believe there is a difference.

If governments and politicians do it, why would drug cartels, who are criminal organizations that in many ways function little different from either, do anything different? They would not, because while there are real fights, it is in their mutual interest to work together for the advancement of their own power.

This is the grave importance of philosophy in life, because while there are warring factions, what ultimately separates groups of men from each other is a difference in philosophy. If two have the same philosophy, the divisions between them, whatever that may exist, are usually in name only because the essence itself has not changed.

As a final example, it is not a surprise that “hard core leftists” such as David Horowitz (among the many) suddenly become “hard core right wingers” because both sides are united by their belief in socialism, and while they may fight and have different emphases, the basic points of philosophy they always agreed with.