This relationship has encompassed most major drugs, including the selling of raw opium gum and, eventually, the processed poppy, which carries a higher price per kilo for Guatemalan growers.
Due to the close proximity with Mexico, Guatemalan and Mexican police have experienced difficulty combating the fields as the two governments must respect the other's sovereign borders and do not have complete authority in the area.
Its long, unpatrolled coastline and sparse jungles make it a popular landing point for boats and planes carrying drugs from South America, while its borders are understaffed and ill-equipped to fully exert customs controls.
"[7] According to the International Crisis Group, “the presence of Mexican cartels fighting on Guatemalan territory demonstrated how important and competitive the eastern region had become for the transnational cocaine trade”.
[6] A 2009 STRATFOR report corroborates: "Mexican drug traffickers appear to operate much more extensively than in any other Central American country; this may be due, at least in part, to the relationship between Los Zetas and the Guatemalan Kaibiles.
Beyond the apparently more-established Zeta smuggling operations there, several recent drug seizures — including an enormous 1,800-acre poppy plantation attributed to the Sinaloa cartel — make it clear that other Mexican drug-trafficking organizations are currently active inside Guatemala.