AP IMPACT: Cartels dispatch agents deep inside US
Source: AP-Excite
By MICHAEL TARM
CHICAGO (AP) - Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the U.S. border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States - an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world's most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.
If left unchecked, authorities say, the cartels' move into the American interior could render the syndicates harder than ever to dislodge and pave the way for them to expand into other criminal enterprises such as prostitution, kidnapping-and-extortion rackets and money laundering.
Cartel activity in the U.S. is certainly not new. Starting in the 1990s, the ruthless syndicates became the nation's No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, using unaffiliated middlemen to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and heroin beyond the border or even to grow pot here.
But a wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. Cartel operatives are suspected of running drug-distribution networks in at least nine non-border states, often in middle-class suburbs in the Midwest, South and Northeast.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130401/DA5CKDKG2.html
In this Oct. 22, 2009 file photo, weapons and drugs seized in special joint operation conducted with the Drug Enforecement Administration against the La Familia drug cartel based out of Michoacan, Mexico and operating in San Bernardino and surrounding counties, are on display at a news conference at sheriff's headquarters in San Bernardino, Calif. Drug cartels have long been the nations No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, but in the past, their operatives rarely ventured beyond the border. A wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)It's a perfect storm.
wordpix
(18,652 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)No cartel pot is smoked around here, they grow blood stained crap that harms the environment. Thank the States that keep laws so draconian that the prices are high enough to attract organized crime.
Renew Deal
(81,801 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)by making them business partners...
Even now, this country's biggest banks can openly, brazenly admit to laundering billions in drug profits (without even a hint of plausible deniability), and just get a proverbial slap on the wrist in federal court...
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)When was the last time you saw a shoot-out between Budweiser and Coors?
Not to mention jailing half a million people for non-violent drug offenses.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)mainer
(12,013 posts)I would say the strongest advocates against legalization of pot are ... the cartels themselves.
randome
(34,845 posts)Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)population in a few generations. If someone wants to go that route, make sure they have the means to get help anytime they want, but don't stop them. Make sure there are real social programs also designed for addicts. They either will cure or kill themselves. You also remove a large impetus for illegality and desiease if you make the drugs available.
randome
(34,845 posts)And those that might have found a more satisfying direction in life can easily fall under the sway of addiction.
I don't believe in survival of the fittest.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)I am not talking about survival of the fittest. It's Darwinism at work. I also said leave plenty of opportunity for social programs to work too.
tom2255
(37 posts)Anybody who wants illegal drugs, can get them right now. And anybody who wants legal drugs can get alcohol right now.
Making drugs illegal has not made drugs hard to get. It has only promoted the rise of the violent drug cartels.
mainer
(12,013 posts)But pot? Why not?
randome
(34,845 posts)People seem to think they will all get office jobs if we only take the illegality of drugs away from them.
As for pot, I am all for decriminalization. I don't like legalization but if my vote was the only one standing in the way, I'd probably vote for that, too.
tout_le_monde
(23 posts)but don't want to sell illicit drugs, do other illegal things, or be in a gang to get it. Know what I mean? Guess I won't be working for Big Pharma or the Govt. any time soon.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Just been "predicting" this for years.