A mini-submarine carrying $200 million worth of cocaine was intercepted by authorities in the ‘Eastern Pacific Ocean’. Officials said they intercepted the semi-submersible vessel attempting to bring 12,800 pounds or 5.5 tons of cocaine into the US. The cocaine was on a mini-sub called a narco-submarine, vessels made of fiberglass that are extremely hard to detect using…
Category: Cartel and Gang Profiles
Cartel Corner #68 : “Narconomics”
How The Drug Cartels Operate Like Wal-Mart And McDonald’s When Tom Wainwright became the Mexico correspondent for The Economist in 2010, he found himself covering the country’s biggest businesses, including the tequila trade, the oil industry and the commerce of illegal drugs. “I found that one week I’d be writing about the car business, and…
Cartel Corner #67: Juarez Cartel Bankrolling Politicians Re-Election Through Shell Companies
What is really amazing to me is the number of people out there who think type of thing ONLY goes on in Mexico and Central and South America. The big difference in the U.S. is the “Cartels” are called Corporations. -SF An in-depth investigation has revealed that through the use of shell companies, members of…
Cartel Corner #66: Drug Cartels Are Taking over the Mexican Tortilla Biz
Samuel ran down the steep dirt track lined with blue and pink houses desperate to escape. The 20-year-old took long strides and ran from one side to the other in a zigzag. He begged for someone to open the door of a house so he could hide, but nobody did. That mid-morning, the poor and…
Cartel Corner #65: Cartel Firefight Near TX Border Kills 10
REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — The residents of this border city had a rude awakening as cartel gunmen and authorities clashed in a fierce gun battles for more than three hours that left at least 10 dead. Rumors among residents point to the capture of a commander within the Gulf Cartel. The violence began shortly after 5:17…
Border Security: The Legacy of Pancho Villa’s Raid on America
Ever since “Black Jack” Pershing rode into Mexico to hunt for Pancho Villa, the United States started a pattern of personalizing Latin American security threats. In the words of one U.S. cavalry officer, Columbus, New Mexico in 1916 was little more than “a cluster of adobe houses, a hotel, a few stores and streets knee…
Cartel Corner #63: Peru Is Turning Into A Top Narco-State
Peru has long vied with Colombia as the world’s top producer of cocaine, but has only periodically produced high profile drug lords. Gerson Gálvez Calle — alias “Caracol” or Snail — is one of these. Caracol sprung to the nation’s attention late last year after news emerged that he was heading Peru’s largest and most violent…
Cartel Corner #60: Profile of The ‘Texis’ Cartel of El Salvador
Unlike some Central American gangs that have earned fame for their brutality and their liberal use of violence, the Cartel de Texis has developed a reputation for a more business-like approach to the drug trade. But as the report by Salvadoran news site El Faro about the group illustrates, while the gang isn’t known for leaving…