There was a time, the story goes, when if a local collided with a drug trafficker’s car on the streets of Culiacán — a bastion of the infamous Sinaloa cartel — the narco was likely to hop out to check that everything was ok. “They’d say: ‘If you have any problems call this doctor and…
Category: Drugs
Cartel Corner #57: 6 Common Misconceptions about the MS-13 Street Gang
In response to a recent article on the MS13 published by Foreign Policy and reprinted at InSight Crime, gang expert Carlos Garcia challenges six commonly held misconceptions about the street gang based in several parts of Central America, Mexico, and the United States. There is an abundance of journalists, communicators and even academics who accuse…
Dose of Truth: Accepting the Possibility of a “Central American Spring”
Central Americans May Be Ready for Their Own Arab Spring The spread of gangs, the U.S. narcotics trade, and rampant corruption are major factors contributing to mass migration and alarmingly high levels of violence. Tens of thousands of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans, many of them unaccompanied minors, have arrived in the United States in recent years,…
Cartel Corner #56: The True-Crime Story of Monica Velasco
Truth is Stranger than Fiction when it comes to the Drug War. When you read stories like this you realize how DEEP the Drug Trade has it’s tentacles into Society. How many seemingly legitimate people in your community are involved in the drug trade in some respect? In this case, an Elementary school teacher. -SF…
Cartel Corner #54: How El Chapo Got his Gun
You’ve probably heard the news that when Mexican authorities raided the hideout of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the head of the murderous Sinaloa drug cartel, on Jan. 8, they recovered a .50-caliber Barrett rifle that was trafficked through the ATF’s disastrous “Fast and Furious” debacle. What you may not know, but probably suspected, is that…
Cartel Corner #53: Video of Narco Gunmen Killing Businessman in Front of His Family
This video goes a long way in showing what REAL life is like in Sinaloa, Mexico. First, the Police are either Corrupt or Chicken Shit to stand up to the Cartels. Second, If you don’t pay the Cartels their extortion money, you die a horrible death in front of your Family. All of this courtesy…
Border Security Update: Mexican National Attacks Border Patrol Agent with Rock
A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been attacked with a football-sized rock by a Mexican national running narcotics in the Tucson Sector–an area controlled by Mexico’s Sinaloa Federation (cartel). The agent is recovering and was able to arrest the criminal despite being injured. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP): TUCSON, Ariz. –A suspected…
The Drug of War and Terrorism
Bottom Line Up Front: • Jordanian security officials killed 12 suspected smugglers along the border with Syria and seized 2 million pills of the amphetamine Captagon • This is only the latest in a string of Captagon seizures in the region; Lebanon seized two tons of the pills last October and another 15 million pills in…
Cartel Corner #52: The Top Ten Most Wanted Drug Lords (After El Chapo)
Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, the world’s most wanted drug lord, was captured on January 8 in his home state of Sinaloa, known as the “cradle of Mexican drug trafficking” because of the large number of infamous narcos born there. Now that he’s back behind bars, six months after he escaped, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)…
Cartel Corner #51: El Chapo’s Arrest Won’t Impact War on Drugs
There was a sigh of relief when the Mexican government successfully re-captured drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman last week. El Chapo, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, is arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world, exporting volumns of illegal narcotics globally and spreading violence in its wake. However, DEA Agent Mike Vigil told…