A soldier assigned to guard the northern Mexican jail currently holding Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was found dead last week, with signs of torture, and it’s not clear who’s responsible for his killing. The body of Jorge Mauricio Melendez Herrera, 20, was discovered on Friday in an unpopulated area in western Ciudad Juarez. He…
Category: Drugs
Cartel Corner #84: Peru is Shooting Down Suspected Drug Planes (Again)
On April 20, 2001, Peruvian security forces, with CIA help, shot down a small floatplane over the Amazon near the Brazilian border. American missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter died in the attack. Having filed no flight plan, the aircraft’s pilot failed to respond over the radio. Authorities suspected the plane of transporting drugs,…
Cartel Corner #83: Acapulco Turned Into “Gurrero’s Iraq” By Drug Cartels
The idyllic Pacific coast town of Acapulco in Mexico’s Guerrero state once welcomed Hollywood stars and honeymooners, but the city has suffered a wave of bloody violence in recent years, as cartels and criminal groups battle for control. Since 2012, Acapulco, which has been called “Guerrero’s Iraq,” has been the most violent city in Mexico,…
Cartel Corner #80: Infiltrating the Dope Game
Anti-drug agents are usually extremely cautious about spilling the beans on their secret world, which lies somewhere between espionage, police work and battlefield. But here’s a rare inside look, offered by a veteran of the drug war. Mike Vigil, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s former chief of international operations, served more than three decades in the agency,…
Military History: Clausewitz and the Crackhouse
The History of Drugs and War is Long and Sordid to Say the Least In 1834, the British Government could not have sent a worse person with the worst set of instructions to China. The British Parliament chose William Napier, a Scottish lord, to be the Chief Superintendent of Trade in East Asia. Lord Napier…
Modern Crime: Another True Story to Reinforce your Faith in the Criminal Justice System
It is absolutely astounding to me that random drug test are not administered to people (Like State Chemist) who handle MASSIVE amounts of drugs every day! How many innocent people are now sitting in a cell because of this dope fiend? What has happened to common sense?? -SF State chemist was high on the job…
Cartel Corner #78: The Rise of Mexican Black Tar Heroin
As the rate of opioid addiction has surged in the United States, Mexico has become the world’s third-largest producer of opium used to process heroin. Mexican cartels are now the primary suppliers of the drug to the US, producing a crude and unrefined form known as black tar. VICE News travels to the fertile mountains…
Modern Crime: The Golden Age of Drug Trafficking
Diplomats and top officials from governments around the world gathered last week at United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss what to do about the global drug problem. Over the course of four days and multiple discussions, the assembled dignitaries vowed to take a more comprehensive approach to the issue than in years past…
Cartel Corner #77: Some Drug Cartels Making More Money From Gold than Coke
Organized crime networks in Latin America have long made their money off of drugs. But over the past decade, as gold prices have soared, cartels have increasingly turned to illegally mining the metal to earn cash. In Peru and Colombia, they’re now making more money exporting illegal gold than cocaine. Eighty percent of the gold…
Modern Crime: Canadian Cops Seize New Synthetic Opiate 100 Times More Powerful than Fentanyl
This is yet another step in China’s plan to weaken the U.S. and it’s allies without ever having to fire a shot or use it’s military. First it was Bath Salts, now this. I will be doing a full report on China’s 4GW Strategy later this month.-SF For the second time in a year, police…