Mexican Super Meth – Part TWO of TWO
.
.Mexican
Ice Replaces
Home Cooked
–Meth
_.in the U.S.
By Howard Burkes
____May 8th, 2010
BANDERASNEWS.COM
Part TWO of TWO
A Sophisticated
Drug Network
Yolanda Lorge is more
specific about who is and isn’t
involved in the meth trade.
Lorge has been in southwest
Missouri for 30 years and is
president of Grupo
Latinoamericano,
an advocacy group for
Latin American immigrants.
“These are people with no
connections other than
immediate family,”
she says of most of the
Latino immigrants
in the region.
“They don’t have the
language and other skills
to do this kind of business.
It doesn’t seem logical that
drug lords would rely on
these types of immigrants.”
But there are some
immigrants with
“criminal minds,”
Lorge added.
“They feel that this is the
place to be if they want
to get rich,
because Americans really
like their drugs.
There is a much bigger
profit in drugs than in
trying to sell burritos
or tacos.
So if they have that
criminal mentality,
this is the place to be.”
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Dave Barton is Midwest
director for the federal
government’s High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area,
based in Kansas City.
“The Mexican meth groups
are very sophisticated,”
he says.
“They generate huge
amounts of profits and money.
They have sophisticated
communication links.
They have family ties.
And they are very,
very organized in the
way they manufacture
and move their product.”
That product filled the gap
in meth supply when
“mom and pop” labs began
to diminish.
It is also feeding
“exploding meth populations”
in Illinois,
Indiana,
Ohio and Kentucky,
according to Barton.
.
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More Potential
for Violence
“The shift from meth made
in “mom and pop” labs to
crystal or ice imported from
Mexico has one major
benefit for police”,
according to Mike McDonald,
a drug-control detective
in Jasper County, Mo.
“The threat of meth
labs blowing up…
has gone down,”
McDonald explained.
Also reduced are threats
“of long-term exposure
to guys like me,
who break the meth labs down,
and to kids being exposed
because mom and dad’s
cooking meth in the house.”
Police also have more time
to focus on trafficking.
McDonald says it takes him
more than six hours to handle
incidents involving meth labs,
due to the presence of toxic
and explosive chemicals.
Arresting and processing users
and dealers takes as little
as two hours.
But McDonald warns that
there’s more money in the
Mexican meth trade,
along with organized cartels.
Both indicate more
potential for violence.
“They can afford
surveillance systems.
They can afford
body armor.
They can afford weapons.
And we’re going to see more
and more of that now,”
McDonald says.
There are signs already
of a more violent trade,
according to one old
“mom and pop” meth maker
wistful for the old days.
He’s helping police now,
so authorities asked NPR
not to use his name.
“If you came to me and
got an eight ball of dope
and didn’t pay me,
that’s cool,”
the former meth producer said.
“You knew you could never
come back and get anything
from me ever again.
Now,
if you get $50 worth of dope
on credit and don’t pay,
they’re subject to go…
burn your car,
or hurt you or your
mom or your family.
That’s the difference.”
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Faster,
Stronger Addiction
There’s one other
key difference.
Addicts and treatment
counselors say Mexican meth,
when smoked in its purer
and more potent forms,
leads to quicker and
deeper addiction.
They say it’s an addiction
that is tougher to kick.
The National Institute
on Drug Abuse agrees.
In fact, meth addiction and
meth-related drug treatment
are on the rise,
according to the National
Drug Intelligence Center.
And that increase coincides
with the increased trafficking
in Mexican meth.
“It’s out there.
It’s here to stay,”
said T.J. Stevens of southwest
Missouri’s Comet Drug
Task Force.
“It’s going to take some
act of God to make it change.”
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this shit is scary….
MARZ MRTNEZ - November 12, 2013 at 6:01 am |