A ruthless Mexican drug lord's empire is devastating families with its grip on small-town USA

[Roland99]

Source: Louisville Courier-Journal

A nine-month Courier Journal investigation reveals how CJNG's reach has spread across the U.S. in the past five years, overwhelming cities and small towns with massive amounts of drugs.

The investigation documented CJNG operations in at least 35 states and Puerto Rico, a sticky web that has snared struggling business owners, thousands of drug users and Mexican immigrants terrified to challenge cartel orders.

It also identified at least two dozen "cells," which the DEA defines as places where cartel members set up shop to do business and live in the communities.

...

Courier Journal reporters pieced together CJNG’s network, from the suburbs of Seattle, the beaches of Mississippi and South Carolina, California’s coastline, the mountains of Virginia, small farming towns in Iowa and Nebraska, and across the Bluegrass State, including in Louisville, Lexington and Paducah.

Read more: https://amp.courier-journal.com/amp/4181733002

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Even a worker at Derby winning Calumet Farm

[Mike 03]

1. Chilling. A little more from the article:

"If it’s coming from a cartel, they could have sold a pound to Asians, black guys, outlaw motorcycle gangs, white trash," said Lt. Jeremy Williams, of the Ashe County Sheriff's Office in North Carolina. His testimony helped convict a trafficker connected to CJNG in 2014.

"Once the cartel brings a huge load across (the border) and throws it out there for everyone to sell, it’s out of their hands. They’ve got their money," Williams said.

El Mencho and his cartel, with more than 5,000 members worldwide, have a clear-cut objective:

"They want to control the entire drug market," said Matthew Donahue, who oversees foreign operations for the DEA from his office in Mexico City.

"If that takes them killing other cartels or killing innocent people, they will do it."

CJNG's rapid rise to power and its expansion have stunned and stymied America’s top drug fighters.

"I was surprised that CJNG’s efforts and tentacles were reaching into Kentucky, that they had expanded their reach that rapidly,” said Evans, who previously headed the Louisville Field Division.

He got his first glimpse of CJNG’s success when he was overseeing drug cases in Los Angeles, a key cartel hub.

"I still expected that they would be in markets in the Southwest, a little bit into some of the other major corridors, such as Atlanta and Chicago,” Evans said.

Instead, The Courier Journal’s investigation documented cells where CJNG members moved in, settling into a luxury condo near downtown Nashville’s honky-tonk district; an upscale Hollywood high-rise apartment near Sunset Boulevard; and sidewalk-lined suburbs in Cairo, Illinois; Johnson City, Tennessee; and Kansas City, Missouri.

[yardwork]

2. While we're building a wall, they're driving trucks through checkpoints.

From the article:

CJNG has skirted Mexican and U.S. inspections at legal border crossings by hiding drugs in semitrailers hauling tomatoes, avocados and other produce, dumping at least 5 tons of cocaine and 5 tons of meth into this country every month, according to DEA estimates.

[Lonestarblue]

3. The US spent $23.7 billion in 2018 locking up families at the border.

Those families are not the drug dealers or the ones bringing massive amounts of drugs into the country, though there could be a few small-time drug pushers among them. The organized drug gangs are in Mexico, and Trump’s policies—if he even has a drug policy since his and Miller’s focus is keeping out brown people, not drugs—have not been effective. Instead of locking up families, we should use electronic monitoring and spend some of the savings on the real drug battle.

I’m coming around to the idea of legalizing drugs and then taxing and regulating them. That won’t necessarily stop illegal drugs, which will always be less expensive on the street, but it might cut the profits out of enough of them that the drug business becomes less attractive. The US has totally lost the war on drugs, so it’s time to look at different approaches.

[redqueen]

4. Alcohol was illegal for 3 years. We learned and changed the laws.

Why won't we learn now?

[Turbineguy]

5. Trump should get some mileage out of that

with Putin.

[UpInArms]

6. Am certain trump and Putin will have a good laugh together

More from the article:

A month later, Mexican authorities learned of El Mencho’s new hiding spot and organized a secret mission to capture him.

Federal police officer Ivan Morales, his partner and soldiers with the Mexican national defense climbed aboard helicopters and headed toward a CJNG compound in the Jalisco mountains.

As they hovered over a cartel convoy, CJNG members fired Russian-made rocket-propelled grenade launchers, shooting down Morales’ helicopter into a cluster of trees.

Eight soldiers and Morales’ partner died. Flames left Morales disabled and disfigured.

Trump will get mileage for his immigration policies and Putin will get $$ for weapons.