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Tag: meth trafficking

  • Meth Seizures Skyrocket

    Meth Seizures Skyrocket

    Overdoses are rising as well.

    While the nation focuses on fighting opioids, more people are turning to methamphetamine. Seizures of the drug are rising, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. 

    According to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officials, seizures of methamphetamine rose 118% between 2010 and 2017, according to the Cato Institute. In 2017, law enforcement conducted 347,807 seizures of meth.

    At the same time, overdose deaths from the illicit stimulant are rising, reaching more than 10,000 in 2017. 

    While meth has been more common in southern and western states, it is now showing up regularly in areas where it wasn’t prevalent before, including New England. There, DEA officer Jon DeLena said that the alarming trajectory of meth use reminded him of another drug that has rocked the region.

    “Everybody’s biggest fear is what it’s going to look like if meth hits us like fentanyl did,” DeLena told The Wall Street Journal. 

    The influx in meth is said to be driven in part by increased production of cheaper and more potent product by Mexican cartels. While in the past, meth production happened on a small scale, cartels have the means and motivation to push larger quantities into more regions. 

    That is why Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, argues that the U.S. should stop focusing on “fighting” the war on drugs, and instead focus on treating the underlying conditions that leave people vulnerable to substance abuse. 

    “Meth’s comeback shows why waging a war on drugs is like playing a game of ‘Whack-a-Mole,’” Singer wrote for the Washington Examiner last year. “The government cracked down on Sudafed (affecting millions of cold and allergy sufferers) while SWAT teams descended on domestic meth labs, and Mexican cartels popped up with a cheaper and better manufacturing system.

    “In the case of opioids, authorities reduced opioid prescription and production, and nonmedical users migrated over to more dangerous heroin and fentanyl, driving up the overdose rate.”

    In response to the most recent numbers, Singer wrote, “In 2005 Congress acted to address the ‘Meth Crisis.’ Shortly thereafter it turned its attention to the ‘Opioid Crisis.’ Now it is dealing with a fentanyl crisis and a replay of the meth crisis. How many more will die or suffer needlessly before lawmakers wise up?”

    As meth overdoses become more common, it has highlighted the limits of addiction medications. While opioid overdoses can often be reversed with Narcan (naloxone) and opioid use disorder can be treated with medication, there are few medical options to help people who abuse meth. 

    “We’re realizing that we don’t have everything we might wish we had to address these different kinds of drugs,” psychiatrist Margaret Jarvis, a distinguished fellow for the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said earlier this year. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Tsunami" Of Meth Discovered In Record-Breaking Drug Bust

    "Tsunami" Of Meth Discovered In Record-Breaking Drug Bust

    The historic 1.9 ton meth haul was worth over a billion dollars.

    US border officials in California seized a record-breaking shipment of meth, about 1.9 tons (3,800 pounds) worth around $1.3 billion, hidden in speakers and headed down under.

    Authorities say that the haul of meth broke two records, winning the dubious honor of being the largest amount of meth to be seized on US soil as well as the largest amount ever to be shipped to Australia. Some cocaine and heroin were also found hidden inside the speakers.

    The seizure was a joint effort between US Homeland Security, the DEA and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). On January 11, they managed to discover the drugs hidden inside the housing of a huge shipment of speakers which were packed away in dozens of metal boxes.

    Authorities have arrested two US citizens and four Australian citizens in connection with the shipment, believing them to be part of a larger US-based drug syndicate shipping drugs worldwide.

    The Australian authorities involved say that the bust prevented “a tsunami of ice” from reaching their country, which would have manifested as an estimated 17 million hits of meth. This would have been an especially large problem for the Australian state of Victoria, where the meth was headed, as sewage drug monitoring has found that the 6.3 million people living there use about 2 tons of meth a year.

    AFP Assistant Commissioner Bruce Hill claims that these drugs originate from Mexican cartels that have been pushing hard to get their products into Australia.

    “They have been sending smaller amounts over the years. This is now flagging intent Australia is now being targeted,” Hill told reporters. “The cartel is among one of the most powerful and violent drug trafficking syndicates in the world.”

    The previous largest seized meth shipment ever headed to Australia was a 1.3 ton shipment caught in December of 2017.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Woman Sentenced For Leading Massive Meth Ring In Missouri

    Woman Sentenced For Leading Massive Meth Ring In Missouri

    The woman’s brother says their dad groomed them to become criminals as they were growing up. 

    Last May, Kenna Harmon was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison after admitting to her role in leading one of the largest methamphetamine rings in Missouri’s history. But her life seemed destined for trouble long before that. 

    “They had people, drug addicts coming in and out of the [house] 24 hours a day. People I wouldn’t allow in my yard were in his house,” Harmon’s uncle said at her sentencing hearing, according to the Springfield News-Leader. The uncle tried to gain custody, but was not able to. Harmon’s brother said that he and his sister grew up with little parenting. 

    “Our dad was not much of a father figure,” Jeff Harmon said. “He was training us how to be criminals, to be point-blank with it. Every single person in my family has been to prison already, including myself.”

    Kenna learned the lesson well, becoming one of the most prosperous drug dealers in the state. She even paid more than $300,000 in cash to build an elaborate stash house, where authorities later found guns, marijuana and meth. 

    Beginning in her 20s, Harmon was charged with drug felonies but stayed out of prison, receiving probation instead. However, when she married her husband Daniel, who was also a drug dealer, the couple started pushing hundreds of pounds of meth throughout the state. 

    In December of 2013 the couple was pulled over with meth, guns and cash in the car. Harmon leapt from the vehicle while her husband drove off. Although he was apprehended and held in jail, she escaped by foot. Rather than cutting back her empire after the close call, she began peddling even larger amounts of drugs in her husband’s absence.

    She funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars through a tattoo shop in Branson, Missouri, hoping to keep law enforcement from following the cash. She kept some money to build her stash house and take a trip to Hawaii, all while being watched by federal agents. 

    On Thanksgiving of 2014, agents listening to a wire tap heard Harmon make plans to meet another meth kingpin for a buy. They moved in, arresting both.

    After spending months in jail and detoxing from meth, Harmon began cooperating with officials, her lawyer said. 

    “She was heavily using methamphetamine to the point that she was in a fog for probably two or three months,” the lawyer said. “She didn’t understand… what was going on.”

    When she read her case file she seemed remorseful, reportedly saying, “This is what I was doing to the people around here.”

    Her biggest regret, however, was involving her son in a circle of crime, she said at her sentencing. 

    “Most importantly, I want to mention how I failed my son. My uncle brought it up to me the other day whenever we were talking about our family life and he said, ‘How’s your son?,’ and I just broke down because, you know, although I didn’t beat my child, I didn’t give him much of a better life than what was given me, and that’s horrible.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ultralight Plane Drops Meth in California

    Ultralight Plane Drops Meth in California

    Officials say the meth that was dropped by the ultralight plane was worth more than $1.4 million.

    On Sunday, an ultralight plane slipped through the airspace between the US and Mexico with no lights on, dropping 60 bundles of methamphetamine and a get-away bike for the person who would pick up the drugs, into a farm field in Calexico, California, a town just over the border. 

    Despite the fact that the plane had no lights, border agents responded to where it was believed to have flown and found bundles full of a white powder that later tested positive for meth, according to The Desert Sun. Agents arrested two people in the area who they suspect were there to pick up the drugs from the plane. 

    Although the Calexico area is better known for drug tunnels that funnel narcotics into the US, Gloria Chavez, chief patrol agent in the area, said that planes also pose a risk when they are used by drug smugglers. 

    “Ultralight aircraft not only pose a threat to legitimate air traffic in the vicinity, but also to national security,” she said. “These aircraft are able to carry small payloads of dangerous cargo or dangerous people.”

    While 60 packages might have been a relatively small amount for drug smugglers, officials say the drugs dropped on Sunday are worth more than $1.4 million. 

    After making the drop, the plane flew back toward Mexico. The two people who were arrested were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which will be investigating the incident. 

    Calexico is a city of more than 38,000 on the border. Its sister city, Mexicali, sits just on the other side. The area is known for having tunnels used by cartels to smuggle narcotics into the United States. Earlier this year, a man who operated one of those tunnels was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

    According to NBC News San Diego, 48-year-old Manuel Gallegos-Jimenez operated the tunnel, which was about a quarter of a mile long and had lights, ventilation and an elevator that could fit 10 people. The tunnel started in Mexico and emerged in the front room of a home in Calexico. 

    The case was significant because law enforcement watched the construction of the tunnel unfold after traffickers purchased the house in 2015. The tunnel began operating in February of 2016 and was raided in April of that year.

    At that time, law enforcement found nearly 3,000 pounds of drugs at the home, including marijuana worth $1.2 million and cocaine worth $22 million.

    View the original article at thefix.com