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Tag: mexican drug cartels

  • Drug Cartels Flooding US With Fentanyl-Laced Prescription Drug Fakes

    Drug Cartels Flooding US With Fentanyl-Laced Prescription Drug Fakes

    About 27% of the fake pills seized by the DEA earlier this year were found to contain fentanyl.

    Are Mexican drug cartels targeting Americans with counterfeit prescription drugs? Yes, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

    “They can make those pills look like almost anything. So, if they’re making those pills and manufacturing them to look like an Adderall or Xanax, they are targeting our children,” DEA Special Agent DeLena told Boston25 News.

    Fentanyl-Laced Fakes

    The agency issued a press release warning the public that fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl are making its way across the border. About 27% of the fake pills seized earlier this year were found to contain fentanyl, the potentially deadly synthetic opioid that has exacerbated the opioid epidemic.

    “Capitalizing on the opioid epidemic and prescription drug abuse in the United States, drug trafficking organizations are now sending counterfeit pills made with fentanyl in bulk to the United States for distribution,” said Uttam Dhillon, the Acting DEA Administrator. “Counterfeit pills that contain fentanyl and fentanyl-laced heroin are responsible for thousands of opioid-related deaths in the United States each year.”

    How The Pills Gets Into The Country

    According to the DEA, cartels use a number of creative means to get the fake pills into the country including hiding them in gas tanks, tractor trailers and most notably sending them in through the postal sevice. Legally, only drug manufacturers and pharmacists can use the mail to send drugs to consumers.The government has failed to hold the US Postal Service to the standards which it holds delivery services like FedEx and UPS, IDS News notes. The lack of oversight is one of the reasons why drug dealers feel confident to use the USPS to send thousands of dollars in product into the country.

    In some cases, postal service workers are in on the trafficking. Last November, 16 USPS employees in Atlanta were convicted of taking bribes (some as low as $250) from the cartel to distribute cocaine on their routes. 

    “US Postal Service workers are typically valuable members of the community, entrusted to deliver the mail every day to our homes,” said US Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak.  “This important operation identified and prosecuted 16 corrupt individuals who chose to abuse that trust and instead used their positions to bring what they thought were large amounts of dangerous drugs into those same communities for a quick payoff.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Drug Cartel Led By El Mencho Responsible For Third Of Drugs In US

    Drug Cartel Led By El Mencho Responsible For Third Of Drugs In US

    “El Chapo was violent, but El Mencho has taken it to a new level,” said one DEA special agent.

    With El Chapo—once the world’s most notorious drug lord—set to live out the rest of his life in a U.S. prison, another drug lord has emerged to fill his place.

    El Mencho (born Nemesio Oseguera-Cervantes) is the leader of Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel (JNGC), believed by U.S. officials to be Mexico’s largest criminal organization.

    According to Matthew Donahue, the DEA’s regional director of North and Central America, capturing El Mencho is the agency’s “number one priority.”

    El Mencho lived in California “some 30 years ago” when he was deported to Mexico following a drug arrest, according to CBS News.

    Building His Empire

    Since then, he built his empire and expanded it throughout Mexico and major U.S. cities like Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, New York, Atlanta and Chicago.

    “He’s made few errors, has a lot of street experience, and that’s made it very difficult for us to manage the investigation to arrest him,” Kyle Mori, a DEA special agent in Los Angeles, told Univision. “He’s an intelligent guy, very good at what he does.”

    DEA officials say JNGC is responsible for at least a third of the drugs entering the U.S. by land and sea, including “tons” of cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl-laced heroin, according to the Justice Department.

    $10 Million Bounty On His Head

    The U.S. government has offered $10 million for the drug lord’s capture.

    JNGC has also gained a reputation for brutal violence. “El Chapo was violent, but El Mencho has taken it to a new level,” said Mori.

    Mori believes that JNGC is not only more violent, but larger in every way than El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel, which is still operating under new leadership, according to PBS.

    The Justice Department once described the Sinaloa Cartel as “one of the world’s most prolific, violent and powerful drug cartels.”

    El Chapo (born Joaquín Guzman) was convicted in February of 10 counts including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, international distribution of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and other drugs, and use of firearms. In July, he was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, and ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture.

    Guzman was once on Forbes’ list of billionaires, highlighting the massive wealth that he accumulated from his drug trafficking empire. He is also known for escaping prison twice in Mexico.

    View the original article at thefix.com