MEXICO CITY - Mexico, a country carved up by cartels for decades, is poised to take a major step in drug policy. This week, the lower house of Congress approved a landmark bill to legalize recreational marijuana, which would make it the world's largest legal market for the drug. With legalization considered all but certain to win Senate and presidential approval, many in the business world are predicting a Mexican green boom: a newly legal industry providing tens of thousands of jobs, millions of dollars in profit for savvy entrepreneurs and welcome tax revenue for the government. [continues 1065 words]
CULIACAN, Mexico - Like a lot of businesses, the Sinaloa Cartel was knocked back on its heels as the coronavirus swept the globe and travel ground to a near halt. Government measures to contain the virus had fouled up its operations, interrupting the supply of chemicals for manufacturing synthetic drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine and cutting off trafficking routes across international borders. But the cartel is not just any business. It established itself as one of the world's most powerful drug trafficking groups with a trademark mix of business acumen, ingenuity and lawlessness. [continues 1379 words]
MEXICO CITY - Tiger cubs and semiautomatic weapons. Piles of cash and armored cars. Fields of poppies watered to the sound of ballads glorifying Mexican drug cartel culture. This is the world of Cartel TikTok, a genre of videos depicting drug trafficking groups and their activities that is racking up hundreds of thousands of views on the popular social media platform. But behind the narco bling and dancing gang members lies an ominous reality: With Mexico set to again shatter murder records this year, experts on organized crime say Cartel TikTok is just the latest propaganda campaign designed to mask the blood bath and use the promise of infinite wealth to attract expendable young recruits. [continues 1017 words]
MEXICO CITY - On June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon stood in front of the White House press corps and made his historic declaration of a new type of war. "Public Enemy No. 1 in the United States is drug abuse," he said. "In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it's necessary to wage a new all-out offensive." It would be a government-wide effort, and rally the United States's power abroad to stem the supply of drugs. Among the countries targeted was Mexico, which was home to abundant marijuana production and had been resistant to aerial crop spraying. [continues 939 words]
SAN MIGUEL AMOLTEPEC VIEJO, Mexico - For years, two young brothers, like many other farmers in their poor, mountainous region of southwest Mexico, found salvation in the opium poppy. They bled the milky latex from its pods and the profits made their hard lives a little easier. The fact that this substance was the raw material for most of the heroin consumed in the United States was of little concern to the family, if they even knew it at all. But then changes in that distant market for illegal drugs made the price of the dried opium latex plummet. [continues 1405 words]
The soldiers took them in the night. First they came for Nitza Alvarado Espinoza and Jose Alvarado Herrera. The 31-year-old cousins were sitting in a van outside a family member's house when troops forced them into a military truck. Minutes later, soldiers arrived at the house of another Alvarado cousin, 18-year-old Rocio Alvarado Reyes. She was carried away screaming at gunpoint in front of her young brothers and baby daughter. It was Dec. 29, 2009 -- the last time the cousins were seen alive. [continues 1279 words]
Juan Luis Lagunas Rosales was born in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, a mecca for cartels and the land of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Lagunas grew up never knowing his father. His mother left him with his grandmother as a child. Lagunas left his hometown at the age of 15 without finishing high school, moving to the nearby municipality of Culiacan and washing cars to make a living, he said in an interview in July. It was in this adopted town that he took on the nickname that would later become known across cyberspace: "El Pirata de Culiacan," or "The Pirate of Culiacan." [continues 943 words]
Drug war bloodshed in Mexico has spiked to record levels, with more homicides recorded in June than in any month in at least two decades. Prosecutors opened 2,234 homicide investigations last month, according to government statistics released Friday. That's an increase of 40% over June of last year and 80% over June of 2014. Rising demand for heroin in the United States and a bloody power struggle inside one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels have put the country on track to record more killings in 2017 than in any year since the government began releasing crime data in 1997. [continues 499 words]
Mexican police guard a crime scene near the beach resort of Mazatlan, where 19 suspected drug cartel members died in clashes with police on July 1. On Wednesday, cartel violence claimed 26 more lives in neighboring Chihuahua state. Mexican police guard a crime scene near the beach resort of Mazatlan, where 19 suspected drug cartel members died in clashes with police on July 1. On Wednesday, cartel violence claimed 26 more lives in neighboring Chihuahua state. (Mario Rivera Alvarado / Associated Press) [continues 755 words]
Families of People WHO 'Disappeared' Amid Mexico's Violent Drug Wars Are Forced to Continue the Search for Truth and Justice on Their Own, As Authorities Often Refuse to Help QUERETARO, MEXICO - Socorro Arias unlocks the door to her son's bedroom. A faintly musty smell wafts out. Other than a layer of dust, everything is just as Raymundo Isaac Rico Arias left it on Feb. 12, 2012, the day the 27-year-old teacher disappeared. A stack of Valentine's Day hearts - cut from red construction paper - lies on Rico's bed, intended as gifts for his students. Clothes are piled in the corner, along with shoes and leather belts. Marilyn Monroe smiles seductively from one wall, while a Virgin Mary statue sits on the bureau, gazing pensively in front of the mirror. [continues 3266 words]
MEXICO CITY - The drug that killed Prince has become a favorite of Mexican cartels because it is extremely potent, popular in the United States - and immensely profitable, American officials say. Law enforcement and border authorities in the United States warn that Mexican cartels are using their own labs to produce the drug, fentanyl, as well as receiving shipments from China. Then the cartels distribute the substance through their vast smuggling networks to meet rising American demand for opiates and pharmaceuticals. "It is really the next migration of the cartels in terms of making profit," said Jack Riley, acting deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "This goes to the heart of the marketing genius of the cartels. They saw this coming." [continues 1293 words]
MEXICO CITY - Two days after Jorge Antonio Parral Rabadan was kidnapped by a criminal gang, the Mexican Army raided the remote ranch where he was a prisoner and killed him. As he instinctively raised his hands in defense, the soldiers fired over and over at point-blank range. A brief army communique about the event asserted that soldiers had returned fire and killed three hit men at the El Puerto ranch on April 26, 2010. But Mr. Parral had fired no weapon. [continues 1106 words]
MEXICO CITY - In the history of modern war, fighters are much more likely to injure their enemies than kill them. But in Mexico, the opposite is true. According to the government's own figures, Mexico's armed forces are exceptionally efficient killers - stacking up bodies at extraordinary rates. The Mexican authorities say the nation's soldiers are simply better trained and more skilled than the cartels they battle. But experts who study the issue say Mexico's kill rate is practically unheard-of, arguing that the numbers reveal something more ominous. [continues 1414 words]
MEXICO CITY - In the history of modern war, fighters are much more likely to injure their enemies than kill them. But in Mexico, the opposite is true. According to the government's own figures, Mexico's armed forces are exceptionally efficient killers - stacking up bodies at extraordinary rates. Mexican authorities say the nation's soldiers are simply better trained and more skilled than the cartels they battle. But experts who study the issue say Mexico's kill rate is practically unheard-of, arguing that the numbers reveal something more ominous. [continues 744 words]
Fed up with drug-related violence, a growing number of Mexican politicians see one potential cure: Legalizing the cultivation of opium poppies for the production of medicine. The debate has emerged in recent weeks after President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed legislation in April to loosen marijuana laws by legalizing medical cannabis and easing restrictions on its recreational use. Since then, governors and congressional lawmakers have voiced their support for regulating opium poppies, which are often grown by farmers in poor areas of the country and sold to cartels as the raw material for heroin. [continues 521 words]
Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is so disgusted by the dirt in his new prison cell that he has asked for chlorine to clean it himself, his lawyer said. Guzman, 59, was abruptly transferred from his maximum-security prison near Mexico City to a jail in Ciudad Juarez, at the US border, on Saturday. His lawyer, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, told AFP that he has since filed two motions to have Guzman returned to the Altiplano lockup, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of the capital. [continues 532 words]
Shift to Legalization Big Change in Area That Includes Big Producers of Marijuana, Opium MEXICO CITY - With a swipe of his pen last week, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed that Mexican citizens could legally possess up to an ounce of pot. The day before, Canada's health minister stood at a United Nations podium and said her country would introduce new federal legislation to make cannabis legal by next year. Already, people are free to smoke marijuana in four U.S. states, including Washington, and the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana is allowed in almost half the country. Uruguay has fully legalized weed for sale. And a large chunk of South and Central America, including Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, has made marijuana more available in varying ways, whether it is for medicinal or recreational use. [continues 763 words]
MEXICO CITY - With a swipe of his pen last week, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed that Mexican citizens could legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana. The day before, Canada's health minister stood at a United Nations podium and announced that her country would introduce new federal legislation to make cannabis legal by next year. Already, people are free to smoke marijuana in four US states and the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana is allowed in almost half the country. Uruguay has fully legalized weed for sale. And a large chunk of South and Central America, including Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica, has made marijuana more available in varying ways, whether it is for medicinal or recreational use. [continues 324 words]
Mexico City - With a swipe of his pent his week, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed that Mexican citizens could legally possess up to an ounce of pot. The day before, Canada's health minister stood on a United Nations podium and announced that her country would introduce new federal legislation to make cannabis legal by next year. Already, people are free to smoke marijuana in four U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana is allowed in almost half the country. Uruguay has fully legalized weed for sale. And a large chunk of South and Central America, including Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, has made marijuana more available in varying ways, whether it is for medicinal or recreational use. [continues 1046 words]
President Enrique Pena Nieto said Thursday he will ask Mexico's Congress to raise the limit on decriminalized marijuana for personal use to 28 grams, or about one ounce. Currently, only possession of five grams, or less than a fifth of an ounce, is exempt from prosecution. "This means that consumption would no longer be criminalized," Pena Nieto said. Possession of larger amounts would still be punishable under drug trafficking laws. Pena Nieto said the "so-called war on drugs" has caused huge suffering in Mexico, and that instead of prosecuting drug consumers, the country should be focused on fighting criminals. The move comes after Mexico's Supreme Court approved an appeal by four people to allow them to grow and possess marijuana for personal use. That helped launch a national debate on marijuana policy. [end]
MEXICO CITY - President Enrique Pena Nieto said Mexico will move to legalize marijuana for medicinal use in what was seen as a stark shift for a leader who has made clamping down on all forms of drug trafficking a hallmark of his tenure. Speaking to the United Nations, Mr. Pena Nieto said Tuesday he would also raise the amount of marijuana that would be de-criminalized for personal consumption, calling its use a public health problem and urging policies that avoid punishing users. [continues 136 words]
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Tuesday that he is open to the legalization of medical marijuana in Mexico and that his government would announce new measures in the coming days. "I am giving voice to those who have [in public forums] expressed the necessity of changing the regulatory framework to authorize the use of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes," he said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Speaking at a special session where world leaders had gathered to rethink global strategy in the war on drugs-the first such meeting in two decades - Pena Nieto said that drug use should be addressed as a "public health problem" and that users should not be criminalized. [continues 103 words]
MEXICO CITY (AP) - A public recruitment drive by a Mexican drug cartel using fliers promising high wages and good benefits reflects the expanding power of the gang, experts said Friday. The recruitment fliers advertised jobs as security guards or bodyguards under the name of a fake company, and promised good benefits, a Christmas bonus and "growth in the short term," according to Jesus Eduardo Almaguer, the chief prosecutor in western Jalisco state. Those recruited were, however, employed as street-level drug dealers, not guards. They were sent to the town of Lagos de Moreno for a quick 10-day training course featuring paintball fights. [continues 385 words]
Competition from U.S. growers is cutting into Mexican pot's value and size of the market Legal marijuana may be doing at least one thing that a decades-long drug war couldn't: taking a bite out of Mexican drug cartels' profits. The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year marijuana seizures along the Southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009. [continues 516 words]
Legal Marijuana Is Cutting into Mexican Drug Cartels' Profits. The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009. The data supports the many stories about the difficulties marijuana growers in Mexico face in light of increased competition from the north. As domestic marijuana production has ramped up in places such as California, Colorado and Washington state, marijuana prices have fallen, especially at the bulk level. [continues 473 words]
MORELIA, Mexico - Pope Francis delivered his most searing indictment of the Mexican underworld Tuesday, encouraging the nation's youth to value themselves and resist the temptation to join forces with "criminal organizations that sow terror." Since his arrival Friday, Francis has made no secret of his desire to challenge the drug syndicates that have corroded Mexican life for decades. He commanded bishops to be more proactive in facing down the scourge of narcotics and denounced gangs as dealers of death. On Tuesday, in the cartel bastion of Michoacan, he mounted his most full-throated assault, imploring young people not to lose faith and become the "mercenaries of other people's ambitions." [continues 900 words]
MORELIA, Mexico - Alma Martinez got a call last year that made her whole body go cold. Her mom's voice sounded shaky and harsh: "They have him," she said, referring to Martinez's uncle. "But who has him?" Martinez asked. "Los narcos," her mother said. The narco traffickers. Martinez, 17, traveled miles Tuesday to see and hear Pope Francis, hoping his message would bring comfort to the thousands of victims of drug-gang violence like her and her family. "Something like that really hits you, you know?" she said, speaking of her uncle's kidnapping and eventual freedom, after the family paid a ransom. "And it's not just us - it happens to a lot of families here in Michoacan." [continues 1036 words]
MEXICO CITY - Armando Santacruz is a clean-cut father of five and successful business owner. Nothing at all about him screams "pothead." Yet, Santacruz, 54, is at the forefront of a growing movement to legalize marijuana in Mexico - a move that could have seismic repercussions both in Mexico and the USA. He talks about legalizing pot with the same impassioned fervor many here use to describe soccer clubs or favorite restaurants. Santacruz was one of four plaintiffs who won a pivotal Supreme Court case here in November, which allowed him and his co-plaintiffs their private consumption of cannabis and galvanized a national debate. [continues 639 words]
The Loosening of Marijuana Laws in Much of the U.S. Increases Competition. BADIRAGUATO, Mexico - He started growing marijuana as a teenager and for four decades earned a modest living from his tiny plot tucked at the base of these rugged mountains of western Mexico. He proudly shows off his illegal plants, waist-high and fragrant, strategically hidden from view by rows of corn and nearly ready to be harvested. "I've always liked this business, producing marijuana," the 50-year-old farmer said wistfully. He had decided that this season's crop would be his last. [continues 1338 words]
MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government on Friday granted the first permits allowing the cultivation and possession of marijuana for personal use. The federal medical protection agency said the permits apply only to the four plaintiffs who won a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court last month. The court said growing and consuming marijuana is covered under the right of "free development of personality." The permits don't allow the sale or distribution of the drug. [end]
MEXICO CITY - President Enrique Pena Nieto came out against legalizing marijuana Wednesday, the same day his government announced a national public debate on the issue. He suggested the recent, informal debate on the issue has created confusion. Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in November that growing, possessing and smoking marijuana for recreation is legal under the right to freedom, but that ruling applied only to the four people involved in the case. [end]
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto came out strongly against legalizing marijuana, the same day his government announced a national public debate on the issue. He suggested the recent, informal debate has already created confusion. Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in November that growing, possessing and smoking marijuana for recreation is legal under the right to freedom, but that ruling applied only to the four people involved in the case. "I am not in favor of consuming or legalizing marijuana," Pena Nieto said in a speech announcing a child welfare program. "However, I am in favor of debate so that specialists can give us some indication of where we should be going." [continues 54 words]
Mexico's drug violence casts a long shadow over the city of Ocotlan, and the Southern Californians who love it. The children paid no heed to the priest from Jalisco as he celebrated a fiesta Mass in the backyard of a La Puente ranch, or to their parents urging them to sit still for the misa, or even to the rooster crowing nearby. They were too busy studying the animals they didn't see in Los Angeles every day: a small herd of goats, a single black pig - and a troupe of dancing horses. [continues 1106 words]
TIJUANA - A Mexican Supreme Court ruling permitting marijuana use for recreational purposes has sparked a sensitive debate in Mexico about the country's drug laws, involving health advocates, scholars, law enforcement officials, and business and political leaders. Wednesday's 4-1 decision applies only to four members of an advocacy group seeking to decriminalize marijuana, granting them the right to consume and produce for their own personal use. Still, the issue has touched a nerve for many in Mexico, opening a wide-ranging discussion about the country's drug policies. [continues 940 words]
The Mexican Supreme Court opened the door to legalizing marijuana on Wednesday, delivering a pointed challenge to the nation's strict substance abuse laws and adding its weight to the growing debate in Latin America over the costs and consequences of the war against drugs. The vote by the court's criminal chamber declared that individuals should have the right to grow and distribute marijuana for their personal use. While the ruling does not strike down current drug laws, it lays the groundwork for a wave of legal actions that could ultimately rewrite them, proponents of legalization say. [continues 1185 words]
Poppy Production Booms As American Appetite for Opioids Grows With her nimble hands, tiny feet and low center of gravity, Angelica Guerrero Ortega makes an excellent opium harvester. Deployed along the Sierra Madre del Sur, where a record poppy crop covers the mountainsides in strokes of green, pink and purple, she navigates the inclines with the deftness of a ballerina. Though shy, she perks up when describing her craft: the delicate slits to the bulb, the patient scraping of the gum, earning in one day more than her parents do in a week. [continues 1616 words]
EL CALVARIO, Mexico - With her nimble hands, tiny feet and low center of gravity, Angelica Guerrero Ortega makes an excellent opium harvester. Deployed along the Sierra Madre del Sur, where a record poppy crop covers the mountainsides in strokes of green, pink and purple, she navigates the inclines with the deftness of a ballerina. Though shy, she perks up when describing her craft: the delicate slits to the bulb, the patient scraping of the gum, earning in one day more than her parents do in a week. [continues 1630 words]
CALVARIO, MEXICO - With her nimble hands, tiny feet and low center of gravity, Angelica Guerrero Ortega makes an excellent opium harvester. Deployed along the Sierra Madre del Sur, where a record poppy crop covers the mountainsides in strokes of green, pink and purple, she navigates the inclines with the deftness of a ballerina. Though shy, she perks up when describing her craft: the delicate slits to the bulb, the patient scraping of the gum, earning in one day more than her parents do in a week. [continues 582 words]
An 8-Year-Old's Debilitating Illness Tests Mexico's Ban on Marijuana Use Monterrey, Mexico - They can tell the next one's coming when she begins rubbing her hands together, as if washing them. Her head slumps, and she looks left. She starts to flick her fingers and knead her skinny thigh. About once an hour, Grace Elizalde's brain electrifies in epileptic seizures intense enough that her brown eyes dance wildly back and forth and she spreads her arms out like a cartoon ghost. These are the big brain quakes, but there are hundreds of flash tremors each day that leave the 8-year-old Mexican girl exhausted and limp. [continues 1629 words]
A US Ultimatum Demanding That Mexico Ban Previously Legal Narcotics 'Forced Addicts and Producers to Take Up Arms' Mexico's drug trade is synonymous with violence, corruption and cartel bosses battling for territory. But it could have been so different, it's claimed in a new book, had the US not issued an ultimatum 75years ago which ignited the war on drugs - leading to death and destruction on both sides of the border. Documents in the book reveal that Mexico legalised drugs in 1940, after doctors convinced the then president, Lazaro Cardenas, that prohibition was damaging public health. Doctors believed that the best way to tackle drug-related ills was to treat addicts rather than lock-up smugglers and producers. [continues 620 words]
CHILAPA, Mexico - For nearly a week, gun-toting masked men loyal to a local drug gang overran this small city along a key smuggling route. Police officers and soldiers stood by as the gunmen patrolled the streets, searching for rivals and hauling off at least 14 men who have not been seen since. "They're fighting over the route through Chilapa," said Virgilio Nava, whose 21-year-old son, a truck driver for the family construction supply business, was one of the men seized in May, though he had no apparent links to either gang. "But we're the ones who are affected." [continues 1477 words]
Mexicans See Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman As a Robin Hood, and He Has Certainly Given the Economy a Boost. CULIACAN, Mexico - A new shipment of caps arrived at Isaias Rodriguez's Culiacan store, black canvas with the image of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman - once again the world's mostwanted drug lord - embossed in gold on the front. The hats came in just a week or so after El Chapo escaped from a high-security prison in July, via a ventilated, well-lighted tunnel just under a mile long. [continues 1000 words]
CULIACAN, Mexico - When Jose Antonio Sevilla and his three brothers learned that the notorious drug trafficker known as El Chapo had escaped from prison, they jumped out of their chairs and shouted with glee. "El Chapo got out! He's the greatest of them all," said Mr. Sevilla, 19, a self-professed fan of the drug kingpin, whose full name is Joaquin Guzman Loera. "He was famous before, but now he's even more famous." Mr. Sevilla, an auto mechanic, was so excited that he attended a march through the streets of Culiacan, the capital of Mr. Guzman's home state, this week to celebrate. He carried a sign that a woman gave him, which read, "El Chapo is more of a president than Pena Nieto," a reference to Mexico's president, Enrique Pena Nieto. [continues 1359 words]
Shortly before 9 p.m. on Saturday, Joaquin Guzman Loera, the Mexican drug kingpin whose capture last year had been trumpeted by his country's government as a crucial victory in its bloody campaign against the narcotics trade, stepped into the shower in his cell in the most secure wing of the most secure prison in Mexico. He never came out. When guards later entered the cell, they discovered a 2-by-2-foot hole, through which Mr. Guzman, known as El Chapo, or Shorty, had disappeared. [continues 1295 words]
Drug Lord Breaks Out of Prison Again, This Time Through a Nearly Mile- Long Tunnel That Began in a Shower. MEXICO CITY - The tunnel stretched a mile long, from the jailhouse shower to an empty building in a cornfield, and was deep enough for drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to stand upright as he made his escape. A minor engineering masterpiece, some might say, equipped with ventilation, lighting, oxygen tanks, scaffolding and a motorcycle contraption for removing the tons of dirt being excavated. [continues 1114 words]
Opium Poppies Offer Small Growers in Mexico a Living - and Cartels Cash CHILPANCINGO, Mexico - Mario moves quickly and easily down the steep forested hill. After a 30minute descent the tree cover clears, and the sun shines down onto the hidden red and purple flowers dotting the hillsides in the Filo Mayor mountains. Producers in Mexico's Guerrero state call their clandestine poppy plots "gardens." What they raise there is highly marketable - and illicit. Many of the flowers have no petals; they are simply plump, graying bulbs full of opium, ready for slicing. [continues 990 words]
Opium Poppies Offer Small Growers a Living and Cartels a Lucrative Business CHILPANCINGO, Mexico - Mario moves quickly and easily down the steep forested hill. After a 30-minute descent the tree cover clears, and the sun shines down onto the hidden red and purple f lowers dotting the hillsides in the Filo Mayor mountains. Producers here in Mexico's Guerrero state call their clandestine poppy plots "gardens." What they raise there is highly marketable, and illicit. Many of the flowers have no petals; they are simply plump, graying bulbs full of opium, ready for slicing. [continues 1011 words]
High-End Imports, Home Cultivation Increasing MEXICO CITY (AP) - Once upon a time, Mexican marijuana was the gold standard for U.S. pot smokers. But in the new world of legal markets and gourmet weed, aficionados here are looking to the United States and Europe for the good stuff. Instead of Acapulco Gold, Mexican smokers want strains like Liberty Haze and Moby Dick - either importing high-potency boutique pot from the United States, or growing it here in secret gardens that use techniques perfected abroad. [continues 757 words]
It Was Supposed to Be One of the Biggest Blows to Cartels in Decades, So Why, Asks Jo Tuckman in Culiacan, Has Little Apparently Changed The fortune-teller smiled as she gazed towards the distant peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range. "The mountains are glowing red, and it will be a good harvest," she predicted. The forecast was not based on second sight, however, but on conversations with local farmers looking forward to a bumper crop of marijuana. This is Mexico's own golden triangle. Straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua, the Sierra has been a stronghold of the country's drug trade for as long as anyone can remember: its deep canyons and dense pine forests have harboured generations of narcos and hidden plantations of marijuana and opium poppies. [continues 1482 words]
SIERRA MADRE DEL SUR, MEXICO (AP) - Red and purple blossoms with fat, opium-filled bulbs blanket the remote creek sides and gorges of the Filo Mayor mountains in the southern state of Guerrero. The multibillion-dollar Mexican opium trade starts here, with poppy farmers so poor they live in woodplank, tin-roofed shacks with no indoor plumbing. Mexican farmers from three villages interviewed by the Associated Press are feeding a growing addiction in the U.S., where heroin use has spread from back alleys to the cul-de-sacs of suburbia. [continues 741 words]
Inside Mexico
