You can take the Mexican out of Mexico, but you can't take Mexico out of the Mexican. You can have open borders and non-enforcement of
immigration and drug laws, but you can't prevent the USA from becoming
Mexico in that process. So predictable and so avoidable.
On 11/30/19 12:27 PM, Paul wrote:
Mexico in that process. So predictable and so avoidable.
On 11/30/19 12:27 PM, Paul wrote:
Right under your nose’: CJNG turned this rural [U.S.] area into a
hidden cocaine hub
Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat TYGus Courier Journal
hidden cocaine hub
Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat TYGus Courier Journal
AXTON, Va. — On a near-freezing February morning, a man known as
“Lalo” steered his Chevy Avalanche quietly through south-central
Virginia’s forested hills and farms.
He had an 8 a.m. appointment in Axton, tucked in a rural area of
roughly 6,500 people near the North Carolina border where roads are
dotted with trailer parks, tiny churches, rusting pickups and
abandoned barns.
It’s a place where property is cheap, cornfields and cow pastures
separate many neighbors, and people tend not to pry into one another’s
business.
“Lalo” steered his Chevy Avalanche quietly through south-central
Virginia’s forested hills and farms.
He had an 8 a.m. appointment in Axton, tucked in a rural area of
roughly 6,500 people near the North Carolina border where roads are
dotted with trailer parks, tiny churches, rusting pickups and
abandoned barns.
It’s a place where property is cheap, cornfields and cow pastures
separate many neighbors, and people tend not to pry into one another’s
business.
All of which made it an ideal if unlikely waystation for the Cártel
Jalisco Nueva Generación, known as CJNG, Mexico’s fastest-rising
drug cartel, whose U.S. footprint has grown exponentially in recent years.
A scene near the rural community of Axton, Virginia, where authorities
say the Mexican drug cartel known as CJNG maintained properties to
store and distribute drugs in the region.
Led by "El Mencho," the nickname for Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, CJNG in less than a decade has become one of the largest and most powerful
drug organizations in the world, known for sophisticated operations
and extreme violence in Mexico, from beheadings to killing police.
It's playing an increasing role in filling U.S. demand for super-pure
meth, cocaine, heroin, fentanyl and other drugs, appearing in at least
35 states, a Courier Journal investigation found, including the
Virginia countryside.
There, at a residence in Axton, authorities say Lalo met a man called
"Tramposo," the trickster. He loaded 6 kilos of cocaine, worth roughly
$180,000, into his truck.
Lalo was soon headed northeast. He could have wound through remote
backroads or returned to state Highway 58, a route dotted with
businesses that included a strip-mall tortilla shop where authorities
said drug profits were wired to Mexico.
Amid the flow of commuters, he began what he thought would be a
four-hour drive that passed through Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to
Winchester, Virginia, just 75 miles from Washington, D.C.
But Lalo had no idea he was being watched.
The CJNG cartel and its backroads drug pipeline had caught the
attention of federal authorities, who, in March 2019, announced they
had uncovered a hidden hub of Axton-area cartel stash houses that over
four years funneled a river of drugs worth tens of millions of dollars
through Axton to Winchester and other mid-Atlantic states.
In a case that highlights CJNG's deep reach into unexpected corners of
small-town America, authorities said the Jalisco-based cartel had sent
people to live in Axton, while CJNG shipped in at least 20 kilos of
cocaine each month since 2015, along with other drugs such as
marijuana it sent through the U.S. mail.
In at least two states, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and
a Virginia drug task force, conducted a more than two-year
investigation to unravel strands of a CJNG-fueled trafficking web
extended more than 230 miles northeast to the small-town streets of
Winchester.
backroads or returned to state Highway 58, a route dotted with
businesses that included a strip-mall tortilla shop where authorities
said drug profits were wired to Mexico.
Amid the flow of commuters, he began what he thought would be a
four-hour drive that passed through Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to
Winchester, Virginia, just 75 miles from Washington, D.C.
But Lalo had no idea he was being watched.
The CJNG cartel and its backroads drug pipeline had caught the
attention of federal authorities, who, in March 2019, announced they
had uncovered a hidden hub of Axton-area cartel stash houses that over
four years funneled a river of drugs worth tens of millions of dollars
through Axton to Winchester and other mid-Atlantic states.
In a case that highlights CJNG's deep reach into unexpected corners of
small-town America, authorities said the Jalisco-based cartel had sent
people to live in Axton, while CJNG shipped in at least 20 kilos of
cocaine each month since 2015, along with other drugs such as
marijuana it sent through the U.S. mail.
In at least two states, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and
a Virginia drug task force, conducted a more than two-year
investigation to unravel strands of a CJNG-fueled trafficking web
extended more than 230 miles northeast to the small-town streets of
Winchester.
There, three local sisters and others were caught up with a
cartel-connected associate in a scheme that authorities say involved
cross-country drug runs, purchases of high-powered guns and money
transfers.
"Right under your nose," said Josiah Schiavone, who formerly ran a
northwest Virginia drug task force, cartels were "operating in
multi-kilo loads." Their presence "caught our community off guard," he
said.
The Virginia case offered a glimpse into cartel operations that
experts say often funnel drugs through less-scrutinized rural areas
and small towns, distributing them through supply chains that can
spread like rivulets.
While estimates of cartel drug flows are notoriously unreliable,
federal officials have said CJNG smuggles at least 120 tons of
high-purity meth and cocaine into the U.S. a year, making it a top target.
But stemming the flow of drugs from any cartel through Middle America,
as the Virginia investigation showed, is like a game of whack-a-mole
for federal and local authorities.
cartel-connected associate in a scheme that authorities say involved
cross-country drug runs, purchases of high-powered guns and money
transfers.
"Right under your nose," said Josiah Schiavone, who formerly ran a
northwest Virginia drug task force, cartels were "operating in
multi-kilo loads." Their presence "caught our community off guard," he
said.
The Virginia case offered a glimpse into cartel operations that
experts say often funnel drugs through less-scrutinized rural areas
and small towns, distributing them through supply chains that can
spread like rivulets.
While estimates of cartel drug flows are notoriously unreliable,
federal officials have said CJNG smuggles at least 120 tons of
high-purity meth and cocaine into the U.S. a year, making it a top target.
But stemming the flow of drugs from any cartel through Middle America,
as the Virginia investigation showed, is like a game of whack-a-mole
for federal and local authorities.
"I can assure you that within 120 hours of that investigation, the
cartel in Mexico had all new houses rented and new leadership from
Mexico en route," said Jaeson Jones, a former Texas Department of
Public Safety captain who spent years following the activities of drug
cartels.
Law enforcement officials believe cartel associates are still around
Axton and Winchester. Federal investigators will only say that the
case is ongoing.
But the cartel's presence still looms. Some residents, including some
members of Axton’s small Hispanic population, speak in whispers of
their suspicions over flashes of wealth, rumors of suspected fronts
and a drug-related shooting of two Mexican.
When it comes to questions about the cartel in Axton or Winchester,
some doors open a crack and then quickly shut. Some people are too
cartel in Mexico had all new houses rented and new leadership from
Mexico en route," said Jaeson Jones, a former Texas Department of
Public Safety captain who spent years following the activities of drug
cartels.
Law enforcement officials believe cartel associates are still around
Axton and Winchester. Federal investigators will only say that the
case is ongoing.
But the cartel's presence still looms. Some residents, including some
members of Axton’s small Hispanic population, speak in whispers of
their suspicions over flashes of wealth, rumors of suspected fronts
and a drug-related shooting of two Mexican.
When it comes to questions about the cartel in Axton or Winchester,
some doors open a crack and then quickly shut. Some people are too
scared to talk.
"You don’t play with the cartel," said Ruth Houghton Mann, a relative
of three Winchester sisters entangled in the cartel’s drug ring.
"INSIDE EVERY PROGRESSIVE IS A TOTALITARIAN FASCIST SCREAMING TO GET OUT"
No comments:
Post a Comment