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From an addicts perspective; If a said customer d** of choice was oxy and then H; neither are possible or available. Most of us want ZERO part of fenty and yet it is all that there is. Myself along with many many others have chosen to go to legal alternatives to avoid fent. (legal bud and MMT clinics) Of the people who choose to buy from Carts; most will not survive a year as it IS that bad. Why is this happening? Is this the federal US government? If they met demand WITHOUT fenty then they would make almost as much money as the us pharmacuetical companies. So why are they choosing to make less money while taking out more people?
Thank you very much for your thorough analysis! I feel like we need a Part 2 to give us some idea of what can be done about this stubborn and seemingly entrenched and intractable problem. Mexico along with we in the US have been working together to try to solve some of these issues, but nothing seems to work. However, I believe there is a solution! But it's going to take a joint effort with the Mexican government and the cartels' best customer (the US) to implement a plan, whatever that may be If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them! (What do you think about legalizing or decriminalizing drugs to collect tax revenue, monitor and quality-control products, and allow cartels to "go legit"?) Thanks!!!
The evolution of the cartels from 70's to present is black and white. In 70's-early80's the traffickers were cowboys. 80's-90's gangster and now soldiers. I lived in Bisbee AZ on and off since 70's and saw the changes.
The cartels won't last much longer next to the US either. Since the US has started to move it's manufacturing base from China to Mexico, so much that since the time of COVID, Mexico has become the largest trade partner, beating out China finally. As things start to scale to the level they were in China(which is the goal), Mexico will sustain a rapid growth economically which will force both the US and Mexico to have a vested interest in absolutely obliterating the cartels once and for all. The reason it's not a huge deal right now is because it does interfere with a ton of money, but the instant the cartel is a major contributing factor in the countries major strategic economic interests, say goodbye. You will never have seen a crime organization disappear as fast and as effortlessly as you will with them. The US doesn't spend more on it's military than the next 10 largest nations combined for no reason, taking out the cartel will be like stomping on an ant.
I as a Mexican, I’m happy that this theme is being talked about, however I’m sad about the state of my country. I hope better times come, and that my country puts this era of lead behind.
As someone who lives in the most dangerous city in the world (and these past few weeks have been quite heavy, which is saying something for such a city), i share the sentiment
improve the standard of living in mexico and average income and people will gradually be less attracted to cartels and promote social services for the poor the alternative is all out war and risk narco terrorism by narcos clinging to power
Its true, dragon ball is big in Mexico, we have them in Tacos stands, shirts, candles, etc. Also it lowered violence at some point and DB producer sue the goverment due to illegal transmition
Having the world's biggest arms dealer AND the world's most drug addicted country as a neighbor was only a recipient for disaster. As a Mexican it makes me sad, but at the same time I'm hopeful one day all of this nonsensical violence will diminish or end.
so true. as an american living in mexico i will say i have not in 4 years heard any gunfire. thank god. it was common in texas cities where i lived before. it seems that the common mexican does not own firearms, so the cartel is even more intimidating with the amount the u.s. provides them.
I've got some bad news for you: USA is also the nation with the most drug addicts. And that's just the illegal ones. Add the opiate painkiller addictions, and you have a nation of junkies far greater than anywhere else on the planet..
Theirs 2 things that can happen so all this violence can end, 1) if all cartels come to a trues and concentrate on making money (which everyone knows that it's most likely not gonna happen) 2) if the military go full force and put the cartels leaders all in one room make them work together (I'm only saying this cuase tbh the cartel isn't going nowhere but the violence can sure be put to an end)
@@EddeeezNuttz1129 Both of your solutions would very quickly unravel. Scenario 1: Mexico is a big place. There's a reason Rome fell. Tribalism is encoded in human genes, you'll always have someone remote wanting their own piece of the pie. Scenario 2: 'Military forcing cartel leaders into a room' sounds like a kid's solution. But let's say that were to hypothetically happen. Those leaders would nearly instantly be replaced, or new actors show up with their own gangs. The actual solution goes for the root of the problems as mentioned in the vid: Decriminalizing or even legalizing cocaine in both countries would instantly devalue the product. It would make it a staple basic export, not much different from produce. This is a pipe dream but more realistic than the other 'fantasy' solutions. It would involve treating it like the other legalized drugs: Alcohol, Tobacco and nowadays Marijuana. This would require intense drug education for the population and a hard adaptive period, but over time people would come to understand the drug, it's limitations and it's pitfals. It's the only way the cartels can be made to disappear, or turn into legitimate business ventures.
@@krisinsaigon Its risk for high reward selling cocaine in Macau but. As a former British colony Hong Kong still operates under softer British law where stop and frisk is not widely employed without probable cause while in Macau Chinese law is much more common with harsher penalties and random searches that always come with a police state.
The Mexican cartels have also expanded into the Netherlands. Although relatively new to the Benelux underworld, some seem to have managed to establish themselves into the circuit, which is dominated by Belgo-Dutch criminal networks interwoven with turkish and maroccan mafias. These also mainly in cocaine, and to a lesser extend cannabis. They seem to be in control of the large northeast african route operate accross the wider periphery all the way up to the UAE. Beside the Belgo-Dutch networks, the cartels have to content with other latin american cartels, polish networks, baltic networks, italian mafias, romanian gangs, polish gangs, balkan networks, spanish networks, albanian networks, eastern european networks... Going through this _Europol report on Decoding the EU's most threathening criminal networks_ (july 2024), it seems that basicaly all european criminal networks seem to operate here in the netherlanss, for logicial logistical reasons.
I would be very unsettled by this if I was a Dutch citizen. I would demand my state spend massive amounts of resources on policing to push this crime away and into another European port city
@@Tribuneoftheplebs Ehh.. it's always been like this. I myself am from one of the largest cities on the Dutch German border, and smuggling has been a long and old tradition. This goes on a large scale, all the way back to the VOC and before the 1600 (yes there is documented proof of Company man snorting coke). Smugging is just a part of being of one of world's richest and most developed heartlands. Not only that, the Netherlands has profited long and intensly from smuggling abroad, especially slaves into Spanish america. We still profit from that wealth, so I guess this is just a bit of karma Also, the police is so chronically understaffed that, iirc, the national chief of the police said the Netherlands is in essence a narcostate, yet the country is statistically one of the happiest and healthiest countries to live in. Personally, I see the underfunding and messed up education system and degradation of social security networks as bigger issues than police funding
@@Tribuneoftheplebs also also, from that europol report I mentioned in my original comment, I learned that these international criminal networks, especially the European ones, can't be dealt with on just a national scale. This is an transnational, EU wide issue.
The advantage that the cartels have over other organizations is that they have training in both guerrilla and espionage thanks to the United States, they are now closer to being a group like Wagner
Damn, so far this seems to be THE best analysis of what's really going on in Mexico with the Cartel problem. Nearly every single other video or documentary that I've seen has never addressed the full picture properly. They always fail in their research or understanding of certain details here or there. This is truly great work.
The prohibition of alcohol pioneered gangster culture in america. The prohibition of marijuana pioneered drug cartels south of the border. What's that word for when gov't policy has the opposite effect from what was intended?
in India the British government offered an award for dead cobras in a effort to get rid of them. It created an incentive to breed cobras to get more rewards. Once the British found out about the breeding the number went up. It’s the Cobra effect
I commend this creator for always producing high quality content. He speaks intelligently, concisely and clearly without ever going of script like some other geo-politics channels. This is one of the very best channels of it's kind, criminally under subbed. No ego, no bs, I can just learn stuff, much appreciated.
Time will uproot those feelings for you as it did to mine. He is simply a polish Zealot and produces a lot of misleading stuff. But i do still watch him for the quality among other things.
You trust someone with a foreign accent informing you ,? As a Mexican, it's like me informing a British about Sunak, or an Italian about the Fascist Molione Bologne.
Some sidenotes and added context: 10:10 This system was nicknamed as «Dictablanda» (a play on words that translates as «Soft dictatorship») or «Perfect dictatorship». It was posible because the government had a monopoly in everything. For example, you had *PIPSA,* or «Productora e Importadora de Papel, SA» («Paper producers and importers, PLC»), a state monopoly that would come at you with unppaid charges you or delay orders if you had a newspaper or magazine that had recently publish any criticism. 10:16 - 10:30 This part probably refers to concessions made after the 1986-89 period. In 1986 the center-right opposition PAN lost the gubernatorial election in Chihuahua state; but the fraud was so egregious (even to members of the ruling PRI party. Some PRI members even argued for a "patriotic fraud") that it is said to have led to the PAN winning the 1989 Baja California gubernatorial election. (It was the first time anyone other than the PRI had governed a state since the revolution; and it was a concession.) 12:41 - 12:48 This part most likely refers to the presidencies of *Luis Echeverría* (or LEA, 1970 - 1976), and *José López Portillo* (or JOLOPO, 1976 - 1982). (TBF, from 1940 to 1964 the single party rule (PRI) wasn't that bad, but from 1964 to 1985 was a disaster.) *LEA* really believed that the economy could (and should) be controlled from the presidential residence (there is an anecdote about how he ended up dismissing his economic secretary, Hugo Margain, because he had a bit of common sense) and *JOLOPO* really believed that he was within his rights to dictate the line to the media through advertising contracts as well as significantly increasing bureaucracy. 12:49 - 13:10 We saw these political and economic reforms from the presidency of Salinas (1988 - 1994, when NAFTA was signed) to the presidency of Fox (2000 - 2006), who was the first opposition president (from the PAN party). One thing you can recognize about the one-party regime (PRI) is that they had a smooth transition of power.
As a Mexican American that is pretty familiar with this topic, you did an excellent job explaining the situation, as with most topics, there's more that can be dove into, but this overall this was spot on
@@luperamos7307 so did the US when they had Mobs during prohibition, it's logistics, as long as you're making money and being supplied guns you will keep fighting, so you have to do what the US did to the Mobs, they ended prohibition and took away their source of income
@@angelgarza7437 There's a difference between alcohol and hardcore drugs. As I said, the state has a lot more resources than the cartels. You see how easily foreign countries can even get El Chapo. Why can't Mexico do it?
Mexico is far from God by their choice... They rather believe in the idolatry of a guadalupe and malverde god rather than the real god. Jesus Christ.... Most Mexican rather hear bible stories than reading the bible...
It's frustrating how criminal organizations can control places and territories with impunity. There's been a war between criminals in Culiacán, Sinaloa for several days but the most important topics of discusion are about the president farting or something.
The biggest joke is that so many Mexicans are complaining about migrants and that the Mexican military is used on the southern border. Some are even complaining that migrants are bringing crime, which is laughable
One of the best analytical pieces on the Mexican drug war I've seen.Couldn't believe the part about banks being rescued with criminal money but I'm not surprised.
The problem is that drugs is just one source of revenue, they do any type of illegal activity you guys can think of, also they have their hands in the national legal economy
I think that is rather obvious from the literal translation alone. Especially with the context given and the subsequent elaboration. In this case, going with the literal translation gives us the same perspective someone receiving that threat for the first time may understand. Especially since in English, and especially America, the phrase "eat lead" with respect to bullets, is widely known. Thus, unlike many other literal translations, this idiom does indeed keep its meaning across languages.
This'll be a big channel one day you do great work. There's a handful of creators who every time they put out a video it's a staple that I watch before random watching and this has become one of those. Cheers man.
This whole issue as I see it is the culmination of history conspiring to against all parties. Firstly, the Mexican government is apathetic and lethargic and indifferent in its cooperation with the US because of the US's antagonistic and interventionist and imperialistic past with Mexico. This has resulted in Mexicans throughout all of mexican society developing a deep seeded distrust of Americans seared in the back of their minds thats never going to go away. Thats largely why Mexican politicians become irrate when Americans interfere because they think another 1846,1910, 1914 is to follow is if they give any political concessions to the US. The Mexican government has also been unworthy of Mexicans trust due to past government crimes like the shooting of students in 1960s, the dissappearances of student-teachers in 2006 which are linked to President Peña Nieto. And general high corruption that goes on. This feeling of distrust and antipathy towards the government has made in it in the minds of Mexicans permissible to break laws without guilt or shame. When it comes to the northern side of the border, some Americans are weak-willed and decadent and their priorities is to consume to fulfill their lust for pleasure. Like over eating, being spend thrifts, and doing drugs. Others are so demoralized by the drudgery and bleakness of Americans life that drugs are the only means of escape. This is due to the inherit unfairness of the post-war American economic system that spits on the working man. The political system is geared in a way that rewards the petty whims of the masses and never gives incentive to politicians to actually fix a problem because they make an industry out of selling solutions to their voter base. I don't believe that this solution will come to pass unless the American people themselves NOT POLITICIANS actually change their interpersonal relationship towards drugs and drug use. Sometimes its you and not politicians that need to fix the issue. Stop delegating it.
Its so annoying when people say "THE cartel" , usually when they say that they have no idea what they are talking about, like which one are you talking about? I appreciate the specifics, the devils in the details as they say.
There used to be a small amount of larger cartels, but after a handful of arrest the remaining infrastructure formed into smaller ones. Establishing these new structures was a source of violence.
@NathanBlake-TurboWagonsno you can’t if you’re trying and another country keeps arming them and buying their drugs it’s pretty hard (Mexican police have never been able to stop them cause Americans keep supplying them with weapons not even the police has)
@NathanBlake-TurboWagons you absolutely can't stop it by force, not when it's this big. You can keep it out of a society where it isn't widespread by force, but once it is there, no. It's like a cancer. You can cut it out if you catch it early. But eventually it takes over so much of the body that cutting it out will kill the host. The US passed that point at least 10 years ago.
@NathanBlake-TurboWagons Get the government to help them quit their addictions and also stop corrupt DEA and immigration agents from helping the cartels it requires a powerful and consistent political determination But in the end the US won’t do it cause it also benefits them 😂and I know you’re gonna disagree every president saying they’re gonna help aren’t going to do anything.
@@AS-np3yqyes, you can, China did it. And in communist states the consumption was 0%: for 3 reasons: a strong police and fast judiciary, you should justify every penny otherwise you landed in jail, poverty. You can't sell to people with no money
*tunes in for an in depth view, notices map of cartels, looks patiently for a moment, blinks, looks again, blinks.* "thats the map of mesoamerican tribes pre columbus!?"
@@cristeromexico3366 seems self-explanatory. The Mexica were not able to annex Michihuacan / Purempecha empire, they could not even annex Tlaxcala Republic which spoke the same Nahua language. There are many valleys up and down the mountainous spine of MX which could not be controlled then, and when the central authority is weak, power devolves back into those valleys.
The cartels won't last much longer next to the US. Since the US has started to move it's manufacturing base from China to Mexico, so much that since the time of COVID, Mexico has become the largest trade partner, beating out China finally. As things start to scale to the level they were in China(which is the goal), Mexico will sustain a rapid growth economically which will force both the US and Mexico to have a vested interest in absolutely obliterating the cartels once and for all. The reason it's not a huge deal right now is because it does interfere with a ton of money, but the instant the cartel is a major contributing factor in the both countries major strategic economic interests, say goodbye. You will never have seen a crime organization disappear as fast and as effortlessly as you will with them. The US doesn't spend more on it's military than the next 10 largest nations combined for no reason, taking out the cartel will be like stomping on an ant.
While the US military is strong the cartels will not be defeated unless the entire system that made them that powerfull gets uprooted. That means that societal and structural changes must be made in both Mexico and the US to stop the flow of money and lead them to bankrupcy
Or they will join the investment spree. Vidéo touted cartels as already having somewhat corporate structure and preferring to outsource the most violent part of the operations. As they stand right now they are probably also one of the biggest and the most concentrated sources of capital in the country. The end game might be like the Sicilian mafia establishing a monopoly on certain services. Not the most effective way but still an improvement.
@@dsmogor They couldn't even begin to scratch the surface of the kind of investment capital that's currently being put into the country and will continue to, by the US. We're talking trillions of dollars. And the problem is that their money comes from criminal activities which impact communities ability to function and to go to work. Even though a lot of their crime is outsourced, its so violent and so rampant that Mexico is still heavily heavily heavily impacted by it. There's sanctuary cities where they don't really operate, but where they do operate, the towns are stunted hardcore. They COULD use their capital to start investing and switch entirely over to legal business like the Yakuza sort of did in Japan, but that's almost certainly not going to happen as it requires a complete shift in culture for the people that are currently a part of the gangs. The only reason the Yakuza was able to pull it off was because they were already dwindling and the Japanese have a completely different culture which I won't try to describe, but if you know what that is, it makes sense that they were able to. And the mafia also was built on a culture of respect and more classy business, so it makes sense that they were able to switch largely as well. But hey, anythings possible.
Great so just legalize fentanyl and give it to everyone? You’re not offering a solution you’re just making pseudo intellectual excuse for a belief. If you cared about criminals not making money off of drugs you would support actions that make it harder for them to do so, like shutting down the US Mexico border, which I can almost certainly infer from your prior statement that you don’t support.
@@jarhead1031 Nice statements. Too bad they're not supported by the facts, however. Decriminalization has already been proven to work in places like Portugal, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The United States tried banning a drug already, it's called alcohol. How'd that work out?
@@guydreamr Portugal and Switzerland don’t have a massive continent on their southern border that has millions of dollars of Chinese money pouring in to manufacture drugs to smuggle across their border. You’re at best a confused idealist and at worst outright stupid. You have considered no actual facts you simply want drugs to be legal and therefore proffer that as some sort of solution. You’ve also yet to articulate as to why legalizing fentanyl is a good idea. Until you want to live in the real world your ideas will remain deeply unserious and will be sneered at by those in the future who were smart enough to not take the advice of those like you. Sorry to break it to you but societies that degenerate into avarice and wild drug use quickly collapse. You wouldn’t know that of course, because your conception of history, like most captured by the thought machine of the neo marxists, begins with the Industrial Revolution.
@@jarhead1031 LOL, calling him a 'pseudo-intellectual.' As mentioned; the facts aren't on your side. The issue is multi-faceted. In countries that have decriminalised drugs and treated it as a public health issue, there has been massive success. Instead of facing criminal charges, users are sent to Alcohol and Other Drugs programs. Drug use has been around since the dawn of time, but through education and investing in people, the drug use rate drops-as seen in countries that have adopted this approach. The government should legalise marijuana and have drug testing that's easily accessible so people aren't dropping dead. It's not rocket science. 😂
This is the best detailed video of the Narco problem in Mexico, you got all the points correct from history to social part, very good job! Now what could be a solution for this problem
the violence has been getting worse lately, innocent people disappear or get killed, usually it's just the ones linked to organized crime, but this spike is affecting normal people now.
It has been revealed that the US worked alongside the Sinaloa cartel around the 2010s, distributing weapons amongst the cartels. Just like they did in their many other ventures in Latin America like during Operation Condor or the creation of terror groups in Nicaragua... It is a matter of national security to the US to neutralize its southern neighbor which means seeding problems to leave it vulnerable and wholy dependent.
Why would they bother during that time period? It serves no geopolitical end. Operation Condor was an extension of the cold war geopolitical rivalry. Both sides used any & every means available everywhere on earth. Stepping up into ANYTHING political in those days meant picking a side. Which conversely meant making an enemy of the other side. Mexico wasn't any more or less important than anywhere else in that regard. Whats your source on the Sinaloa connection? Sounds...questionable.
US is not a colonial state, it does not need to. Totally different economy. US just want to be let alone. I think EVERYBODY in the US is so happy what happened in El-salvador. Just clean the mess up!! Build a nice, maybe small at the beginning, economy. But theese oligarchs/cartels/slavetrader are like evil spirits. And US need to work an their drug consumption. It has to stop now that you consume that much.
@@AS-np3yq Dude, you are mixing up the people and the government. What the US government wants is total domination of its hemisphere. No one must be a threat. The CIA made sure to stop anyone getting out of its tracks in Latin America and they continue to do so. Mexican media is financed by US investors. A corrupt government, is an easy to buy government, and that's what the US wants, in order to keep extracting resources from Mexico. The drug cartels are an excellent way to spread their influence in the region, that's what the DEA is for.
@@AS-np3yq The drug consumtion cannot be answered by interdiction or enforcement. No matter HOW draconian. A five year recidivism rate never dropping below 79% since drugs first became tracked as an offense matrix nationally by the NCIC in 1983 tells you that clearly. We've known the drug war was always going to be a failure that just kept spiraling out of control since 1989. It's now an ever growing fiscal black hole that consumes between LEA interdiction & court mandated diversion/treatment programs(with a 3-7% 'two year success rate, BTW) & for profit prisons & support industries collectively between 26-32 cents of every tax dollar(average). It's expected to climb to nearly half of all tax dollars by mid century(40-42%). ...On a war we demonstrably cannot win. Can NEVER win. How much more of our constitutional right erosion & tax dollars & law enforcement manhours are you willing to throw away on this? 47% of manhours & 56% of police budgets are wasted directly or indirectly on interdiction. That's time and resources that could be dedicated to putting chomos away forever or shoring up that 52% unsolved homicide rate or knockng down that 70 some odd percent of unprosecuted/uninvestigated rape cases some. They say insanity is trying the same thing expecting a different result. If that's true this war has been a complete lunatic since the early days of DARE.
Well, yes. If America had to choose between waking up tomorrow to a reborn Soviet Union at full strength or a first world United States of South or Central America it will pick the former every time. It thrives as a big fish in a small pond and no other way.
So, they need to dig canals and make rivers flow centrally in a way that connects the country, so that they can police the central territory and have interconnected trade. And then raise the prices of coastal communities so that they can tax them highly in turn to pay for the more expensive policing there.
@@colin3424idk if you commented his name to scared them but yk Mexicans aren’t scared of trump or the wall right 😂 and btw most immigrants crossing are central and South Americans shit Mexico should build a wall in Guatemala 😂.
Legalizing cannabis (and making it affordable) in both Mexico and the United States, would help reduce the demand. Not that the cartels wouldn’t produce other drugs, but this should be a part of the strategy!
wouldnt that just increase demand since now people who otherwise wouldnt touch the stuff are now able to legally, removing the barrier to entry? oklahoma has exploded in marijuana stores now that its legal there.
It would probably negatively affect the illegal trade if marijuana was cheap and widely available. Why would I risk getting it from some random person if I can buy it legally from a clean, regulated store?
@@naganomancer oh the demand would go up for weed and down for more dangerous stuff... but then you'd produce it locally so it doesn't feed criminals and you get taxes from it and it's tested for not being poisonous
As an American, a libertarian & a punk rocker, I see many wins, some losses, in US legalization of drugs. First off, it is a huge market. Also, if US gov cut out the cartels, took that source of revenue away, sealed up the boarder and had drug stores & drug dens, these drugs could be much more measured, potency would be consistent. Over doses would go down, drugs received from a legal market would/should be, always the same strength and much of the stress & desperation that generally accompanies the drug related crimes like theft's of all kinds, prostitution, some violence should also be reduced. People couldmaybe even be able to pay less, acquire stability, maybe even work and some resemblance of a normal life? Cartel crimes would be way down, like zero even maybe assuming they put out of business. Places selling drugs could have a public private partnership to increase efficiency but still have close oversight and some level of services for recovery and what not. Greatest of all though, it could probably be one of the greatest things we could ever do as a nation, a society, to take one for the team and alleviate some of the burden for Mexico. Back home here in US, I'd wager that addiction would skyrocket, especially in rural areas. Also, this too could possibly lead to some other form of excessive corruption here at home? We just don't know? Really though, what other, feasible ideas are there out there? We cant be locking up many millions of our own peoples every year because they as adults chose what to do with their own lives, time & money? Is this really a from of freedom though? Perspective is very grey here I feel
There's been a small handful of countries in EU that have legalized drugs in recent times. In all cases the countries saved money redirecting resources from police, courts, prisons etc toward rehab which obviously lead to addiction plummeting especially heroin and the crime rate lowered (outside of drug related convictions) for both petty and violent crimes. There was a host of other benefits that I can't recall off hand. Well worth looking into for anyone interested. In the US it would have the added benefit of vastly reducing cartel profits and increased border security.
You know I guarantee in 30 years people are going to talk about how the war on marijuana created people like El Chapo just like they talk about how the war on alcohol created Al Capone
@@shoggy3890 Not really, they weren't money hungry like the corrupt European "whites" are.. Fearless n crazy as they were, they were very religious n respectful ppl who became really violent when the hostile tribes they kept encountering only let them settle on a swamp.. Their "gods" demanded blood, n they provided plenty..lol The Aztec ppl were actually cleaner n much smarter than the Europeans.. N we'll never know how much more knowledgeable they were bcuz the ignorant Europeans burned alot of priceless Aztec records..
It’s far too reaching too, Mexican cartel violence has spread to Costa Rica! Within the last two years murder, theft, crime, drug sales, prostitution are all up over 400% all along the beach towns in the providences of Guanacaste and Puntarenas. During COVID in Costa Rica had a 9pm curfew which I would REGULARLY break! Now that COVID is over we can usually stay out till 1am or later but with the cartels here now and running the show I don’t stay out past 9:30p period. Here in the lil beach town of playa del coco we’ve had 6 murders so far in 24’ while having none in 20-22’ 🤦🏼♂️
I'd like to make one point, but I can't back up the assumption it makes: Cartel guns are largely assumed to come from the United States, but the weapons seized & have proven origin are a small fraction of what is out there. It is just as likely weapons flow in along the lines as their drugs and drug supplies, i.e. South America, East Asia, etc.
I contradicting your statement as native, the weapons mostly come from the US as from second use ( Usa -> Guatemala -> Mexico) or from the border, this statement bocmes stonger if you see were the most violent cities are. An for more info, the is court case from mexico against gun makers i think in massachustes for gun mismanagment.
Base components that are most likely legal. Also its like saying why cant we stop the drugs from entering the US? Because these people are crafty and find ways to get it done.. Similar to that its like the prohibition era.
@@edgeldine3499 Thanks for the info. That makes some sense. But can we pin down some of these key ingredients that only used to make fentanyl and nothing else?
... THE C.I.A AND THE F.B.I DO NOT OWN THE WORLD. THEY ARE NOT EVERYWERE, FOR U.S SPIES IN MEXICO IS VERY DANGEROUS. REMEMBER "ENRIQUE CAMARENA" TORTURED AND KILL BY C.I.A ORDERS.
Mexico has to make the de4th penalty legal (like Singapore did) and the United States should invest less in weapons and more in rehabilitation centers. Sadly this is hard to happen. Drugs and weapons are a huge world business.
As long as the border is porous and the US is offering immediate citizenship, free food, free lodging, free healthcare, spending money this results in millions of immigrants flooding into Mexico, then the cartels will make huge money from human and drug trafficking. Expect new cartels to spring up (ie Venezuelan).
or, the US could simply do the Bukele thing to organised criminals. as for "rehab", consider that there's a lifestyle and a community around being "homeless" and a lot of funding so they can continue that lifestyle. They don't want rehab, they want a fix.
I've been living in Yucatán Michoacán and Rosarito, is not common a lose bullet, most deads are results of the war on some places, "topon" with a soldier with a minimi in the middle of nowhere, but also the main boss of drugs is the us government, the CIA and the narcos on that side sending weapons that are way to dangerous, Mexico Slaughterhouse US is the butcher shop.
Although I have personal interest in yuor middle east videos, this one gave me a whole new perspective and was probably the best one I have seen of you yet. Thank you for that
Wow. Great information in this video. I now live in Mexico. I worked in counterterrorism and counterdrug organizations for the US Govt before moving here. This provides a great insight into the cartel operations and how imbedded it is in all organizations including government, international trade, banking and even legitimate businesses.
@@CultureCrossed64These decisions are made by American and Mexican politicians and government bodies, not ordinary Mexicans. US imperialism extends throughout the Americas and Mexico is obviously not exempt
@@CultureCrossed64when you have the largest civilian and military industrial capacity to flood every countries markets with guns, yes Because where’s there’s violence and it’s not an Ak it’s MADE IN AMERICA blind
Mexico is for the US, what Dacia was for the Romans. Mexico has all the whole marks of a nation on the same level as Iran, Japan, or Germany and maybe even Russia. But the US will NERVER allow a second power to rise in the americas. The Romans beat Burebistas Dacia by causing division within, Trajans war against them was after Dacia was already weakened for centuries and showed signs of re-emergence under Decebal. We know that the US had a hand within the rise of the cartels. Who's to say they don't still have!
Lol you're funny. Son los mexicanos que han puesto mexico así, compa. The US invading certainly didn't destroy Germany or Japan's economy, did it? Don't blame us for you guys electing the same party for 50+ years. Ustedes no entienden que ya queríamos tomar casi todo su territorio - pero no era un Mexicano que nos paró, sino un estadounidense. If the Us Government thought like you do, Mexico would already be part of the US
The US was messing around down South to prevent the spread of Socialism & Communism. Nowadays, it would benefit the US if Mexico was a more orderly democratic state. There's nothing better for (legal) business than stability.
The US side of things makes their money off interdiction & so-called court mandated 'treatment' programs. You'll note they're universally all private sector for profits. Massive profits. Eclipses the cartels take by a fair margin.
Who distributes drugs to the last alley in the USA? 😂 Fedex? Who collects and launders the money in the USA? Who receives the shipments? How come the Mexican cartels have weapons for exclusive use by the USA army? American cartels....
to answer your questions in order. 1) Generally addicts 2) Only unintentionally for darknet buys 3) The same type of money launderers that operate elsewhere in the world. In some cases even the same ones. Look up "cash flight havens" to learn more about them. 4) Cartel members in country. The 'pipelines' are typically cartel run backbones to locally charted gangs. MS-13 increasingly been displacing local gangs in many areas of the west coast and with budding presence east of the Mississippi now. 5) Cartel usually source heavier ordinance from existing conflicts elsewhere. Syria has become a major source, as has Liberia, Iraq & afghanistan. Among MANY other locations. 6) Not american cartels. American interests don't make their cash on that side of things. THEY make money off of for profit prisons, state mandated diversion programs, piss test labs & otherwise assisting US LEA in what has become collectively the fifth most powerful lobby in Washington DC. Though there is a national entity recently associating with many aspects of the cartel crime biz. But you'll find it much farther east in Moscow.
I'll answer your questions in order you've made them. 1) Addicts themselves, usually. At the regional level typically MS-13 proxies 2) Only darknet purchases 3) The same types of money launderers that operate elsewhere. 4) The cartels ship to themselves. Then distribute/sell to regional gangs. Increasingly MS-13 has been edging local gangs out 5) because the cartels can buy from international battlefield scavengers 6) The US side of things has it's own corrupt organizations that make many times what the cartels do by supporting the PROHIBITION. Providing everything from for profit prisons to court mandated drug diversion and treatment programs. They have an annual take four to five times what the cartels collectively make by sponging up the US taxdollar.
If decriminalization is the weapon of last resort to stop the cartel modiality, it is only a matter of time before it is employed. Of course, it is criminalization that is behind the huge profit margins that make this criminal activity possible. Methods other than authoritarianism will be required to create stable communities.
The title is really wrong: the biggest cartel State is located in the US.. the most complex distribution system is located in every state in this country. USA owns the most sofisticated spy controls in the world. It's impossible to think the corruption that also exists in the US when the drug crosses the US border, and how this drug is distributed in all the 48 Continental states. Also, US owns the record where there are more drug addicts. 70% of all the arms used by the cartels are made in the USA. US government plays an important role in this problem
If the US legalizes or at least, decriminalizes, drugs, would that help or hurt the sutuation? When you act outside of the law, it encourages more lawless behavior and attracts other lawless individuals and enterprises. Maybe we can experiment with lightening up "drug war" policies, monitor and tax drug traffic and revenue, and allow some of these cartels that are already acting as de facto local governments (providing electrical infrastructure, unofficial courts, etc.) to come into the light?
Decriminalization seems the most prudent path forward to me. But the real problem with that is all the associated support industries that have accreted over the last 40 years of the drug war. Covering a range from for-profit prisons to court mandated diversion programs to piss test labs & other various LEA support roles. COllectively they represent now the fifth most powerful lobby in Washington DC. They have a deep vested interest in keeping the status quo, and have even gone so far as to astroturf & outright sabotage campaigns for legalization/decriminalization efforts nationwide.
@@brianhirt5027 - You're right! I hadn't thought of all those "drug war" associated industries. Maybe if we look at this from a national security perspective, our gov (US) can use some expanded powers to force compliance. And if we legalize or decriminalize thoughtfully (maybe take lessons from Portugal), other industries will arise - as they have arisen around legalized marijuana in some states.
@@velvetmagnetta3074 Again the problem is those industries. They don't advertise being a collective lobby, but they are. They're careful to keep each in very strict public optics lanes, but coordinate on matters of national policy impactful on their buisness model. They collectively have the ear of Police, state & federal government in ways that few other sectors save intelligence gathering or defense enjoy. They also collectively constitute anywhere from 8-17 cents of every tax dollar, depending on which state you're in. With a collective market cap valuation in the low hundred billions. With a B. BILLIONS. They make more profit than the cartels do. Wish someone with established bona fides would do a massive expose on the whole sordid fuckery. Maybe coffeezilla or some WAPO investigative reporter, perhaps. They're an incredibly powerful & corrupt & wealthy lobby that doesn't mind stooping to any measure short of murder to keep the drugs highly illegal & cash flowing in.
Health care is really expensive in USA, decriminalization of drugs would create a huge health problem like in Philly but country wide, death is cheaper -for the government- than taking care of someone lost in drugs.
well that is only part of the contributor to the appearance of Cartels. US demand for illicit drug also affect its Northern neighbor Canada. While we used to see our fair share of illegal marijuana operation in prior decades, we certainly haven't seen the rise of cartels like those in Mexico even though our border is more porous and less guarded. The essential contributor to the existence of Cartel is that the Mexican state is much weaker and exert poor control over the highland region, permitting these non-state entities to break the state's monopoly on violence and supplant some state functions. If US drug market doesn't exist, Mexican cartel would still appear although they would be undertaking alternate illicit activity smuggling some other products.
It's all about community. I want to underscore the role that religion can play in perpetuating organized crime. Of course, it can go the other way entirely, wherein religion can create more healthy communities, but combined with lack of opportunities and ingroup psychology it can make it easier for cartels to gain support from communities, kinda like how the Yakuza dresses themselves up in righteousness to downplay how terrible they are for the regular people of Japan.
heroes?? they're responsible for the "crack epidemic" and policies that jailed black and brown people in marginalized/redlined communities to keep them oppressed and locked up for "cheap"/slave labor. Yea, right... heroes... upsettingly ignorant.
US agricultural subsidies and quotas restricting the South American states from exporting the agricultural goods in which they have a competitive advantage first motivated the switching from civilian agriculture to criminal drug cash crop cultivation. Once the profits were tasted, going back became nigh on impossible, even if the restrictions were lifted, which they still are not. Once again, the unintended consequences of unfair trade/unjust international relations, have reared their ugly head and manifested as unspeakable atrocity and human tragedy.
Amazing analysis, thanks. Is there really any other solution to the drug war than to legalize it? Tax it if you want but legalize it already. There is no stopping it and look at all the chaos it creates in Latam.
Legalization would open up any storefront that sold it into a massive uninsurable litigation risk. Soon as someone OD'ed they'd be sued into chapter 7. Decriminalization offers the only sound path forward. But the real problem with that is all the associated support industries that have accreted over the last 40 years of the drug war. Covering a range from for-profit prisons to court mandated diversion programs to piss test labs & other various LEA support roles. COllectively they represent now the fifth most powerful lobby in Washington DC. They have a deep vested interest in keeping the status quo, and have even gone so far as to astroturf & outright sabotage campaigns for legalization/decriminalization efforts nationwide.
Yes, the lost technology of punishing criminals. Lost because it gets between intelligence agencies and their black budgets. Almost the same reason you won't get legalising literal poison no matter how much lawjick anyone throws at it.
I think it's important to underscore that cartels main profit and business is no longer drug-trafficking, but rather the illegal traffic of immigrants, trafficking of women for prostitution, many other forms of extorsion, such as charging territories and businesses for "protection", setting prices for goods in the market, extraction of minerals, smuggling, illegal business of hydrocarbon resources (coming from the US, no less), among others.
It all depends how you look at things - the biggest mafia in America is the government, but I know they won't chop my fingers off if i owe them money. One thing I know for sure is that the people of El Salvador are much happier, and the violence is practically gone (at least in the areas firmly under government control.) I think the health & safety of citizens is the most important, the other factors like transparency, fair courts etc tend to come later down the line. Those values simply can't exist under threat of violence.
bukele is NOT a good guy, he is literally the opposite, he is a dictator that jails his dissidents and has his population living under terror, people went from fearing gangs to fearing his government which is a cartel tecnically
Yes, I say this all the time, and a lot of Salvadorians get mad, im glad the country and its people are safer, but you always have to be cautious when giving a lot of power to one man, imo the best government would b a dictator that has everyone best interest in mind and is a just and moral person, the issue is how do you guarantee that they will all always remain like that, or how do you know if they really ever were and now that they have power they don't have to pretend anymore, there's always a chance they go down a bad path, there's plenty of people who also think that it's ok to use bad means to get a good end, but idk that's usually a slippery slope where you start to think that only you can be the savior, to wrap things up, there's a reason why the saying "power corrupts" exist
Problem he faces is that MS13 has gone international. No matter what those transnationals can continue flooding cash back to keep local gangs well supported.
People seem to think the Cartels stand outside of Mexican culture and society. Wrong. I lived down there and had business with them years back. The Cartels are fully integrated into Mexican society on all levels and there is no way to eliminate them without a full on civil war.
let me guess, no mention of who profits more from human suffering gun traffickers or drug traffickers, no mention of the markets that support their market, no mention of the inequality of a country having to tackle demand while the other profits from it... i guess ill see... if im wrong ill apologize.
The problem here is the strength the cartels have managed to muster up. The root cause is multi facid and therefore hard to address. At center imo is the Mexican government’s historical negligence of its people. The cartels’ policy of providing public service to the community and ultimately trying to leave innocent civilians out of their conflicts has allowed them to thrive. While the policy doesn’t always follow in practice.. for the most part the general public attitude is don’t mess with them and they won’t mess with you.. Leaving the perceived innocent alone is what helps them operate with impunity. It’s allowed by the local community in absence of a strong central government. The Mexican government has to bear the ultimate responsibility for this mess..
Follow the money. Contraband and arbitrage. Drugs from Mesoamerica flows north, firearms from the US gets auto seared and sent southwards. Legalize and regulate narcotics, and allow Mexicanos to bear arms as citizens against the mob, and there won't be a market dynamics of arbitraging contraband to support the ecosystem of organized crime, and with it, no more cartel brutality nor large scale bribery.
Agree on most points. But obligated to point out that legalization of hard drugs would come with litigative risk. The first OD and whatever storefront provided it would shortly be sued into chapter 11. Decriminalization offers most valid path forward. But the real problem with that is all the associated support industries that have accreted over the last 40 years of the drug war. Covering a range from for-profit prisons to court mandated diversion programs to piss test labs & other various LEA support roles. COllectively they represent now the fifth most powerful lobby in Washington DC. They have a deep vested interest in keeping the status quo, and have even gone so far as to astroturf & outright sabotage campaigns for legalization/decriminalization efforts nationwide.
COIN doctrine sometimes tries to arm up local militia. Sometimes it works, sometimes you have given the Vietcong cell guns. I don't think it applies to Mexico, but these deputized locals have turned on neighbour local rivals sometimes.
@@SusCalvin Agree. But by removing the prohibition we can gradually remove most of the profit incentive. When it's handled as a sort of informal trade like producing illicit liquor it kills the amount of income it can generate. Hillbilly stills are only undercutting retail costs by about a third, making it hard for them to even afford to stay in buisness for very long.
@@brianhirt5027 I could imagine it done with relatively soft drugs like marijuana. But eventually I hit a few substances I can't imagine we want on a legal market.
I am grateful for my momma brining me to the US escaping from all of that chaos , every fellow Mexican I speak with who lived longer in Mexico all love the country but most have some sort of scary experience or know of someone who has went through one
It reveals the violence (or threat of violence) needed for capitalism to operate. The only difference between unlawful and lawful capitalist ventures is who supplies the violence to protect the means of production, trade routes and markets... gangs and private militia, or police and military. This required violence (or threat of violence) is what makes capitalism oppressive.
Oh, the Moscow ogilarchs would be far better. They've got fingers considerably farther and deeper afeild. Just look at all the idjits they can talk or bribe into flooding social media with crap like yours. :)
The cartels largely use military weapons not available in the US cheaply or in large numbers, these come from Mexican law enforcement and military units (eta: and worldwide conflict zones), through theft, corruption, and smuggling. The South Korean grenades the cartels are using also don't come from the US. The relatively *small* number of legally purchased and illegally exported US firearms going into Mexico are doing so right under the noses of the Mexican border agents who are responsible for stopping such things. Pretty tired of hearing people blaming this issue on the US.
I don't feel this kind of report as "blame" so much as "responsibility". If there are action we can take in the US to help the situation, then that's a good thing!
@@velvetmagnetta3074 As long as it can be done without infringing on American's rights and isn't too costly. The vast majority of these weapons do not come from the US. 90% of the ones the FBI (I think?) traced, came from the US, but Mexico only asked for help in tracing something like 10% of them. They themselves know that the real source of the cartel's weapons is not the US.
A more suited translation of 'plata o plomo' would "money or bullet". In spanis plata (silver in english) is direct reference to money rather than silver...
DEA is just corrupt. They make their money from the interdiction enforcement. CIA isn't involved, never has been with the cartels in any buisness involved sort of way. The one reporter who discredited himself & wasted his whole life pandering that conspiracy theory took his own life a few years back. Try harder not to follow his example. If the CIA has any attention on the cartels at all it's to build reports on them and to find out what the GRU that's been trying to worm it's way into the cartels since 2017 wants from them.
Used to go to Mexico in the mid 2000s as kids. Drinking age is 18. People were getting kidnapped at alarming rates, but mostly white people. I miss them TJ tacos tho…
@@racinmoeherdez4434 I've been to Mexico many times and I am a woman traveling alone, and I have never felt threatened. Can't wait to have a taco when I get there this winter.
@@racinmoeherdez4434 as an american living in mexico, i agree. i move around tourism, although i dont stay in tourist areas i like in local communities, i wouldn't randomly go live in a city or rural area where there is no tourism. I actually believe the cancun area is not safe though for anyone, as i was there recently and it seemed unsafe in the local communities and even dealing with taxis etc. Most places i have no problem.
@@AprilSun-yk3yj same!!! here now. people are mostly uneducated on mexico as a whole, especially americans who think its a 24.7 drug party where youll get kidnapped.
Mexico has about 130 million people, the cartel has tens of millions colluding with them. At this point the cartel is part of Mexican culture and society. An honor system to protect civilians is there for some cartels which should be picked up by the others. This video made me realize a few things about the country I am from. Things such as; killing everyone who is in bed with the cartels would kill millions in Mexico, tens of thousands in the US. Mexico not the US have the jails to jail millions more either. The solution has to be multigenerational, the consumers of these substances need to correct their societies so that their people don’t buy drugs, hence the market and demand decrease.
As per JuanDeLaRosaTV, Mexico is just too large a country to pull off what El Salvador pulled off… Not like what Bukele’s done in El Salvador is that great once you peek behind the curtain
Honestly, the US has a far better chance to fix this. The only reason why the cartels are so profitable is simply because of the extremely high demand for drugs in the US. I might be wrong about it, but I once heard that in some South American regions, violence actually decreased after the opiod crisis, since people weren't doing crack as often in the EU and The US.
While there's some situations where Mexico will have to use the military on the Cartel, overall, by this point, there isn't a military solution to Mexico's Cartel problem
Problem is any storefront that provided hard drugs would get sued into insolvency soon as anyone OD'ed or did something stupid while high. Think in terms of decriminalization. ;)
@@jonatand2045 Aspirin has a broad public harm but is cut an exception too. Tobacco limited indemnibility under the grandfather clauses & considerable industry lobbying in the 50s & 60s. Anything legalized now wouldn't have the capacity to coast under a prior legal public use clause. Even if purchasers signed a waiver of limited liability it's likely the courts wouldn't recognize it as legit.
He has referred to himself as a "stuttering Pol" I've never heard anything but an accent though. He had brought on a native English guy that sounded like a high quality AI voice. We all revolted because his voice is a part of the channel, the analysis is great but his voice further makes the videos unique among content like this on RU-vid.
They need to be aware of the eye of Soran. When the eye shifts away from the Middle East it will shift in their direction. When that happens, they better run.
