The Curse of Methamphetamine
in Western Mexico
By Sam Logan
·
Meth, or ice, is
the latest drug to flow from Mexico to the United States, but one criminal faction has drawn a line in the sand, vowing to
rid its turf of anyone involved in the production and sale of this destructive drug.
The men and women who control
narcotrafficking organizations in Mexico are economic actors. They make business decisions based on demand, costs and risk,
like any CEO of a Fortune 500 organization. As 2006 comes to a close, it appears the most obvious business decision made by
many of Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations has been to focus more on supplying the US market with methamphetamine,
known as “ice” or “meth” on both sides of the border. There is, however, one exception.
The Mexican state of Michoacan,
considered the center of the country’s methamphetamine production, is home to an organization that calls itself “La
Familia” (The Family). Based in Morelia, the state capital, La Familia is a criminal organization formed by men born
and raised in Michoacan, and they do not like what methamphetamine is doing to their city and state. The public health effects
the drug has on a city are much worse than the degenerative effects of crack-cocaine. Meth is cheap, produces a longer, more
intense high than cocaine, and compared to cocaine or heroin, meth is much easier to make.
On 19 August 2005, the US
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced a haul of 55 pounds of methamphetamine at the conclusion of Operation Three
Hour Tour. At the time, DEA administrator Karen Tandy claimed the operation had broken up a meth smuggling pipeline between
the United States and Mexico that supplied the drug to close to 23,000 users a month. It is unlikely that she was referring
to Mexican users.
As the production of meth
in Mexico has skyrocketed to meet demand in the United States, the number of Mexican meth addicts has jumped. While it is
difficult to find exact statistics on the number of meth users in Mexico, it is clear that cities along the US border harbor
countless numbers of listless addicts.
“There are just as many
meth addicts in Nogales, Sonora, as there are in Nogales, Arizona, maybe more,” a Mexican national from Sonora, who
asked not to be named, told ISN Security Watch in a recent phone call. “Mexican drug use is a Mexican problem, and meth
is obviously the worse of them all,” he added.
Beyond the border, however,
Morelia has a serious problem that will not be tackled by the Mexican government but by organized crime.
La Familia
La Familia is considered one
of the heaviest armed and best organized factions loyal to the Gulf Cartel, one of Mexico’s top three drug smuggling
organizations. La Familia relies on support from other factions of the Gulf Cartel and repays in kind when requested, but
its primary goal is to “clean” and pacify Michoacan.
According to an article written
by Mexican security analyst Ricardo Ravelo, and published by news and analysis magazine Proceso on 3 December, La Familia
has 4,000 members throughout Michoacan’s 113 municipalities. Each member earns between US$1,500 -2,000 a month. The
organization itself spends some US$1.5 million a month in bribes, has good relations with the state police forces, and only
hires individuals born and raised in Michoacan.
The organization’s head
of public relations, a man who calls himself "The Uncle," said in a 22 November interview that the current focus of his organization
is to pacify Michoacan and remove the scourge of methamphetamine from his state. According to him, meth addicts die within
two years of first becoming addicted to the drug.
The Uncle said his organization’s
principle targets are Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the leader of what many consider to be Mexico’s most powerful
drug smuggling organization, The Sinaloa Federation, and the Beltran-Leyva brothers, three men who work directly under Guzman
to control the Sinaloa Federation’s interests in the cities of Culiacan and Monterrey, and in Sonora.
The Crystal King
Another member of the Sinaloa
Federation, Ignacio Coronel Villareal, is known as "The Crystal King" because of his preference to work with the production
and distribution of methamphetamine. By the end of 2006, he may have worked himself into a top position within the Sinaloa
Federation, running the organization’s methamphetamine operations.
His current network runs from
Morelia along Mexico’s Pacific coast in the states of Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora. The Crystal King’s principle
distribution outlets cross the border at Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona. His string of methamphetamine production labs
run from Morelia north to Nogales.
The drug smuggling route that
runs along the country’s Pacific coast is heavily used by methamphetamine dealing organizations. It is likely most of
them work directly with the Sinaloa Federation so they may pass through controlled areas in Sinaloa, Nayarit and Sonora with
little trouble.
During Operation Baja Kings,
run by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2003, associates of The Crystal King were captured smuggling some 80
pounds of methamphetamine with over 90 percent purity. It was considered the largest single bust of methamphetamine at the
time.
Since 2003, Coronel may have
moved from his traditional center of operations in Guadalajara, Jalisco to Morelia according to the Mexican Attorney General’s
office. Meanwhile, the US government has announced a US$5 million reward for information leading to Coronel’s arrest.
It remains to be seen if La Familia gets to him first.
Long road ahead
If La Familia wants to eradicate
the presence of methamphetamine labs in Michoacan, it must focus on the illicit import of ephedrine, the principle precursor
chemical for methamphetamine production.
On 6 December, Mexican authorities
seized just under 20 tons of precursor chemicals at the Michoacan port of Lazaro Cardenas. This is the largest seizure of
precursor chemicals in at least the past six years
Mexican authorities had received
an anonymous phone call that instructed them to search a specific container off loaded from a Chinese vessel.
Such a large haul of precursor
chemicals is enough material to make a significant amount of methamphetamine. This seizure alone suggests the presence of
massive meth-cooking operations in the mountains of Michoacan.
Authorities commented the
chemicals were on route to methamphetamine super labs in the mountains of Michoacan, where they would be cooked into the drug,
packaged and shipped north for distribution in the United States.
“There is little regulation
of precursor chemicals in Mexico,” a Mexican security specialist who spoke on condition of anonymity, told ISN Security
Watch. “It is likely that Mexico produces many of the chemicals needed for drug production,” he said. “But
many of the chemicals used in the production of methamphetamine also come from Asia,” he added.
Drawing the line
Mexican organized crime dictates
the country’s involvement in the drug trade. Acting as the middlemen between US consumers and Colombian suppliers, Mexican
criminals moved beyond growing marijuana and producing a limited amount of opium tar as Colombian organizations fell under
the weight of Colombian and US law enforcement. The cocaine trade has generated billions for Mexican criminals, and violence
in Mexico’s cities has contributed to a prevailing sense of insecurity in many cities, especially along the northern
border and along the Pacific coast.
As methamphetamine becomes
more popular in the United States, Mexican super labs will continue to supply the demand. The men and women who run Mexico’s
organized criminal factions are economic actors, except, that is, for a small few.
La Familia's recognized strength within
the Mexican criminal underworld will certainly lead to more violence as it battles with the Sinaloa Federation to remove the
latter’s presence from Michoacan. As 2006 comes to a close, it will be said that this year was more violent than the
last. The next may be even more violent, but at least a line has been drawn. Methamphetamine, more than any other drug on
the market, destroys lives and the social fabric of any city crowded with meth addicts. Even Mexican criminals can see that.
——————————
This article was originally published at ISN Security Watch (12/07/06). The International Relations and Security
Network (ISN) is a free public service that provides a wide range of high-quality and comprehensive products and resources
to encourage the exchange of information among international relations and security professionals worldwide.
Sam Logan (www.samuellogan.com) is an investigative journalist who has reported on security, energy, politics, economics, organized
crime, terrorism, and black markets in Latin America since 1999. As well, Logan is the Latin American correspondent for ISN Security Watch. He has just published his first e-book entitled “The Reality of a Mexican Mega Cartel.”
Reprinted with permission from ISN.
