Where do Mexico’s drugs come from?
After exploring the recent death of Mexico’s antinarcotics chief, I decided to explore where much of the funding for Mexican drug cartels comes from. The latest killing of Edgar Millán Gómez (see my previous blog post) has now been linked to a Sinaloan drug cartel (see: NY Times article) and occurred shortly after several of its members were arrested by Millán Gómez.
I found two intriguing maps in the University of Texas at Austin’s Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection. Both are from a 2001 Drug Enforcement Agency report detailing the cultivation of illegal drugs in Mexico. The map on the top shows the cultivation of cannabis; the map on the bottom shows poppy growth.
The states with the highest cultivation rates, Sinaloa (upper-left), Guerrero (bottom left), and Michoacán (bottom left, next to Guerrero) are also the homes of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartels, such as Los Negros from Sinaloa. Michoacán is also the home of Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, and the sight of recent drug battles.
Thus, Mexican drug cartels produce significant quantities of marijuana and heroin, which are then shipped to the world’s largest consumer of illegal drugs – the United States. Notably, most of the cocaine in the U.S. is produced in South America (Colombia, Bolivia, Peru) and then funneled through Mexico in conjunction with local cartels.
May 24th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Poppies and marijuana also are grown in abundance in Guatemala. Connections between Guatemalan and Mexican narco-traffickers has grown much stronger recently because Guatemala provides many trouble-free corridors for transmission of cocaine from Colombia, almost fool-proof trafficker protection by corrupt politicians and police, and relatively safe refuges for Mexican traffickers (the saying in the streets in Guatemala is, if you want to commit a crime, do it in Guatemala because you will never be caught),
June 26th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I looked around and saw that the drug problem is us in the US. Our culture has been deteriated by the far left and sub cultures. Our country is going the way of the Roman Empire. When we elect Presidents that are inexperienced and with large Egoes, what do we expect but a gradual decline in our country, and the Presidancy is sold to the highest bidder.
I am 92 years old and thank God I will be leaving in ten years.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I agree that the US drug culture is the root cause of the problem. American demand and money is the source of funding for these cartels. Drugs used to be legal from the time of founding past World War I and I believe were formally outlawed under Nixon.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Any documentation or reference to the claim that the US is the largest consumer of illegal drugs? I have searched for online for an official study and reference to this claim to no avail. If anyone can help, please post it here thanks.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:20 am
The CIA World Fact Book shows here that the US is the largest consumer of cocaine: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2086.html