Cartel Corner: A Secret Look at a Mexican Cartel’s Low-Tech, Multimillion-Dollar Fentanyl Operation

A Secret Look at a Mexican Cartel’s Low-Tech, Multimillion-Dollar Fentanyl Operation

 

via: Active Response Training

A valuable look at how Fentanyl is mixed with heroin and smuggled into the USA by Mexican drug cartels.  Besides providing an accurate summary of what’s happening, you should additionally note two things:

1- I’ve been writing for some time about how as Americans lose faith in government institutions, private powers will rise up to take the place of the government.  We see it now in America with the wealthy hiring private security to patrol the neighborhoods where they live.  Here is yet another example.

The video shows how the drug cartels have completely supplanted the local government and are now providing many of the available jobs and social services. The cartels serve a role as a type of surrogate government enterprise. Take a look at the video at the 5:10 time stamp.  Those are cartel-owned cemeteries (which also serve as high end party spots) in Sinaloa.  Some of the crypts are bigger than my house.  All provided by the drug cartels.  “Don’t have money for a funeral?  No worries.  Work for the cartel and you will be forever immortalized in a place like this.”

I believe something similar will be coming to the USA as well.  The criminal street gangs are already a more powerful force than the police/government in many urban population centers.  This power shift will increase with diminishing tax revenues, fewer government support programs, and a “defunding” of the police.

2- Take a look at how the cooks are handling the fentanyl at around the 1:10 time in the beginning of the video.  No respirators.  No gloves.  They are dumping pounds of the stuff into the boiling cauldron of heroin precursors without any protective gear.  No adverse effects.  Now you see why I’ve always doubted the reports of cops passing out and requiring Narcan for getting a single grain of fentanyl powder on their hands.  The “epidemic” of accidental police fentanyl overdoses is utter bullshit.

When the cartels have more influence than the government, people’s loyalty shifts to the cartel over the historical “powers that be.”  This power shift will happen here too.  Some experts call it the “Cartel-ification” of America.  When criminal gangs step up and begin providing more benefits to local residents (jobs, infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and charity for the poor) than the government provides, who do you think the people will support?

Cartel Corner #48: El Chapo’s Top Hitman Caught by Mexican Authorities

Joaquín Guzmán Loera wasn’t the only major organized crime figured captured Friday in Los Mochis. His chief of sicarios — the cartel’s main hitman — was also taken in by elements from the Mexican Navy.

His name is Iván Gastelum Cruz, also known as El Cholo Iván, and he was also a fugitive. Gastelum had escaped from prison in 2009 by using a party taking place inside a state prison as a diversion. And he stayed on the loose until Friday.

He was a hitman, a killer. In fact he was in charge of all the Sinaloa Cartel’s killers.

Like El Chapo, Gastelum is something of a legend in narco circles. The group Enigma Norteño immemorialized him in song, with a part of a corrido in his honor going, “Snitches are never forgiven here, because traitors cannot be tolerated . . . He goes by another nickname, el Cholo Iván.”

But Gastelum is no romantic figure. He is in charge of murders for the most powerful drug-trafficking organization in the hemisphere, the Sinaloa Cartel.

Gastelum was caught the first time in 2005. Ten firearms were found in his possession at the time. The investigation was carried out poorly, however, and el Cholo Iván was released by a court order.

But in 2008, he was arrested again, this time after an armed confrontation with soldiers.

He spent a year in prison. Then, on Aug. 9, 2009, he escaped.

The hunt for him was vigorous, and carried out mostly in Sinaloa. He was spotted at least three times, and in 2010, 2014 and 2015 there were firefights as authorities tried to move in on him.

Mexican Navy/Mexican government Weaponry and equipment recovered during the operation to capture Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Each time, it was thought he was injured. But each time he escaped.

In 2013, narco-banners began to be displayed in various parts of Sinaloa, accusing the Army of having killed Susana Flores who had won the Miss Sinaloa crown in 2012. Susana and Iván were a couple. The banners are assumed to be the work of El Cholo.

Gastelum Cruz remained a fugitive until Friday (Jan. 8). He was targeted in the same raid on a Los Mochis home as El Chapo, tried to escape in the same underground drainage system as El Chapo, and soon caught in the same stolen car.

Gastelum’s capture may is not as much of an image-booster for the Mexican government as El Chapo’s, but it is a significant a blow to the Sinaloa organization.

Read the Original Article at Business Insider

 

The “Plague” of the Active Shooter

Once again the headlines scrolled at the bottom of the screen “Student in Ohio goes on shooting spree at local school”…My stomach turned..”That coward S.O.B” I muttered under my breath. I was angry and agitated. The plague of the active shooter scenario had raised it’s ugly head once again, at the end result would be 3 dead, 2 wounded.  Needless death and suffering at the hands of a confused 17 year old kid and a .22 Caliber Pistol. Yeah, I said a .22 Caliber Pistol..never under estimate any caliber and it’s ability to inflict damage.  It should be noted that when this incident was first reported, there was only one killed and three wounded.

The ability to counter/escape an active shooter scenario should top the list of the Civilian Operator’s skill set and tool box “TO DO” list. Statistically, you or your kids stand a better chance of being in one of these situations than being robbed at gunpoint simply because of the pure randomness of the event, and as such, you have a harder time countering it due to that random “X” factor. It could be at your kids school, the mall, the gas station, etc, etc….

So how does the Civilian Operator train for such an event?  Can you really “Train” for such a random, violent event? The short answer is YES. You can apply a set of principles that will apply to any given situation, no matter the environment, IF you make those principles simple enough to work under stress, easy to recall and VIOLENT enough to counter the level of violence you are up against. Now, before we go any further on the topic of  kicking somedody’s ass, let me go back to what I mentioned earlier..the word ESCAPE. Not a very popular word in the training community..people seem to think that using the word “escape” in an active shooter or assault situation  implies cowdardice or impotence of some kind..I call  BULLSHIT!! Let me break it down this way..ESCAPE=SURVIVE, SURVIVE=ME HUGGING MY KIDS AGAIN..PRETTY SIMPLE.

 

OK, so now we have covered the escape part, so what if this asshole (with a gun) does not want to let you leave? Let’s say he is intent on that purpose alone..to kill you stone dead. Now we have to come to that part about getting violent..I mean “Dog Ass” mean violent. The only way a man can train for that is to put himself in an “ass puckering” situation pretty frequently..a situation that makes you uncomfortable and SCARED. A situation that MAKES you ACT, not analyze your options, not consider where you are in the OODA loop, but ACT quickly and Violently and destroy your attacker. Remember this: “A Simple Plan, well rehearsed and VIOLENTLY executed offers the best chance for success.”