that’s the top estimated amount Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking organizations make in wholesale profits annually, according to a 2009 Justice Department report, the latest year for which that calculation was available. The department’s 2011 report said that Mexican traffickers control the flow of most of the cocaine, heroin, foreign-produced marijuana and methamphetamine in the United States. There are seven cartels in Mexico vying for control of smuggling routes into the United States, a bountiful sellers’ paradise. South of the border it costs $2,000 to produce a kilo of cocaine from leaf to lab, the DEA said. In the U.S., a kilo’s street value ranges from $34,000 to $120,000, depending on the ZIP code where it’s pushed. “How much is enough to the cartels? How many billions justify how many deaths to them?” said DEA special agent and spokesman Jeffrey Scott. “Mexico is their home, too. Their families live there. At what point does the violence cripple their ability to conduct business?” Scott has been with the DEA for 16 years. Between 2006 and 2011, he led a Tucson, Arizona, strike force that fought smugglers bringing tons of methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin and cocaine across the border. By the time the drugs reach the low-level street dealer, they have been through many middle managers in the cartels’ purposely confusing web of workers. “The people who are arrested will sometimes say, ‘Sinaloa who?’” he said, referring to the cartel that originated in the Mexican Pacific Coast state and has the strongest presence in the United States. Dealers usually don’t know or care where their product comes from, Scott said. He said he doubts the tens of millions of Americans who use illegal drugs do, either. Get Shorty! Image via Wikipedia From foot to head he is short/But he is the biggest of the big If you respect him, he’ll respect you If you offend him, it will get worse – Lyrics to narcocorrido ”El Chapo” by Los Canelos de Durango “El Chapo” (Shorty) is the boss of the Sinaloa cartel. In his last-known photo, the 5 foot 6 inch son of a poor rural family wears a schoolboy haircut and a plain-colored puff-coat. Despite having virtually no formal education, Forbes estimates Joaquin Guzman Loera is worth $1 billion. This month the U.S. Treasury declared him the most influential trafficker in the world. He has eluded capture for more than a decade, is known for coming up with original ways to smuggle, like putting cocaine in fire extinguishers, and is suspected of helping Mexicans and Colombians launder as much as $20 billion in drug profits. The legend of “El Chapo” began to grow when he escaped, reportedly on a laundry cart, from a Mexican prison in 2001. He seemed even more untouchable last summer when his 20-something beauty queen wife (who has dual nationality) crossed into California to give birth to twins. The birth certificates leave blank the space for the father’s name, and she apparently hustled back across the border. It’s anyone’s guess where El Chapo is. Mexican President Felipe Calderon wondered last year if he was hiding out in the United States. Guzman is the drug war. Perpetuating the image of the bulletproof bad guy keeps it alive. YouTube is full of narco snuff. Those with weak stomachs should avoid the wildly popular El Blog del Narco, which posts gory photos of killings and confessions by drug lords. Cartels make their own movies, glorifying the business. The films are sold in street markets in Mexico and the United States. Some say it’s no coincidence that the first beheadings of Mexican police officers occurred in 2006, when videotapes of al Qaeda beheadings were shown on Mexican television. Since then, headless corpses have become a cartel calling card. In a single week in September, a sack of heads was left near an Acapulco elementary school and a blogging reporter’s headless corpse was dumped in front of a major thoroughfare in the Texas border town of Nuevo Laredo. Her head, along with headphones and computer equipment, was found in a street planter. A note left at the scene, one of dozens of journalist killingsin the past five years, read: “OK Nuevo Laredo live on the social networks, I am La Nena de Laredo and I am here because of my reports and yours …” The message was signed with several Z’s, indicating the slaying was the work of another major cartel, the Zetas. One of the first cartels to use the internet, the Zetas are perhaps the savviest propagandists in the drug war. They’re known for effective recruitment tactics. A few years ago, they appealed to the destitute in a nation where the minimum wage is $5 an hour, but millions have no work. Banners were dropped from bridges in major cities. “Why be poor?” the signs said. “Come work for us
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