...some JUSTICE!!! (That's capitalized, AND three exclamation points)
Ever since coming back east, I have been warning law enforcement about the ravages of meth. Every once in a while I get a call from some cop who comes across it for the first time. They ask, "How much does meth go for, how much does an ounce of meth cost?" I always say something like, "Wow, an ounce - that would cost like a 63" flat screen TV, or a high-end mountain bike. Most people never see an ounce, all at once. And really, I don't think it gets measured, its not like coke or heroin. But a dime bag would cost about a car stereo, or a cell phone."
Police Seize More Than $50 In Wire From Nation's Wealthiest Crystal Meth Dealer
For a truly sad story CLICK HERE ***Warning MATH content***
1 comment:
There are the clan labs, but a lot of it is coming up from Mexico these days. The Sinaloa Federation is producing a lot of it. Their conflict with La Familia Michoacan stems in part from LFM's dominance in the meth market in the US.
Even though there are regulations about precursor purchases in Mexico, they're easily circumvented. Meth is less expensive to distribute from a Mexican perspective than, say, cocaine. They have to buy coca from Columbia (grown in Brazil, Peru and Colombia) and have that overhead to eat if the drugs are stolen, confiscated or damaged on their way to market.
Though the large scale purchase of precursor chemicals, they cut down the unit cost (measured in pounds not kilos for some unknown reason) so that a seizure here and there doesn't impact the bottom line so hard.
Today they are sending loads of meth and cocaine north in smaller quantities (under 500 lbs usually) in the hopes of not sustaining losses that dropping a ton or more would cause. The exception to that is the Sinaloa Federation - and they get almost all their narcotics to market. The reader can hazard a guess as to how they're doing that.
They do have pricepoint competition with clandestine labs in the US but it costs a lot more to produce an equivalent amount in the US (back to bulk precursor purchases).
I'm not a narcotics expert, but I consult a great deal in Mexico and the issue even comes up in polite conversation. The nation depends on narcoprofits to survive. About 25% of the economy (including trickle down) comes from narcotrafficking. Shutting down the flow would cause the nation to "fail" in an epic way.
Today narco dollars are being used to make hard money loans to failing legitimate businesses - then the businesses have a new partner. This is a widespread problem. (sorry for the rant)
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