[lit-ideas] more outsourcing
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 14:42:51 -0400
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3291828
Aug. 2, 2005, 8:31AM
Mexican cartels move into meth
Restrictions on pseudoephedrine sales driving U.S. 'cooks' out of
lucrative market
By ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
After Mark Dewayne Ruiz left prison following a two-year stint for
possessing methamphetamine, it didn't take long for the drug to pull
the Montgomery County man back into the criminal justice system.
In June 2004, four months after his release, Ruiz was arrested again
and charged with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Unlike his
first conviction, which investigators believe was linked to a local
meth laboratory, Ruiz's latest conviction was tied to a lab in Mexico.
His case illustrates why methamphetamine abuse is likely to be a
continuing headache for law enforcement and social service agencies
despite a new law restricting sales of cold medication containing
pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient used to manufacture the drug in
local makeshift labs.
Repeat offenders like Ruiz are now looking to Mexican drug
connections to buy the highly addictive crystalline drug known as
"speed," "ice" and "crystal."
"Most of the meth cases we were used to working (in the Houston
area) involved meth manufactured locally," said John Patrick Smith,
the assistant U.S. attorney who secured convictions this spring
against Ruiz and 15 other people involved in a drug conspiracy. "In
this case, we had people from Montgomery County who were connected
to local meth manufacturers, but then they started getting it from
people in Mexico."
No longer a niche drug market controlled by biker gangs or rural
"meth cooks" setting up labs in shacks or trailers, the meth trade
now is ruled by cartels that manufacture 50 percent to 80 percent of
this country's meth in Mexico and California, according to U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency statistics.
The cartels manufacture meth in bulk quantities in "super labs" by
smuggling tons of pseudoephedrine-based pills to Mexico from
factories in Europe, India and Asia.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] more outsourcing
