Where Does US Heroin Come From? Heroin's Hidden Journey
According to the DEA, the majority of the heroin consumed in the United States comes from Mexico (50%) and Colombia (43-45%) via Mexican criminal cartels such as Sinaloa Cartel.
Excerpt:
Nearly all of the heroin fueling a U.S. resurgence enters the country over the 1,933-mile Mexico border, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Customs officers in Nogales have seized more heroin in the first six months of fiscal 2014 than during each of the past three full fiscal years, Agosttini said.
Most is hidden in vehicles crossing through ports of entry like the bustling Nogales gate. Smaller amounts are carried in on foot by men dubbed "mules," hiking established desert smuggling routes. Some is ferried in by plane or boat.
Most is taken to stash houses in cities near the international line — San Diego and Los Angeles; Tucson and Phoenix; and El Paso, Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville, Texas. From there, operatives drive loads along interstate freeways to destinations across the country.
The operations are highly compartmentalized, said Douglas Coleman, special agent in charge of the Phoenix Division of the DEA.
"Nobody knows each other. Nobody knows anything. The transporters, they only know they're supposed to go to Detroit, and when they get to Detroit, they're supposed to call a phone number and await instructions," he said.
Often, payments are handled by other operatives. DEA officials concentrate on identifying and apprehending top-level cartel commanders, but the smuggling networks are specifically engineered to thwart law enforcement.
"When we arrest one, it's hard for us to get the entire picture, because everybody has a role in the organization, but nobody knows what the others' roles are," Coleman said. "When we catch a guy, he doesn't have anything to tell us. All he has is a number."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...surge/9713909/
He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death. Thomas Paine
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