Mexican Gangs may be moving into Meth

[Jeff White]

No this post is not about illegal immigration and MS13. It's about the fallacy of banning things because people can misuse them. We have a terrible meth problem here in the midwest. I spend a lot of my on duty time on the front lines in the meth war. But I didn't believe for one minute that restricting the sale of OTC cold medicine would fix the problem. Read SGT Higginbotham's final comment. It pretty much sums up the entire situation.

Jeff

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/ne...2E5C74572D658DA6862571250052E39C?OpenDocument

Mexican gangs may be moving into meth
By Matthew Hathaway
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/02/2006

Missouri drug investigators say there are fewer makeshift labs churning out methamphetamine, but they also warn the state's menacing meth problem might be taking a new direction - changing from small-time illegal operations to a fertile market for imported drugs.

Police say imported meth is starting to sneak into Missouri as area drug labs shut down. Just last month, seven Mexican citizens pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of conspiring to distributes large quantities of meth in southwestern Missouri. Police in the St. Louis area say they expect to see similar cases in the area as organized crime, particularly Mexican drug-trafficking groups, take over the local meth trade.

While Missouri continues to lead the nation in meth lab busts, the numbers are declining. Police reported more than 2,200 lab seizures last year. Figures released Wednesday by the Missouri Highway Patrol show a statewide 19 percent drop compared with 2004.

Officials credit a new state law restricting the over-the-counter sale of certain cold pills that provided a cheap ingredient for meth. In each of the last five months of 2005, raids on meth labs declined by more than 40 percent over the same period in 2004. The cold-pill law went into effect July 15.

According to crime statistics, Midwestern states now lead the nation in the number of meth labs raided by police. Rounding out the top five states are Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee and Iowa. Missouri and the eight states it borders were home to 54 percent of all known meth labs last year.

Illinois climbed from fifth place in 2004 to second place, but the number of labs discovered there dropped to 951 from 1,005.

More than 30 percent of Missouri's meth labs were found in six St. Louis area counties, and four of those counties were among the top five in the state. Jefferson County led the state with 259 raids and seizures, and St. Charles County finished second with 136 incidents. Police counted 104 raids and seizures in Franklin County, 94 in St. Louis County, 48 in Lincoln County, 45 in Warren County and six in St. Louis city.

None of the St. Louis area counties saw a large drop in the number of labs. In fact, St. Charles and Lincoln counties had an increase, and the patrol said the Jefferson County number was constant.

Last year, meth cooks in the St. Louis area could simply cross into Illinois to get large quantities of cold pills. That's not the case now.

Cold-pill laws

In outstate Missouri, authorities credit large decreases in meth labs to the restrictions on sales of cold pills. State law designates most over-the-counter pseudoephedrine medications as controlled substances. That means consumers who want to buy Sudafed and many other decongestants now can get them only at pharmacies, and buyers must agree to have their identities recorded in logs that can be inspected by police.

This year a similar measure went into effect in Illinois. Now, more than a dozen states - including every one bordering Missouri - limit how much pseudoephedrine can be sold to a customer. Store clerks must also record the identities of people who buy the cold pills.

Illinois' new law eliminated easy access to pseudoephedrine for meth cooks in the St. Louis area, according to Cpl. Jason Grellner, commander of the Franklin County drug task force.

"I can think of only one lab we found all last month," Grellner said Wednesday. He said that, typically, the unit would find 12 to 15 labs in February.

Sgt. Gary Higginbotham, commander of the Jefferson County drug task force, said meth cooks routinely drive as far as Georgia for cold pills. He said his unit, the most successful in the country at finding meth labs, still found several labs every week. The unit raided 23 labs last month. Last year, the task force averaged about 30 lab raids per month.

Black market action

Police say those labs that continue to operate are often supplied by so-called pill brokers, who amass thousands of pills and either sell them to drug cooks or trade the pills for finished meth. That means those Missourians who continue to make meth tend to cook larger batches to cover the increased cost of production.

"There's still a small number of clandestine labs operating," Grellner said. "But the days of the normal 500-to-1,000-pill (batch) are gone. People are either cooking very small amounts - enough for them to stay high for the day - or they're investing a lot of money and paying a premium for bulk quantities of pills."

Large quantities of pseudoephedrine pills are now sold on the black market for as much as $1 per pill, Grellner said. In most stores, consumers can buy a 24-pack of the medication for less than $4.

More troubling is what police say is the increasing presence in Missouri of large, Mexican drug syndicates that can import meth made at massive labs south of the border. Though meth use in Missouri has been widespread for more than a decade, the proliferation of labs kept the street price of meth low. With little profit margin in meth, organized crime largely stayed out of the trade.

But now that's changing.

Grellner said that a highly potent, crystallized meth called "ice" was flooding into Franklin County and that he believed the drugs were coming from Mexico, or from Mexican drug groups based in California.

Police say that's what happened last year in western Missouri, which saw the biggest drop in the number of labs raided by police in 2005.

In recent weeks, seven Mexican citizens have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from Operation Lucky Charm, a federal investigation of a conspiracy to distribute large amounts of meth in southwestern Missouri. More than 10 pounds of meth - enough to keep scores of addicts high for months - were seized last year in arrests stemming from the investigation.

Police here say that's exactly what they're preparing for. If addicts can't make their own supply, they'll find the money to buy it wherever they can find it.

"The pill law is helpful for us, no doubt about it," said Higginbotham. "But it isn't going to stop the meth problem. You can legislate a lot of things, but you can't legislate out demand."

[email protected] 636-500-4108

 

[ArmedBear]

Hey thanks a lot to the midwest.

Like we don't have enough trouble around here already without meth smuggling, too.

Why in hell would anyone do meth anyway? And if you as a drug consumer are choosing from among various smuggled drugs, aren't there much better options?

 

[IV Troop]

"Mexican gangs may be moving into meth
By Matthew Hathaway
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/02/2006"


That might be newsworthy if this was 1989.

I have spent the last 10 years dealing with and interdicting meth that is smuggled by mexican organized crime. Here is a news flash" The mexicans RULE the meth trade in the U.S. It is only going to get worse, much worse.

Of course saying that will get me flamed as a racist by people who do not know any better.

Let me see if I can find some recent pics.

 

[Jeff White]

ArmedBear,
IIRC you guys in Southern California started the meth thing decades ago. Produced in the same Mexican labs referenced in the article and distributed by outlaw motorcycle gangs for the most part.

It really hit here when recipes were posted on internet sites and it was discovered that it was easy to make. The stuff they cook up around here is very addictive. And the tweakers get dangerous after a while. Traditional enforcement methods (using confidential informants to make controlled buys) have been pretty ineffective because everyone was just making his own for personal use and the use of his friends.

Now we've cut off the easy access and instead of solving the problem, it just transfers it. The demand is here now.

In this area, meth is the poor white man's drug of choice and crack and heroin is big on the black community.

Jeff

 

[Cosmoline]

Meth got its start as a drug of choice for long haul truckers, bikers and others who wanted to stay frosty on the long western highways. As with almost all illegal drugs, there's a big difference between the anti-drug hype and reality. In measured doses it helps to keep people awake and makes them more safe, not less safe. The Air Force has been using it for a long time during warfare to ensure pilots don't get groggy. I dare say if people knew how to use it safely thousands of lives could be saved every year from folks who fall asleep at the wheel--a far greater problem than drunk driving these days.

The problem comes, as with everything else, when people who have other personal or emotional problems use the drug as a psychiatric medication to fight their depression or other mental problems. It can be used to give an artificial high and kick the user's systems into overdrive. But of course if it's overused it can become addictive and burn out the body, quite literally.

The pressures of law enforcement have made it much less safe, not more safe. It's the same old story. And we've even got a bunch of "refer madness" style ads out there to scare people away.

 

[IV Troop]

 

[IV Troop]

 

[Cosmoline]

Looks like they took some samples of the cache there.

Man, that's creepy looking. Even the Malinois looks buzzed. Of course that breed runs on natural meth.

 

[ArmedBear]

Cosmoline, I think you're confusing Crystal Methamphetamine with Amphetamine pills.

Amphetamines and Cocaine are or have been used medically. Crack cocaine and Crystal never were and never would be. You're right that they are the product of law enforcement driving the price up.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Oh, gosh! Maybe we should ask Congress to declare a War on Drugs.

 

[12-34hom]

IV Troop - Great work - Here in Iowa meth lab busts have gone way down since law was changed for purchase of precursors - ephedrine etc...

ISP has been getting some very large seizures of meth and cash on Interstate 80, coming up from the southwest.

12-34hom.

 

[Art Eatman]

I'm not in law enforcement, but I've heard for years about production of meth in the big labs in Mexico.

The Mexican Mafia is merely adding a new sales territory, is all...

Art

 

[cidirkona]

Should I be scared that our hardworking policemen have been replaced by people from my old Lego set?

Considering meth addiction is a life long affliction, I think it should be punishible along the same lines...

-Colin

 

[Sindawe]

ArmedBear: I think you may be in error. Methamphetamine CAN be legally consumed provided the user as a prescription for Desoxyn. While the legal from is a chloride salt, the active molecule is the same.

Crystal Meth

Desoxyn

Moving production of meth outside the U.S. (outsourceing?) only serves to further enrich criminal gangs. :banghead:

 

[migoi]

As the story...

at this link: http://starbulletin.com/2003/09/07/news/story4.html shows this is not a "new" turn of events.

Hawaii has a pretty severe meth (called 'ice' here) problem but very few meth labs (at least we never see any getting busted). One of the largest ice dealers was busted and he acknowledged he got his supply from "labs in Los Angeles allegedly linked to Mexican drug cartels."

My memory is that meth really took off here when the police departments "Operation Green Harvest" efforts proved to be too successful. OGH was the polices high profile efforts to find and take down marijuana farms thoughtout the islands. Since pot grows here pretty well all year round and there is quite a bit of forested land to hide the gardens in, the drug of choice was usually pot. It was cheap. As OGH succeeded the price of pot climbed and cheap highs from meth coming in from the far east started taking over. This more addictive drug soon overtook pot as the primary illegal drug here.

We've seen people from all socio-economic levels end up on the wrong end of the police blotter. Pretty sad.

migoi

 

[ArmedBear]

I stand corrected.

And it must be one HELL of an effective diet pill!

 

[Jeff White]

Cosmoline said;

The pressures of law enforcement have made it much less safe, not more safe. It's the same old story. And we've even got a bunch of "refer madness" style ads out there to scare people away.

The next time I have to deal with a parnoid tweaker I'll just call you and you can fly down from Alaska and explain to everyone that it's really just government proaganda that makes them do those things. The you can take him into custody.

We're not talking about truckdrivers popping a white cross tablet or housewives trying to lose weight and get their figure back after having kids. We're talking about a highly addictive substance that allegedly gives such a high that they are willing to do anything to regain. The tweakers, the ones who use it hard and stay up for 7 days running, the ones who are out mowing their lawns at 11pm (and no the sun doesn't shine at that time of night at these latiudes), the ones who become so paranoid they booby trap their homes, cover their windows with aluminum foil, stash weapons all over the place (ok I know that many THR members might fit that profile based on what they post here ) are dangerous. Not only to the police, but to their families and neighbors. It is a problem.

But my point is, the demand for meth is here in this part of the country now. According to the people who specialize in treating addicts, it's one of the worst addictions to kick, so the demand is going to be here for a long time. And drying up local production by restricting access to psudephedrine is only going to cause someone else (in this case Mexican gangs, who hadn't been operating in many areas around here in the past) to move in and fill the demand. And with that, we have a whole new set of problems. The tweaker lifestyle isn't compatible with remaining employed and the meth that the tweakers need, that they used to be able to produce themselves rather cheaply will become much more expensive. And where do you think they will get the money to buy the meth they need? Property crimes will go up. Violent crimes will go up as the gangs compete for territory....the only thing restricting psudephedrine has done has cut down the number of labs to clean up. I'm not sure the cost to society as a whole will go down. In fact it may go up.....

Jeff

 

[longeyes]

How much of the rural economy in America is meth-dependent? We're not in Kansas any more, Toto.

 

[Cosmoline]

I've known about tweakers for a long time. This is not a new problem in the west. I actually knew many of them personally when I was out in the valley. It's a stupid thing to do to your system, but I've never known them to be any more dangerous than the average Alaskan. The best approach is to simply leave them alone, but for some reason our government has a hard time doing that.

 

[nucstl1]

Meth-Heads or as we called them "Poot-Heads" are some of the worst drug offenders out there. They will steal anything, and the more they snort the worse they get...I guess that is the result of snorting drano and other household chemicals. Funniest thing I ever heard about related to meth was when I attended college in Quincy Il. Quincy, a small town on the border of Missouri, was and probably still is crawling with these freaks. When I was in college, there was an explosion and subsequent fire in an apartment almost across the street from the police station. It was kinda ridiculous.....Didn't know who was a bigger joke...they smart guy cooking the crap upwind from the police department....or the guys down wind that had no clue......Anyway, since then I guess this they have cracked down pretty good. A friend who stayed there as LEO, told me in the fall that they had to hire spanish speaking officers due to the influx.

 

[IV Troop]

"I've known about tweakers for a long time. This is not a new problem in the west. I actually knew many of them personally when I was out in the valley. It's a stupid thing to do to your system, but I've never known them to be any more dangerous than the average Alaskan. The best approach is to simply leave them alone, but for some reason our government has a hard time doing that."

"Leave them alone" You have got to be kidding me! Crankers cannot function for long in normal society, IE, be a productive member and contribute to society. Before long they have sold everything they own to feed the habit and have gone from a "harmless" snort at a party to using snorting every day to smoking it then finally they start shooting it. This is the beginning of the end.

They have to feed the habit somehow which means they have to resort to other crimes. The VAST majority of home and buisness burglaries are done to support a habit. Then of course there is the armed robberies.

Nope, "just leaving them alone" is akin to sticking your head in the sand. You will eventually have to deal with them whether you like it or not. Now where you deal with them is the issue. Will it be on the street through the course of proactive narcotics enforcement or in your childs bedroom at 2 in the morning when they do a "hot" burg?

Since they are extremely paranoid and dillusional, merely reasoning with them is probably not going to work when you are standing between them and what they want. I have seen crankers jump off of buildings, through glass windows and everything else.

BTW, a normal person would be scared to death if a 240 pound aggressive cop is yelling at them to drop the gun or knife or whatever while pointing a machine gun at them. Not always the case with a tweaker.

Reason goes right out the window and the fight is on. No when it comes to meth, very few people have a clue to the ugliness of the battles that are fought every night to protect decent folks from the most insidious and destructive drug to ever hit the U.S.

In November I stopped to see what a guy was doing who looked out of place one night in a neighborhood. I asked to see some ID and in a flash the guy pulled an eight inch fixed blade knife from behind his back and tried to stab me in the face. Needless to say the fight was on. Anyways in the end he told a jailer that he thought I was going to take his meth pipe which he had just loaded up.

For all you guys who have just thought "hell, I would have just shot him", sometimes you are too close and things happen too quick to get a gun out, sometimes you have no choice but to go hands on, if only to create distance.

He was willing to kill me so as not to lose his fix for the night.

I do not think we can ignore that kind of behavior. What do you think someone like that is capable of if caught by Suzy Homemaker and her 3 year old she just picked up from daycare when the cranker is in their home?

It is a WAR, I have the scars to prove it.

 

[Cosmoline]

Crankers cannot function for long in normal society, IE, be a productive member and contribute to society.

I agree this is true in the extreme cases, but so what? There's no obligation to contribute to society. I don't really want them to try, frankly.

This business about how they're all going out and robbing stores is more fantasy to fuel the war on (some) drugs. Criminals on meth are still criminals, and those not disposed to rob don't go out and rob because of meth. The ones I know of are far more likely to get beat up and robbed than do it themselves. Besides, plenty of them do a lot of productive work when they're high. You'd be surprised at how many consumer goods got to where they were going thanks to a trucker on crank!

And all this about LEO's protecting me from ravening meth wolves is a lot of hogwash. There virtually *IS* no law enforcement where I lived out in the north Susitna valley. Once you're off the highway, you're in the wild west. But the tweakers posed no greater threat than anyone else. At most they're an annoyance. The propaganda that anyone who does meth is an instant animal, out there with no self control trying to slaughter everyone is complete hogwash. And it's not even new hogwash. It's the same swill the state has been serving up for 75 years in its efforts to protect the monopoly of the big drug companies.

The only neighbor who worried me was the dry drunk down the street who'd been sober for years. He'd go on periodic rages, fueled by nothing but his nasty personality. The tweakers are at least good comic relief. And personally I've had fewer problems with them than the local drunks, who always try to paw at you.

It can be sad to see someone waste their lives on any drug, but it's their choice. And if we've learned anything over the past fifty years it's that draconian law enforcement doesn't help anything. You can arrest and imprison addicts, but all you're doing is sending them to crime school at tax payer expense. Just leave them alone and pick the body up when they finally burn out. It's their life, not yours.

In November I stopped to see what a guy was doing who looked out of place one night in a neighborhood.

Maybe you should have left him alone, since his great crime was looking "out of place." Are you waging a war on those who appear out of place?

 

[Koobuh]

Tweakers are simply amazing...

I work at a local native casino, and we get tweakers all day long, but our nightly influx is usually just after last call (1:00 AM). They stream in from all the bars, etc. and gamble the few bucks they could scrape together until we kick them out at 4AM.
You can easily tell who they are. Constantly moving, glazed eyes, often scars on the face and arms. Inevitably lower class whites.
It's really sad. The most addictive and life ruining controlled substance... is the cheapest and most available.

 

[IV Troop]

Wow Cosmoline,

I guess all the whacked out dopers and gangbangers I have been dealing with have all been part of a grand fantasy. Not to mention armed robberies and burglaries where I have tracked down the guys, arrested them, then during the interviews been informed by them that they were doing burgs just to support their habit. It must be part of my career long fantasy.

By the way, I like the euphamism about truckers wanting to "stay frosty on the long western highways".

Our FAMILIES travel those same western highways with those drugged out truckers. That you find it acceptable for people to operate a giant motor vehicle capable of incredible death and destruction to the innocent motoring public while high on methamphetamine is disturbing to say the least.

 

[Biker]

Well folks, the Mexicans have been supplying most of the meth in the west for quite awhile now, interstate *and* local, if you disregard the 'mom and pop' home labs.
Biker