Mexican cartels emerge as top source for U.S. meth

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spini4

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Mexican cartels emerge as top source for U.S. meth

IN VERACRUZ, MEXICO Exploiting loopholes in the global economy, Mexican crime syndicates are importing mass quantities of the cold medicines and common chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine - turning Mexico into the No. 1 source for all meth sold in the United States, law enforcement agents say.

Nearly three years ago, the Mexican government appeared on the verge of controlling the sale of chemicals used to make the drugs, but the syndicates have since moved to the top of the drug trade.

Cartels have quickly learned to use dummy corporations and false labeling and take advantage of lax customs enforcement in China, India and Bangladesh to smuggle tons of the pills into Mexico for conversion into methamphetamine. Ordinary cold, flu and allergy medicine used to make methamphetamine - pills banned in Mexico and restricted in the United States - are still widely available in many countries.

In the past 18 months, Mexican armed forces have raided more than 325 sophisticated factories capable of producing a million pounds of potent methamphetamine a year. Seizures of Mexican methamphetamine along the southwest border have doubled.

"As hard as everyone is working to stop it, the stuff is just going to continue to flow in massive quantities," said Michael Braun, former chief of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration and now with Spectre Group International, a security firm.

In a typical scenario, United Nations investigators say, a legitimate pharmaceutical company in India exports cold pills to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where they are falsely labeled as herbal supplements and shipped to Belize, and then to Veracruz by cargo container.

"Mexico-based trafficking groups have shown tremendous resilience in getting around the precursor chemical prohibitions and controls," said Special Agent Alex Dominguez in the DEA Office of Diversion Control. "They are currently pursuing very sophisticated smuggling techniques. They are trafficking ephedrine-type medicines, just like you would smuggle any high-value contraband such as cocaine or heroin."
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Legal ingredients

Ever resourceful, Mexican cartels have begun to manufacture methamphetamine using legally obtained ingredients - such as phenylacetic acid, or PAA, a honey-smelling chemical used in everything from perfumes, soaps and body lotions to food flavoring and antibiotics.

Traffickers prefer methamphetamine made from cold tablets because it is more potent, but they are increasingly relying on PAA, as resilient Mexican cartels revert to old-school recipes developed by U.S. motorcycle gangs in the 1970s that use phenylacetic acid and its chemical cousins.

At least half of all the methamphetamine seized along the border in the past year was made with precursor chemicals such as phenylacetic acid, U.S. agents told The Washington Post.

read more at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/27/AR2010112703986.html
 
Its mexico, who said anything about quality?

Although i am not in the meth scene, so i wouldn't know. Hopefully i never will, but is it anything like their heroin? Large quantities produced quickly, but definitely not the highest quality available?
 
meth is our current media hot-button. even people friendly with drugs seem to have meth-like paranoia about meth.

will be interesting to see how our relationship with mexico and their relationship with drugs evolves...
 
This is actually an old story. Ever since the DEA started cracking down on bathtub meth labs and enforcing laws related to pseudophedrine sales, homegrown meth became harder to find and the cartels immediately began to pick up the slack. Mexican meth is made in larger laboratories with more proper raw materials since there is less control of these chemicals in Mexico. Although I have never been that big on the drug I have used it in two locations: Montana and Arizona. The first time I tried meth was in Montana and it was a very powdery substance close to the constancy of cocaine and it got me about as high as Ritalin. I also used it with a rancher from Billings (which had a major problem with locally produced meth) which also made me believe it was locally produced. It was garbage. The meth I used in Arizona had a much more crystalline appearance and got me pretty fucking high. Because of the location and the dealers(mexican nationals) I assume this was Mexican produced meth. What would you trust more, some hillbilly making shake and bake in his trailer with only the raw materials that can be purchased from walmart or Mexicans mass producing it with more exact raw materials and less over the counter substitutions? I trust the Mexicans on this one.
 
The world of Amphetamines is an idiosyncratic one. To give an example, in most of the world, American Rx amphetamines notwithstanding, Methamphetamine HCl is the prefered drug of choice in more easily volatalized crystaline form. Before that, in CA, you were getting crank from bikers, et al that used P2P as the precursor and utilized methylamine to make racemic meth. Then, ephedrine which was sold in large quantities over the counter was used as the precursor for the d-meth ( the only isomer produced in such a method). This used KI and Red Phosphorus. Crank ranged from yellow to off white, to dark yellow (penut butter crank- often prized in the 80s), redish crank, purple crystals (which was from the iodine contaminate, actually got some bomb shit that got me all sparked.

In Yaa Baa in SE asia, shabu in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Philipines also known as ice in Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa. P in New Zeland and Western Samoa which are also d-meth intended to be smoked or used IV.

In South East Asia, it is made in Mynamar by sepetarist militant groups out of a chlorinated precursor. That is pressed into pills as Ya Ba with Caffeine (it is called Ya Ma in Cambodia. This is similar to the original formulation when it was legal- why waste the effort and cut it with cafeine when the pills are mostly smoked and occasionally fixed. Why not just sell it a powder with an inert cut?- why go through the effort of pressing it into pills when it will be smoked our shot?

In The European Continent and British Isles, the predominate Amphetamine is racemic amphetamine Sulfate. Why has not meth, which gives a smother, more euphoric, easier to smoke high ( most importantly pseudo is easier to obtain than P2P on the world market. This is primarily produced in Poland- maybe the ketone or phenyl acetic acid is easier to obtain there? The exception is The Czech Republic and Slovakia were Methamphetamine is on the drug scene under the original trade name Pervertin (same name used by the brand of meth Blitzkrieging troops used.) This scene survived through the communist
years somehow through a cottage industry that supplied the meth scensters. Thats why to this day the amphetamine of choice is meth in the former Czechleslovakia.

In Aus, like New Zeland, meth is widely used and associated with more affluent and avante garde users. This is in contrast to the US were it is associated with white trailer trash on the Mainland or spun out ghetto Hawaiian tweakers that make up a majority of Dog the Bounty Hunter's
clientel.

The Final major region with an amphetamine problem is the Persian gulf, in particular Saudi Arabia but also the UAE, Bahrain, probably Kuait and Quatar but the latter is more speculation. It comes in the form Captagon that was a Rx drug on the world market. What Captagon is is a molecule of Dexedrine complexed with Theophilline a methylxanthine like caffeine in mechanism of action but much more potent bronchiodilators. This is produced in Bulgaria and Turkey primarily but is transported to consuming nations which have seen explosive growth of this drug. The question that this brings up is even if you are going to go through the effort of pressing the drugs in a pill press why go through the great chemical hassel of synthesizing dexedrine and theophylline and complexing them together? why not sell dexedrine, or caffeine cut dex or theohilline cut dex if people really like that sort of high and can differentiate it from a substitute approximation.

In Egypt, there is an amphetamine formulation produced illicitly and sold on the black market as erstwhile Rx Maxiton Forte- so there exists to this day a scene for this drug appart from captagon, the primary drug of abuse in the Middle East/ North Africa.

Two Continents merit a special mention. Africa has a growing meth problem in Southern Africa. There it goes by the name "Tik", is in widespread use throughout South Africa and some other southern countries like Nambia, and is displacing Mandrax (methaqualone) as the drug of choice in the Cape town area (Cape flats, West cape, ect...)

Unlike North America that has a meth problem in Canada, USA, and Mexico, In South America and probably not Central America, there is not a thriving amphetamine scene. The theory put forth is that there is lots of cheap coke on that continent. Some countries, like Uruguay and Chile have been used and transhipment points for Peudoephedrine/ ephedrine. However, Argentina is the only country I have read about that has a small meth scene.

Whats the million dollar question. Unlike a drug like heroin were addicts will readily switch from black tar to oxycodone or oxymorphone, dilaudid, or china white, ect... amphetamine abusers seem to prefer the formulations and familiar highs that they are used to- thus Saudis have a taste for Captagon that blackmarketers go to greater lengths to provide. Or amphetamine SO4 through out most of Europe, Thais have there smokable meth in pill form cut with cafeine instead of Shabu prefered in the far east. FYI shabu called either batu or bato in the Phillipines.

Places were AMPHETAMINES got a foothold tend to maintain cottage industry underground scenes. Examples include Japan and Shabu, Crystal mth in San Diego which has a 60 year underground scene. Amphetamines in Sweden which has a scene going back to the 50s. Egypt and Maximon Forte.

So what are the reasons for this phenomena: manufactures passing down same recipes for generations, stimulant afficianados like familiar highs, availability of precursors, a combination?

FYI San Diego, like I said has maybe not the current but historic title of Meth Capital of the World. The DEA once listed the city as a source country. There was a cottage industry synthesizing it in the hills surrounding the Coastal city since at least the late 60s. Bikers in the Bay Area also were producing alot back from the 60s through 90s. By the way, suprising as it may seem- i'm not tweaking. This is a drug to stay because there are litterally hundreds of synthetic routes to get the final product. Wonder if preludin (phenmetrazine), the most pro-sexual amphetamine type stimulant to come along ever will ever make a comeback on the drug scene, and I wonder why it hasn't done so yet.
 
Interesting stuff jspun, being an opiate guy I never knew much about the world speed scene.

This article shows how shitty the economy is currently...even the meth lab jobs are gettin outsourced.
 
I hear you Dankersauce, sad times we live in. Thanks for taking the time to read throgh that stuff and glad you liked it. Should have seen this place in the late 80s, early 90s, the city had a tweak scene that cut cultures: black, hispanic, white trash Aryan types in East county, middle class whites, upper middle class. The Rich and upper middle class in La Jolla (a beverly hills by the sea) and poor in Logan Heights, City Heights, SouthEast San Diego, and Barrio logan were doing heroin and smoking crack/ shooting coke. Outside La Jolla, powdered coke was harder to come by. Also, there was a Bario, very old one, in Solano Beach that had a heroin scene for North County dope fiends. Now that shits everywhere, even sold by white dudes that go to TJ and get oz of stuff to sell up north. Tweak is coming back in a big way and there is still a crack scene downtown (but I won't mention specifically- really have to know were to look- my good friend just got arrested Iheard tonight- fucking cops, possession of a few rocks. He should have grabed his passport and made amade a run for the border, like the Taco bell commercials- safer there.
 
Shit in the South Central ,midwest US, Ice aka crystal meth from Mexico has been aboundant since about 2001 or so,and it ,depending on your source is normally very pure,although depending on the local supply it is cut to various potentcys ,but still is normally really pure.This is really old news to me ,and the "bathtub crank " made by a guy in a trailer with stuff from wal mart as mentioned above can be ,if done by a person with experience as pure as most Ice and is often above 90% pure and is preferred by many in this area who are long time meth users,because it has a more intense rush when injected and smoked ,although ,again it depends on the cook. Most cooks though now find it easier to just buy cheap but highly pure mexican "Ice" instead of spending days and days driving around with others doing the same and buying over priced Psuedoephedrine pills,and bringing unwanted attention from cops by buying the pills,and also obtaining anhydrous ammonia and ether are a lot more difficult,although decent ammonia can be made easily by anyone that knows the easy way to do so,but most ether sold contains lubricants and iso-butane,etc.. where starting fluid 10 years ago was pure ether with nitrous oxide as a propellant,now it must be bought (the ether) from an agri-chemical supply company and that adds scrutiny if too much is bought ,etc..but if done by the older meth cooks who are still alive and out of prison,they can obtain the stuff needed and produce high purity powdered "old school fire" crank aka white powdered meth normally,but again it is so much cheaper and easier to just buy mexican produced crystal meth aka Ice...
 
caseface99 said:
Its mexico, who said anything about quality?

Although i am not in the meth scene, so i wouldn't know. Hopefully i never will, but is it anything like their heroin? Large quantities produced quickly, but definitely not the highest quality available?
Click to expand...

For the most part mexican crystal meth aka Ice is high purity and clean and high quality,unlike their heroin.This being said ,it depends on where you are in the US as to how pure the meth from Mexico is when it gets to you.In the South Central and Midwest,etc.. mexican meth is normally pretty high purity if you live in an area where a lot of it is available,which is basicly the whole region mentioned above..Also it depends on who cut it is,but in general it is high quality shit if you have a decent connection or a bunch of hookups which is common here where so many people of all ages,races,education levels and economic status use meth. Sadly this is the downfall of many people and some go from rich to poor and toothless and some young kids go from poor to dope rich and have a lot of money and cars,etc..till they get arrested that is..and it is only a matter ot time in the meth business before some speed freak gets caught with a needle or two and a gram of meth and snitches out his hookups,and the cops end up working their way up to bigger dealers,the Mexicans being the top importers and wholesalers ,but when they are busted ,5 more come from Mexico or another state and blend in with the local hard working non criminal mexican americans ,and set up business and bring in twice as much as before it seems...
 
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