{"id":145557,"date":"2014-05-16T10:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=145557"},"modified":"2014-05-13T11:55:43","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T15:55:43","slug":"legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Pot In The US Is Choking Out Mexican Cartels"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Article:<\/strong> Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels<\/a> by Mary O’Hara in Vice.<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> Marijuana has accounted for nearly half of all total drug arrests in the US for the past 20 years, according to the FBI\u2019s crime statistics. And according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), a large portion of the US illegal drug market is controlled directly by Mexican cartels. The DOJ\u2019s National Drug Intelligence Center, which has since been shut down, found in 2011 that the top cartels controlled the majority of drug trade in marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine in over 1,000 US cities.<\/p>\n

Now, those cartels and their farmers complain that marijuana legalization is hurting their business. And some reports could suggest that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is more interested in helping to protect the Mexican cartels\u2019 hold on the pot trade than in letting it dissipate.<\/p>\n

Seven Mexican cartels have long battled for dominance of the US illegal drug market: Sinaloa, Los Zetas, Gulf, Juarez, Knights Templar, La Familia, and Tijuana. While some smaller cartels operate only along border regions in the Southwest and Southeast, giant cartels like Sinaloa have a presence on the streets of every single region.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

San Francisco now has an unofficial crack pipe distribution program. Read more now.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that pot farmers in the Sinaloa region have stopped planting due to a massive drop in wholesale prices, from $100 per kilo down to only $25. One farmer is quoted as saying: \u201cIt\u2019s not worth it anymore. I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization.\u201d<\/p>\n

VICE News talked to retired federal agent Terry Nelson, a former field level commander who worked to prevent drugs from crossing the southern border. Nelson said that before medical marijuana and state legalization in Washington and Colorado, about 10 million pounds of pot were grown in the US every year. But 40 million pounds came from Mexico.<\/p>\n

Given the DEA\u2019s relationship with Sinaloa, and the agency\u2019s fury over legalized marijuana, it almost seems like the DEA wants to crush the legal weed market in order to protect the interests of their cartel friends. Almost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it hurting the cartels? Yes. The cartels are criminal organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their income from marijuana,\u201d Nelson said, \u201cThey aren\u2019t able to move as much cannabis inside the US now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2012, a study by the Mexican Competitiveness Institute found that US state legalization would cut into cartel business and take over about 30 percent of their market.<\/p>\n

Former DEA senior intelligence specialist Sean Dunagan told VICE News that, although it\u2019s too early to verify the numbers: \u201cAnything to establish a regulated legal market will necessarily cut into those profits. And it won\u2019t be a viable business for the Mexican cartels \u2014 the same way bootleggers disappeared after prohibition fell.\u201d<\/p>\n

DEA chief of operations James Capra told senators this January that legalization “scares us” and is “reckless and irresponsible.” And the agency is continuing to crack down on marijuana.<\/p>\n

Given the DEA\u2019s historic relationship with the Sinaloa cartel, and the agency\u2019s fury over legalized marijuana, it almost seems like the DEA wants to crush the legal weed market in order to protect the interests of their cartel friends. Almost.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am the person who handed over El Chapo\u2019: A VICE News exclusive. Read here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DEA doesn\u2019t want the drug war to end,\u201d said Nelson, when asked about a possible connection between the agency\u2019s hatred of legal pot and its buddies in Sinaloa. \u201cIf it ends, they don\u2019t get their toys and their budgets. Once it ends, they aren\u2019t going to have the kind of influence in foreign government. I\u2019m not a conspiracy theorist, but where there\u2019s smoke there\u2019s probably fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

DEA and Sinaloa: A Mutually Beneficial Relationship
\nThe Sinaloa cartel came to prominence in January when the \u201cFast and Furious\u201d scandal surfaced, in which it was revealed that DEA agents ignored Sinaloa drug shipments and essentially granted immunity to cartel criminals in exchange for information.<\/p>\n

The decade long relationship between Sinaloa and the DEA was detailed in the court testimony of Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, also known as \u201cEl Mayito.\u201d El Mayito, son of Sinaloa leader Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada, told a Chicago court that DEA agents offered him deals in exchange for ratting on rival cartels and Colombian drug lords.<\/p>\n

In addition, the lawyer for Sinaloa cartel, Humberto Loya-Castro, told El Universal that DEA agents promised not to prosecute Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman Loera, whose high-profile arrest earlier this year by Mexican authorities came as a shock to many.<\/p>\n

A 2011 letter from DEA head Michele Leonhart in response to an investigation by the federal oversight committee severely downplayed the agency\u2019s connection to Fast and Furious, stating that it was mainly an operation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) that the Phoenix DEA office assisted. El Mayito\u2019s testimony tells a far different story.<\/p>\n

Dunagan was stationed in Mexico for two years working on DEA operations. He didn\u2019t see an obvious connection between the Fast and Furious and the DEA\u2019s US pot crackdown, but he did say that handling informants is \u201ca really messy business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a temptation sometimes to prioritize a certain cartel or informant,\u201d Dunagan said. \u201cAnd cartels know that. They exploit the relationship to provide information on their competitors. It creates these perverse incentives \u2014 you are investigating what your informant is telling you, not what they are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

DEA Versus Legalized and Medical Marijuana
\nAt a Congressional Hearing on drug policy on April 2, Leonhart and her supporters announced their opposition to both the DOJ and Obama regarding marijuana policy, promising to continue to treat medical and recreational marijuana as a Schedule I illegal drug under federal law despite state legalization in Colorado and Washington.<\/p>\n

The fact that pot remains on the federal list of high-priority illegal drugs has complicated state legalization, to say the least. Dunagan said that from a DEA perspective, even marijuana in a state that has legalized it is still illegal under federal law.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s no such thing as a legal marijuana business,\u201d Dunagan said. \u201cTechnically, a DEA agent could still walk into any marijuana dispensary in Colorado and seize the money, and arrest everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

How the geek of Mexico’s bloodiest cartel revolutionized the drug trade With walkie-talkies. Read exactly how here.<\/p>\n

So why doesn\u2019t the DEA rush into the Rocky Mountain state and bust everyone? Because the president doesn\u2019t want them to. Sort of.<\/p>\n

Obama has been called \u201cschizophrenic\u201d by Congress in regards to his waffling policy on marijuana. In January, the president told the New Yorker it was \u201cimportant for [legalization] to go forward\u201d in Washington and Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, as a matter of policy, they continue to pursue it is another question. I think it\u2019s ideological. The majority of the agency perceives it as a moral crusade: drugs are bad, and it\u2019s my duty to stop them,\u201d said Dunagan, who now works with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a non-profit association of criminal justice professionals that oppose the drug war and favor legalization.<\/p>\n

Another way the DEA tries to shut down legal marijuana dispensaries, and medical marijuana clinics, is through the banks. While large banks like HSBC and Wachovia have gotten away with laundering billions in cartel drug money, famously referred to as \u201ctoo big to jail\u201d by Attorney General Eric Holder, banks have been meticulously instructed by the DEA not to work with any kind of marijuana facility.<\/p>\n

Holder recanted that statement just yesterday, explaining that the DOJ is prosecuting two European banks for tax evasion. HSBC paid the government $1.9 billion to avoid criminal charges in 2012.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s pennies compared to what the US spends on the drug war. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, we spend $51 billion per year fighting illegal drugs. A 2010 study by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron found that not only would the US save tremendous amounts of money were it to end drug prohibition, legalizing could bring in an additional $46.7 billion in yearly tax revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spent 1.3 trillion since 1972 on the drug war. What have we gotten for that? Drugs are cheaper and easier to get than ever before,\u201d Nelson told VICE News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels by Mary O’Hara in Vice. The Text: Marijuana has accounted for nearly half of all total drug arrests in the US for the past 20 years, according to the FBI\u2019s crime statistics. And according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), a large portion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLegal Pot In The US Is Choking Out Mexican Cartels - Prose Before Hos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Article: Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels by Mary O'Hara in Vice. The Text: Marijuana has accounted for nearly half of all total drug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Legal Pot In The US Is Choking Out Mexican Cartels - Prose Before Hos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Article: Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels by Mary O'Hara in Vice. The Text: Marijuana has accounted for nearly half of all total drug\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prose Before Hos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-16T14:00:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-05-13T15:55:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@pbhnetwork\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Article of the Day\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/\",\"name\":\"Legal Pot In The US Is Choking Out Mexican Cartels - Prose Before Hos\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-16T14:00:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-13T15:55:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\"},\"description\":\"The Article: Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels by Mary O'Hara in Vice. The Text: Marijuana has accounted for nearly half of all total drug\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Legal Pot In The US Is Choking Out Mexican Cartels\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/\",\"name\":\"Prose Before Hos\",\"description\":\"The Far Side Of Politics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e\",\"name\":\"Article of the Day\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Legal Pot In The US Is Choking Out Mexican Cartels - Prose Before Hos","description":"The Article: Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels by Mary O'Hara in Vice. The Text: Marijuana has accounted for nearly half of all total drug","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Legal Pot In The US Is Choking Out Mexican Cartels - Prose Before Hos","og_description":"The Article: Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels by Mary O'Hara in Vice. The Text: Marijuana has accounted for nearly half of all total drug","og_url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/","og_site_name":"Prose Before Hos","article_published_time":"2014-05-16T14:00:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-05-13T15:55:43+00:00","author":"Article of the Day","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_site":"@pbhnetwork","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Article of the Day","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/","name":"Legal Pot In The US Is Choking Out Mexican Cartels - Prose Before Hos","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-05-16T14:00:19+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-13T15:55:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e"},"description":"The Article: Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels by Mary O'Hara in Vice. The Text: Marijuana has accounted for nearly half of all total drug","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/05\/16\/legal-pot-us-choking-mexican-cartels\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Legal Pot In The US Is Choking Out Mexican Cartels"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/","name":"Prose Before Hos","description":"The Far Side Of Politics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1e19d7cf2b1a9aea1805fd7b4b4b2b4e","name":"Article of the Day","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/pbhnetwork"],"url":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/author\/article-of-the-day\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145558,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145557\/revisions\/145558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}