The
Associated Press www.nydailynews.com
April 1, 2013 (Part I of II)
CHICAGO — Mexican drug cartels whose operatives
once rarely ventured beyond the U.S. border are dispatching some of their most
trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States — an emboldened
presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world's
most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.
If left unchecked, authorities say, the cartels'
move into the American interior could render the syndicates harder than ever to
dislodge and pave the way for them to expand into other criminal enterprises
such as prostitution, kidnapping-and-extortion rackets and money laundering.
Cartel activity in the U.S. is certainly not new.
Starting in the 1990s, the ruthless syndicates became the nation's No. 1
supplier of illegal drugs, using unaffiliated middlemen to smuggle cocaine,
marijuana and heroin beyond the border or even to grow pot here.
But a wide-ranging Associated Press review of
federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with
many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying
agents from their inner circles to the U.S. Cartel operatives are suspected of
running drug-distribution networks in at least nine non-border states, often in
middle-class suburbs in the Midwest, South and Northeast.
"It's probably the most serious threat the
United States has faced from organized crime," said Jack
Riley, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's
Chicago office.
The cartel threat looms so large that one of
Mexico's most notorious drug kingpins — a man who has never set foot in Chicago
— was recently named the city's Public Enemy No. 1, the same notorious label
once assigned to Al Capone.
The Chicago Crime Commission, a non-government
agency that tracks crime trends in the region, said it considers Joaquin
"El Chapo" Guzman even more menacing than Capone because Guzman leads
the deadly Sinaloa cartel, which supplies most of the narcotics sold in Chicago
and in many cities across the U.S.
Years ago, Mexico faced the same problem — of
then-nascent cartels expanding their power — "and didn't nip the problem
in the bud," said Jack Killorin, head of an anti-trafficking program in
Atlanta for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "And see where
they are now."
Riley sounds a similar alarm: "People think,
`The border's 1,700 miles away. This isn't our problem.' Well, it is. These
days, we operate as if Chicago is on the border."
Border states from Texas to California have long
grappled with a cartel presence. But cases involving cartel members have now
emerged in the suburbs of Chicago and Atlanta, as well as Columbus, Ohio,
Louisville, Ky., and rural North Carolina. Suspects have also surfaced in
Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
Mexican drug cartels "are taking over our
neighborhoods," Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane warned a
legislative committee in February. State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan
disputed her claim, saying cartels are primarily drug suppliers, not the ones
trafficking drugs on the ground.
For years, cartels were more inclined to make deals
in Mexico with American traffickers, who would then handle transportation to
and distribution within major cities, said Art Bilek, a former organized crime
investigator who is now executive vice president of the crime commission.
As their organizations grew more sophisticated, the
cartels began scheming to keep more profits for themselves. So leaders sought
to cut out middlemen and assume more direct control, pushing aside American
traffickers, he said.
Beginning two or three years ago, authorities
noticed that cartels were putting "deputies on the ground here,"
Bilek said. "Chicago became such a massive market ... it was critical that
they had firm control."
To help fight the syndicates, Chicago recently
opened a first-of-its-kind facility at a secret location where 70 federal
agents work side-by-side with police and prosecutors. Their primary focus is
the point of contact between suburban-based cartel operatives and city street
gangs who act as retail salesmen. That is when both sides are most vulnerable
to detection, when they are most likely to meet in the open or use cellphones
that can be wiretapped.
Others are skeptical about claims cartels are
expanding their presence, saying law-enforcement agencies are prone to
exaggerating threats to justify bigger budgets.
David Shirk, of the University of San Diego's
Trans-Border Institute, said there is a dearth of reliable intelligence that
cartels are dispatching operatives from Mexico on a large scale.
"We know astonishingly little about the
structure and dynamics of cartels north of the border," Shirk said.
"We need to be very cautious about the assumptions we make."
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