Drug Traffic from Mexico has Increased Steadily Since Beginning in the '60s

SALT LAKE (By Justin Hill, Salt Lake Tribune) January 15, 2007 — On a tip that someone in a Ford Taurus may be dealing drugs on Salt Lake City's east side, police officer Russell Despain drove through the Harvard-Yale neighborhood.

He pulled up behind a parked Saturn. Moments later, a Taurus went by and Despain gave chase, stopping the car near 1700 East and 1300 South.

Two Mexican nationals were arrested after police found "balloons" of cocaine and heroin the men allegedly tried to throw away during the pursuit. Police say it was a typical police encounter with the illegal drug trade, which in Utah is dominated by criminals from Mexico.

"These guys rule the drug trade," said Jason Mazuran, a spokesman for DrugTALK, an organization that helps families avoid drug problems.

The Utah-Mexico connection has its roots in the 1960s, when organizations south of the border smuggled marijuana and heroin into the United States, according to a 2002 report by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. In the '80s, when cocaine was king, the Columbian cartels used Mexican groups to move their product, the DEA said.

Special Agent Mark Destito said the majority of cases handled by the DEA's Salt Lake City office involving cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana are linked to border groups with ties to Mexico.

And it's not just Utah. The U.S. Department of Justice reported in 2006 that Mexico-based organizations "are the predominant smugglers, transporters, and wholesale distributors" in the United States. Of the 70 people listed on the DEA's most-wanted fugitive list for the Intermountain West, at least 47 - or 67 percent - are Mexican nationals.

Detective John Wester, of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Neighborhood Narcotics Unit, estimates about 90 percent of the cocaine and heroin in the Salt Lake Valley comes from or through Mexico. Same for about 60 percent of meth and 50 percent of marijuana, he says.

Here's how agents say Mexican drug organizations operate:
 

* Street gangs place orders with traffickers in Mexico, who use mostly Mexicans, plus Central and South Americans as smugglers.
 

* The drugs are taken to "stash sites" and staging areas, primarily in California and Arizona. Sometimes the gangs take control of the drugs once they cross the border.
 

* "Mules" pick up the drugs in smaller forms and take them to "stash houses" in Utah and elsewhere in the United States.
 

* Mid-level dealers sell to lower-level dealers, who sell to users.
 

* The proceeds are laundered in various ways, including moving money through local currency exchange houses and maintaining multiple bank accounts.
 

* Those who profit buy cars, houses and other items, property in their home country or send money home to relatives.