If you’ve ever listened to country music (there’s no shame in embracing your inner redneck), you’ve likely heard about cowboys modifying their trucks to have as much Big Dick Energy as possible. And when the rapper DMX died (rest in power) in 2021, his brilliant red casket was carried around his home city, New York, in a customized Ford F250 with “Long Live DMX” inscribed on its side.

But in Mexico, drug cartels are making monster trucks to use like tanks. The cartels are retrofitting pickups with battering rams, four-inch-thick steel plates welded onto their chassis complete with turrets for firing machine guns, The New York Times reports. 

These clever yet criminal gangs transforming trucks include the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, who use the vehicles for gun fights with the cops. The Treasury Department described Jalisco New Generation Cartel as one of the world’s “most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations.” Known for their ultra-violence, they primarily deal with cocaine and meth and allegedly have forced recruits to engage in cannibalism by eating the flesh of murdered victims, The Daily Beast reports. 

Others, including the Gulf Cartel (one of Mexico’s oldest and original cartels) and the Northeast Cartel, bloodily enhance the vehicles to battle one another. They, too, proudly adorn the trucks with their initials, and camouflage is also a popular design (and makes it tricky to tell the monster trucks apart from the police’s vehicles). Mexican security forces call these trucks monstruos (monsters), rinocerontes (rhinos), and narcotanques (narco-tanks). Other weapons include (perhaps outfitted in the monster trucks) steel-penetrating Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and rocket-propelled grenades strong enough to shoot down military helicopters. 

It tracks that the cartels would utilize monster trucks. They have long used mechanic skills to modify cars to smuggle drugs across borders. Monster trucks really can be the war machines demolition derbies in the U.S., with car names like Reaper or Grave Digger, want them to be. “The monsters are the way to send the message, ‘I’m in charge, and I want everyone to see I’m in charge,’” said Mr. Le Cour, senior expert at the Switzerland-based Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. “These are commando-style groups looking to replicate special forces in how they’re armed, how they’re trained, how they look” shares The New York Times.

But what’s happening in Mexico with monster trucks makes American demolition derbies look as innocent as a trip to DisneyLand. The cartel transforms trucks like the Ford Lobo (known as the Ford F-150 in the United States), the Ford Raptor, Chevrolet Tahoe, and even bigger vehicles such as dump trucks and heavy-duty trucks with large flatbeds and two rear wheels on each side. Technically, armoring a vehicle without authorization is a crime in Mexico punishable by up to 15 years in prison. This law has not stopped the weaponization of monster trucks. 

The state prosecutor’s office in Tamaulipas, the state along the border of North East Mexico, issued a statement last year citing the “danger to the safety of the community” the modified vehicles, which are especially prominent along the border, present. Since 2019, authorities destroyed more than 260 of these armored monster trucks just in Tamaulipas, one of Mexico’s 31 states, which along with Mexico City, make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. 

As badass as the amped-up trucks may sound, even the cartel has car problems. Weighed down by steel plates, the monstruos can be heavy, slow, and challenging to drive, especially in cities. Also, all that modification can lead to mechanical breakdowns. “They’re too slow, too heavy,” said Alexei Chévez, a security analyst based in Cuernavaca, Mexico, writes The New York Times. And the retrofitting of the vehicles means that some of their parts malfunction. “We see them constantly breaking down and being abandoned,” Mr. Chévez said.

But there’s one more weapon the cartels have at their disposal which will help ensure the deadly monster truck’s legacy: social media. The monstruos often appear on TikTok, tricked out and deadly, accompanied by cartel rap songs. While the Mexican police will continue to battle them, it’s hard to fight cool. 

The post Mexican Drug Cartels Are Using Monster Trucks Like Killing Machines appeared first on High Times.

The post Mexican Drug Cartels Are Using Monster Trucks Like Killing Machines appeared first on Paradise Found.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced the results of a widespread drug operation spanning May to September, resulting in over 10 million fentanyl pills and what they say is 36 million lethal doses of the drug. DEA agents blame the mass production of the majority of these pills on two particular cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

While scooping up cartel-manufactured fentanyl off the streets sounds like reason to celebrate—keep in mind that this is only half the problem, and as many as 40% of opioid overdose deaths come straight from the doctor with a prescription, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Fentanyl kills indiscriminately, no matter what the source. According to the National Safety Council, young Americans are more likely to die of an opioid overdose than a car crash.

However, it’s highly likely lives were saved in the process during this particular operation. The DEA released the statistics in a September 30 press release.

As part of the One Pill Can Kill initiative—a public Awareness Campaign to educate the public of the dangers of counterfeit pills such as fentanyl—the DEA and its law enforcement partners seized massive quantities of opioid drugs.

How extensive is the opioid epidemic? The DEA seized over 10.2 million fentanyl pills and about 980 pounds of fentanyl powder during the period of May 23 through September 8.

Often, fentanyl is pressed into blue, round pills that appear to be pharmaceutical in nature, so people think they’re safe. Often, they’re not. In addition, they’ve been showing up in different colors, dubbed “rainbow fentanyl” by the media and the DEA itself. Even people with a tolerance to oxycodone or hydrocodone might not stand a chance with fentanyl or its analogs like carfentanil.

According to the DEA’s math, the amount of fentanyl seized is equivalent to over 36 million lethal doses of the drug removed from the supply. DEA agents also seized 338 weapons including rifles, shotguns, pistols, and hand grenades.

“Fentanyl is responsible for killing thousands of people in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV). We are working diligently with our federal, state, and local partners to mitigate this public health crisis,” said Jarod Forget, DEA Washington Division’s Special Agent in Charge. “Our team is actively seizing significant amounts of deadly fentanyl and working hard on impactful operations and community events to halt the distribution of these deadly drugs into our communities. Mexican cartels are pushing deadly fake pills, often laced with fentanyl, into our neighborhoods to exploit the opioid crisis. We will relentlessly pursue criminals who are bringing such deadly drugs and continue to work to keep you and your families safe. Many people who die from fentanyl poisoning unknowingly consumed it mixed into fake pills or other drugs. Our message to the public is that you never can be certain what is in them and that just ‘One Pill Can Kill’.”

Nearly 400 cases were investigated, and 51 cases are linked to overdose poisonings. DEA agents linked 35 of the cases directly to one or both of the primary Mexican cartels responsible for the majority of fentanyl in the United States, which is the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG.

Here’s how things have changed, however: According to the DEA, 129 investigations are linked to social media platforms like Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and TikTok. Anyone in the cannabis industry has seen plugs openly selling all sorts of drugs.

The last time statistics like this were provided was the One Pill Can Kill Phase II results, which were announced by DEA Administrator Anne Milgram last December.

The DEA says that fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat facing this nation. “In 2021, a record number of Americans—107,622—died from a drug poisoning or overdose,” the DEA release reads. “Sixty-six percent of those deaths can be attributed to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.”

The fentanyl problem is highlighted by specific events, including a recent incident in suburban Los Angeles that involved pills laced with fentanyl that were disguised as something else. The Pasadena Police Department seized 328,000 fentanyl pills in a single operation on September 24, bringing their total seized to approximately 708,500 pills. Then just minutes away in Whittier, police seized eight pounds of pills laced with fentanyl.

Additional resources for parents and the community can be found on DEA’s Fentanyl Awareness page, and the DEA created a new resource, “What Every Parent and Caregiver Needs to Know About Fake Pills.” 

The post DEA Scoops Up 36 Million Lethal Doses of Fentanyl Off the Streets appeared first on High Times.

The post DEA Scoops Up 36 Million Lethal Doses of Fentanyl Off the Streets appeared first on Paradise Found.