Dozens of individuals allegedly linked to the most powerful cartel in Mexico were arrested and charged by federal agents in California and elsewhere in the western United States, the Department of Justice announced this week. 

The DOJ said that 14 “indictments were unsealed [on Wednesday] charging 47 alleged members of an Imperial Valley, California-based, Sinaloa Cartel-linked fentanyl-and-methamphetamine distribution network with drug trafficking, firearms, and money laundering offenses.”

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the biggest crime syndicates in the world, and has increasingly been the focus of law enforcement in the U.S. It is perhaps best known as the cartel that had long been run by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is currently serving a lifetime sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorao.

Describing it as a “coordinated takedown” executed on Wednesday morning, the Justice Department said that “more than 400 federal, state, and local law enforcement officials arrested 36 defendants and executed 25 search warrants in Imperial County; San Diego; Fresno, California; Los Angeles; Phoenix; and Salem, Oregon.” The agency said that, as of Wednesday afternoon, the search remained ongoing for 11 fugitives.

Court records show that, in June of 2021, “agents seized two pounds of methamphetamine and a cache of ghost guns and ammunition, including: 15 lower receivers, three upper receivers, multiple barrels and stocks, 18 magazines, 40 Luger 9mm rounds, and approximately 400 rounds of .223 Red Army ammunition, which are made in Russia,” the Justice Department said in the announcement on Wednesday.“

None of the firearms or firearm parts had any identifying serial numbers or markings. They were all ghost guns. Wiretap intercepts showed that defendant Cory Gershen supplied other members of the organization with ghost guns in exchange for methamphetamine. The investigation also revealed the assault rifles (depicted below) were destined for the organization’s source of supply in Mexico,” the announcement said.

On that same day in June of 2021, “agents seized additional ghost guns, ammunition, and methamphetamine from another member of the same drug trafficking organization,” according to the Justice Department, which added that “agents seized two AR-style ghost guns and a Colt .380 semiautomatic handgun, and additional Russian rifle ammunition from defendant Guadalupe Molina-Flores, one of the alleged members of the trafficking organization.” 

“According to a search warrant, after seizing the firearms, agents searched Molina-Flores’ residence and found 309.4 grams (0.68 pounds) of methamphetamine,” Wednesday’s announcement said.

The DOJ also noted that its investigation “revealed that the price per fentanyl pill has plummeted.” 

“For example, in June 2021, targets of the investigation were obtaining fentanyl pills in Imperial Valley at approximately $1.65 to $1.75 per pill. By December 2021, the prices being discussed had dropped to approximately $1.25 per pill. By May, the same pills were being sold at only 45 cents per pill — less than one-third of the price three years earlier. The precipitous drop in price reflects the increased supply and availability of fentanyl being smuggled into the United States and the close ties between targets of this investigation and their Sinaloa Cartel supplier of fentanyl pills,” the announcement said.

More from the DOJ’s announcement:

“Including seizures today and throughout the long-term investigation, authorities have confiscated more than four kilograms of fentanyl, which amounts to about two million potentially fatal doses; more than 324 kilograms (over 714 pounds) of methamphetamine; significant quantities of cocaine and heroin; and 52 firearms, including handguns and rifles. The investigation also resulted in the arrest of Alexander Grindley for alleged methamphetamine trafficking while employed as a U.S. Border Patrol agent and multiple spin-off investigations in this district and others. Crimes charged in the indictments include drug trafficking, money laundering, and gun-related offenses. Court documents indicated the defendants were operating throughout the Imperial Valley — in Brawley, El Centro, Westmoreland, Imperial, Calexico, Niland, Holtville, Calipatria — and in Mexicali, Mexico.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the takedown means the Justice Department has “dealt yet another blow to the Sinaloa Cartel and its associates.”

“I am grateful to the more than 400 law enforcement officers whose work in this operation resulted in dozens of arrests, charges against 47 defendants, and the seizure of firearms, meth, cocaine, heroin, and two million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl. We will continue to be relentless in our fight to protect American communities from the cartels,” Garland said in a statement on Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said that his department “and our federal, state, and local partners are unrelenting in our work to keep deadly fentanyl off our streets and bring those who traffic in it to justice.” 

“The indictments unsealed today are the direct result of our multipronged and coordinated law enforcement approach — one that utilizes all of our government’s resources and capabilities. Together, we are preventing fentanyl and other deadly drugs from being produced, distributed, or consumed, and saving countless lives,” Mayorkas said.

The post Feds Charge 47 Linked to Sinaloa Cartel first appeared on High Times.

The post Feds Charge 47 Linked to Sinaloa Cartel appeared first on Paradise Found.

Many older stoners remember low-grade brick weed, traditionally grown at enormous farms in Mexico, as a commonly available product in the U.S.. But Mexican-grown weed sold on the black market started falling out of favor decades ago as it competed with domestically-grown cannabis. NORML reports that border seizures for Mexican-grown pot at the southwest border have hit a record low.

Hydroponics, organic inputs, feminized seeds, and other improved growing methods made low-quality seeded weed grown outdoors in bulk by cartels a thing of the past. The relatively new phenomenon of state-legal adult-use cannabis, which started in 2014 put the final nail in the coffin for the trade of Mexican-grown weed in the U.S.

Seizures of Mexican-grown cannabis peaked in 2009, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seized 3.3 million pounds (1.5 million kilos) of cannabis on the southwest border that year, the highest amount ever recorded. Often the low-quality weed, a brownish or dark green color, was seeded and vacuum-pressed into kilo-sized bricks, ready to be smuggled over the border. For many Americans, this type of weed was all they could get before domestically-grown, or legal cannabis came to their state.

Nowadays, border patrol agents are intercepting far less cannabis, which can no longer compete with potent pot available at adult-use cannabis retail shops in California, Arizona, and New Mexico, which all border Mexico. 

Tracing back to 2009, you can see a long, steady plunge that shows the weed-smuggling business at the southern U.S-Mexico border is a shadow of what it used to be.

Plunging Cannabis Seizure Statistics at the Border

Agents are finding only a tiny fraction of the pot they used to intercept at the border. According to data published on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, federal law enforcement agents intercepted a record low 61,000 pounds (27,669 kilos) of cannabis at the southern border in 2023. The total represents a 29 percent decline from 2022 and a 98 percent decline in seizure activity since 2013, when the agency reported interdicting more than 2.4 million pounds of cannabis.

“When it comes to retail cannabis, the prevailing attitude is ‘Buy American,’” said NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano. “The rise of the regulated state-legal cannabis market has not only supplanted Americans’ demand for Mexican cannabis, but in many places it has also disrupted the unregulated domestic marketplace.”

According to survey data compiled by New Frontier Data and published on May 16, 2023, 52 percent of US consumers residing in legal states said that they primarily sourced their cannabis products from brick-and-mortar establishments. By contrast, only 6 percent of respondents said that they primarily purchased cannabis from “a guy” illegally.

What can also be gleaned from the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection data is that meth is on pace to surpass cannabis as the number one drug found at the border. Meth has already surpassed cannabis at the southwest border as agents found 121,000 pounds of the drug, almost twice as much cannabis found at that border in pounds.

Weed Smuggled the Other Way, From U.S. to Mexico

Mexican cartels have, for the most part, shifted to production of other drugs—namely meth. But in some cases, cartels never stopped growing and infiltrated grow operations in the U.S. including farms in Northern California and Oregon. Trinity County Sheriff Tim Saxon told USA Today in 2023, that cartel activity in the area is high, and sometimes involves human trafficking.

If anything, pot is being smuggled in the other direction more often. High Times reported in 2016 that cannabis is now being smuggled the other way—south of the U.S.-Mexico border.

A report from KPBS suggests that people living in Tijuana with visas or dual citizenship have been driving into California, where weed has been legal for medical purposes for nearly two decades, and smuggling small amounts back home. 

Dr. Raul Palacios, clinical director at the Centro de Integración Juveníl drug rehabilitation facility in Tijuana, told KPBS that many of his patients prefer the high quality of medical cannabis they get in California to the cannabis grown in Mexico because it gets them higher. But he says that since these people have grown accustomed to lower THC levels, California-grown cannabis has a capacity to induce hallucinations and cause paranoia.

The falling numbers show that Americans prefer high-quality lab-tested cannabis versus weed that has to be pressed into bricks and smuggled over the border. The harsh smoke, earthy taste, and tell-tale red eyes have been replaced with lab-tested pot regulated in state industries.

The post Mexican-Grown Pot Hits Record Low at Border as Competition with State-Legal Pot Rises first appeared on High Times.

The post Mexican-Grown Pot Hits Record Low at Border as Competition with State-Legal Pot Rises appeared first on Paradise Found.

Archaeologists studying the ruins of an Ancient Mayan city of Yaxnohcah, on the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico, found evidence of at least four psychedelic or medicinal plants that were used in a ritual some 2,000 years ago during the Late Preclassic period.

It’s well known that psychedelic plants and fungi played a significant role in Mayan religion and culture as a whole, and researchers are narrowing down which species were used based on archaeological evidence. 

According to a study published April 26 in the journal PLOS One, Mayans at Yaxnohcah participated in a ritual at a ballcourt using four or more plants. After conducting a DNA analysis of soil samples from a spot on an elevated platform supporting a ballcourt, researchers identified several plants, the Smithsonian Magazine reports. These include a hallucinogenic flower known as xtabentun (Ipomoea corymbosa), as well as lancewood (Oxandra lanceolata), chile peppers (Capsicum sp.), and jool leaves (Hampea trilobata). All four have medicinal properties. The plants were likely wrapped up in a bundle tied or woven from jool leaves. All that is left is a dark patch showing particles of organic material.

It paints a colorful picture of Mayan religion. Xtabentun is a variety of the psychedelic morning glory flower, growing wild in the Yucatan. It had several uses in Mayan culture because it produces the pollen Yucatecan honey bees use to create the nectar needed to make traditional Mayan liquor, with a kick. Morning glory varieties have seeds that contain ergoline alkaloids such as the psychedelic ergonovine and ergine (LSA), chemically similar to the more potent LSD. Chile (or chili) peppers were used medicinally for a variety of purposes as well. Jool leaves are used to wrap up offerings and lancewood is used ceremonially as well.

Researchers believe the plants may have been used to “christen” or bless the new ballcourt.

“When they erected a new building, they asked the goodwill of the gods to protect the people inhabiting it,” lead author David Lentz, a biologist at the University of Cincinnati, told Smithsonian Magazine. “Some people call it an ‘ensouling ritual,’ to get a blessing from and appease the gods.”

Most of what is known about Maya rituals—including psychedelic plants and fungi—comes from modern ethnographic sources. For instance Mayans typically consumed k’aizalaj okox, otherwise known as teonanàcatl to the Aztecs which is a psychedelic mushroom Psilocybe mexicana, a variety of psilocybin that was locally sourced. They also knew well about the psychedelic properties of cacti, eating peyote (Lophophora sp.) and drinking balché, a mixture of honey and extracts of Lonchocarpus sp.

The Helena Complex and Ballcourt

The Maya played several ball games including Pok-a-Tok, which is a mix of soccer and basketball, and players try to hit a ball through a stone ring attached to the wall, Popular Science reports. Ballcourt games, in the Ancient Mayan culture, served as more than a sport and also served as a ritualistic activity.

From 2016 to 2022, excavations took place at the Helena ballcourt complex at Yaxnohcah, a 1-meter high stone and earthen platform measuring 68 meters by 147 meters. The Helena complex was linked by a causeway to a larger ceremonial complex located 900 meters to the southwest. Researchers believe the Helena platform was remodeled in 80 CE and a ballcourt was added during the Late Preclassic period that took place circa 400 BCE-200 CE. 

Researchers determined that four medicinal plants were used for either divination or as medicinal ritual.

“Whatever the intent of the Maya petitioners, it seems clear that some kind of divination or healing ritual took place at the base of the Helena ballcourt complex during the Late Preclassic period,” researchers wrote. “On a final note, as with the ceremonial plants found at Yaxnohcah, a greater understanding of the ritual and other sacred practices of ancient cultures can now come into clearer focus with the assistance of eDNA [environmental DNA] evidence, a methodology whose promise for archaeology is only beginning to be explored.”

Better DNA analysis makes it possible to understand the species that were used.

“We have known for years from ethnohistorical sources that the Maya also used perishable materials in these offerings,” said co-author Nicholas Dunning, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Cincinnati. “But it is almost impossible to find them archaeologically, which is what makes this discovery using eDNA so extraordinary.”

Many Preclassic Mayan cities are thought to collapse around 100 AD, which would have been only 20 years after the construction of the ballcourt at Yaxnohcah. However, Yaxnohcah is an anomaly and survived the collapse that affected most Mayan settlements during this period. eDNA data from the archaeological site is providing researchers with a wealth of information about what they consumed and why.

The post Psychedelic Plants Found in Ancient Mayan Ballcourt first appeared on High Times.

The post Psychedelic Plants Found in Ancient Mayan Ballcourt appeared first on Paradise Found.

At a conference last week, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president since 2018, said, “We are not going to act as policemen for any foreign government,” as quoted by the Associated Press. “Mexico First. Our home comes first.”

As the Associated Press noted, López Obrador has, in previous years, “laid out various justifications for his ‘hugs, not bullets’ policy of avoiding clashes with the cartels.” 

“In the past he has said ‘you cannot fight violence with violence,’ and on other occasions he has argued the government has to address ‘the causes’ of drug cartel violence, ascribing them to poverty or a lack of opportunities,” the AP reported, adding that “López Obrador’s view — like many of his policies — harkens back to the 1970s, a period when many officials believed that Mexican cartels selling drugs to gringos was a U.S. issue, not a Mexican one.”

On Friday, the president “basically argued that drugs were a U.S. problem, not a Mexican one,” and he “offered to help limit the flow of drugs into the United States, but only, he said, on humanitarian grounds,” according to the Associated Press.

“Of course we are going to cooperate in fighting drugs, above all because it has become a very sensitive, very sad humanitarian issue, because a lot of young people are dying in the United States because of fentanyl,” the president said. Over 70,000 Americans die annually because of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which are mainly made in Mexico from precursor chemicals smuggled in from China,” López Obrador said.

In February, The New York Times reported that United States “law enforcement officials spent years looking into allegations that allies of” López Obrador “met with and took millions of dollars from drug cartels after he took office.”

The Times, citing U.S. records and three people familiar with the matter, said that the previously unreported inquiry “uncovered information pointing to potential links between powerful cartel operatives and Mexican advisers and officials close to the president while he governed the country.”

“But the United States never opened a formal investigation into Mr. López Obrador, and the officials involved ultimately shelved the inquiry. They concluded that the U.S. government had little appetite to pursue allegations against the leader of one of America’s top allies, said the three people familiar with the case, who were not authorized to speak publicly,” the Times reported at the time.

More from the Times’ report at the time:

“Much of the information collected by U.S. officials came from informants whose accounts can be difficult to corroborate and sometimes end up being incorrect. The investigators obtained the information while looking into the activities of drug cartels, and it was not clear how much of what the informants told them was independently confirmed. For example, records show that the investigators were told by an informant that one of Mr. López Obrador’s closest confidants met with Ismael Zambada García, a top leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, before his victory in the 2018 presidential election. A different source told them that after the president was elected, a founder of the notoriously violent Zetas cartel paid $4 million to two of Mr. López Obrador’s allies in the hope of being released from prison. Investigators obtained information from a third source suggesting that drug cartels were in possession of videos of the president’s sons picking up drug money, records show.”

López Obrador, responding to The New York Times’ reporting, vehemently denied the allegations and called on the United States to clear up the matter.

“It’s all completely false,” López Obrador said in February. “The U.S. government is going to have to address this.”

He even suggested that the report could damage Mexico’s relationship with the U.S.

“Does this diminish the trust the Mexican government has in the United States?” Mr. López Obrador said, as quoted by the Times. “Time will tell.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice said there was no investigation into the Mexican president at the time.

The Associated Press, in its report on Lopez Obrador’s latest comments, has a rundown on his relatively lax view toward the cartels:

“López Obrador has argued before against ‘demonizing’ the drug cartels, and has encouraged leaders of the Catholic church to try to negotiate peace pacts between warring gangs. Explaining why he has ordered the army not to attack cartel gunmen, López Obrador said in 2022 ‘we also take care of the lives of the gang members, they are human beings.’ He has also sometimes appeared not to take the violence issue seriously. In June 2023, he said of one drug gang that had abducted 14 police officers: ‘I’m going to tell on you to your fathers and grandfathers,’ suggesting they should get a good spanking. Asked about those comments at the time, residents of one town in the western Mexico state of Michoacan who have lived under drug cartel control for years reacted with disgust and disbelief.”

The post Mexican President Says Country Won’t Combat Cartels on Orders From U.S. appeared first on High Times.

The post Mexican President Says Country Won’t Combat Cartels on Orders From U.S. appeared first on Paradise Found.

Mexican authorities have raided and dismantled the biggest meth lab found under the current presidential administration in the northern state of Sonora.

According to the Mexican Navy, a clandestine “mega-laboratory” was discovered recently in the area of Rancho Viejo, Quiriego, Sonora. That laboratory was raided by naval personnel on an undisclosed date and effectively neutralized.

“In coordination with [the Attorney General’s Office] [and the Attorney General’s Office of the State (FGE) of Sonora] and authorities of the state of Sonora, in recent days a mega laboratory was located and dismantled, the largest insured during the current administration, which was made up of six drug generation points and represents more than 50% of the drugs and precursors secured during the current year,” The Secretary of the Navy of Mexico said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This particular raid was responsible for the seizure of 41,310 kilograms of bulk methamphetamine as well as 12,705 kilograms of precursor chemicals used to synthesize methamphetamine capable of producing a total of 54,015 kilograms of methamphetamine. The Mexican Navy indicated in a press release that if individually bagged and tagged for personal use, this would constitute over 1 billion doses of meth (not to split hairs but by my count it’s more like 540 million).

The Mexican Navy also indicated that 72 reactors, 102 condensers, 32 centrifuges, three vehicles, two motorcycles, a trailer and other miscellaneous material were seized during this operation. Before this raid the largest lab found was in Sinaloa and had only13 reactors. It was also noted in the same press release that after distribution, the amount of narcotics seized in this raid would have netted the cartels over $700 million USD. Including this raid, a total of 73,520 kilograms of methamphetamine and 141,470 kilograms of precursor chemicals have been seized and destroyed in Mexico thus far this year.

The United States has been ramping up pressure on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and subsequently the country of Mexico to crack down on the flow of illegal narcotics from Mexico into the United States, the vast majority of which are fentanyl and methamphetamine produced by the cartels. As a result of this increased pressure, Mexico has been increasingly raiding drug labs around the country but a Reuters investigation released in March of last year found via leaked government documents that Mexico has been dramatically inflating the number of drug raids it performs.

This inflation was reportedly performed by including a large number of raids in the tallies shared with the U.S. which were labs that were already inactive by the time the military got there. In fact, a report released last December found that 89% of raids on suspected fentanyl-producing labs were performed on inactive labs. 

“These numbers are outrageous and not worth the paper they are written on,” said Matthew Donahue, former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Regional Director to Reuters, calling the number inflation an attempt at “placating the United States and to make it appear they are doing something, when clearly they are not.”

Data obtained from the Mexican Defense Ministry by Reuters showed that in 2023, Mexican military units performed 503 raids on inactive labs and 24 raids on active labs. In 2022 the military raided 450 inactive labs and 42 active labs.  In 2021 it was 195 inactive and 22 active. In 2020, 267 inactive and 55 active.

This increased pressure by the U.S. on Mexico has been consistent to the tune of several in-person meetings and conversations between the Biden administration and President Obrador. It even led to an ominous warning to all drug cartels being posted on signs throughout SInaloa in October of last year expressly telling people to stop producing fentanyl in the area, though by all accounts fentanyl production has not slowed down whatsoever since the notices were posted. 

“Attention. Due to the incessant disinformation of some media and the obvious omission of the government in not investigating and prosecuting the true culprits of this epidemic,” the banners said (in Spanish). “In Sinaloa, the sale, manufacture, transportation or any type of business that involves the substance known as fentanyl is strictly prohibited, including the sale of chemicals for its preparation. We have never been nor will we be related to that business. [Be warned of] the consequences. Att: Chapitos,” the signs read.”

The post Mexico Busts Meth ‘Mega Laboratory,’ Biggest in Over Five Years appeared first on High Times.

The post Mexico Busts Meth ‘Mega Laboratory,’ Biggest in Over Five Years appeared first on Paradise Found.

Native American and preservationist advocates are sounding the alarm about an imminent “peyote crisis.” The crisis started decades ago, but recently has been amplified by pharmaceutical interests in mescaline, the psychoactive compound the cactus is known for.

The mescaline-rich spineless cactus, Lophophora williamsii, has been used in sacred rituals for over 5,000 years by American indigenous cultures, but through careless harvesting by recreational users, or worse, mass produced pharmaceutical companies, all of that could soon be lost. In the U.S. the cactus only grows wild in Texas—where it’s been declared an endangered species—as well as Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas in northern Mexico.

The cactus is currently being monetized for either pharmaceutical or recreational use, and indigenous groups like the Native American Church (NAC) are concerned that the sacred plant is being exploited. In the December 1977 issue of High Times, journalist J. F. Burke wrote about his journey with peyote that started in 1957, one of the first in-depth articles about the plant, just as the federal government was making exemptions for a short list of Native Americans. Since then, a lot of hippies, psychonauts, and wannabe shamans have scoured the earth looking for ways to find it.

The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. § 1996.) protects the rights of Native Americans to exercise their traditional religions–including psychedelic sacraments. On Dec. 22, 1981, the Department of Justice reiterated the DEA’s peyote exemption for the NAC, but only bona fide members of the church are included. Only allowing that single church was challenged in 1994 under Peyote Way Church of God, Inc. v. Thornburgh and Congress amended the American Indian Religious Freedom Act to legalize peyote use by all members of Native American tribes.

Vice reported last September Canada-based Lophos Pharma, a publicly-traded company, started to produce the psychoactive cactus for pharmaceutical, not spiritual purposes. Lophos runs a 10,000-square foot facility in Napanee, Ontario. Mescaline itself is illegal under Schedule III of the Canadian drug act, peyote is permitted, so long as the mescaline isn’t extracted from it. But some say even medical purposes are not the way the cactus should be consumed, as it’s considered sacred.

Peyote Advocates Push Back

Colorado-based journalist Annette McGivney has recently been advocating for the preservation of peyote and the sacred ceremonies that surround it.

McGivney told KJZZ that she visited with the two camps of people: “One is, you know, the plant medicine activists and then the pharmaceutical entrepreneurs, so the plant medicine activists had two different responses,” she said. “One was they were totally oblivious to the Native American worldview and why it would not be OK with them for someone to just grow a peyote cactus in their home greenhouse. They had no idea or they were coming up with their own justification saying, ‘Well, it’s not interfering with Native American spirituality because we’re growing the cactus ourselves. So we’re not taking it away from its natural habitat.’ And they kind of come up with their own justification, ignoring what Native Americans were actually saying, that that was a problem.”

Companies like Lophos Pharma, which is growing peyote legally in Canada, as well as researchers in the U.S. are also a threat to the sanctity Native American religious ceremonies.

“And then the pharmaceutical industry has their own justifications about why they’re not infringing on Native American spirituality, which is they’re using synthetic mescaline. So they’re creating chemical compounds in a lab that clone the cactus, the psychoactive substance. So they’re saying that’s OK because we’re not actually using the cactus, but for Native Americans and their worldview around interconnectedness and respecting the sovereignty of plants as well as humans. They say it’s not OK to clone our sacred cactus.”

Last month McGivney also wrote for The Guardian about the same issue. In Window Rock, Arizona, members of the Navajo Nation, called the Diné partake of azeé (peyote). “How would Christians feel if Jesus Christ was cloned?” Justin Jones, a Diné peyote practitioner and legal counsel for the NAC asked The Guardian. “And while the real Jesus is protected, people could do whatever they wanted to the clone.”

The NAC is the same church Burke explored in the 1950’s. Other Native American healers and shamans echoed the same response, saying that cloning or mass-producing peyote is fundamentally wrong from their context.

“I’m all for healing,” said Cora Maxx-Phillips, a social worker, member of the Navajo Nation human rights commission and board member of the Council of Peyote Way of Life Coalition, a Navajo Nation grassroots group. “But don’t do it at the expense of our people, who are trying to survive the multigenerational trauma inflicted upon us. Please, leave us alone.”

The post ‘Peyote Crisis’ Threatens Sacred Native American Ceremonies appeared first on High Times.

The post ‘Peyote Crisis’ Threatens Sacred Native American Ceremonies appeared first on Paradise Found.

A Reuters investigation found that raids on suspected fentanyl labs by the Mexican government have almost exclusively targeted inactive labs.

Pressure from the United States on Mexico to curb the massive flow of fentanyl coming into our country from theirs has led to a dramatic increase in raids on labs suspected of producing the powerful opioid responsible for the 73,000 some odd overdose deaths of American citizens in 2022 alone. However, it has recently come to light that at least 95% of the raids conducted between January and August of this year were on labs that had already shut down production, according to Reuters.

Data obtained through a freedom of information request submitted to SEDENA, the Mexican Defense Ministry showed that in 2023, Mexican military units performed 503 raids on inactive labs and 24 raids on active labs. In 2022 the military raided 450 inactive labs and 42 active labs. In 2021, the numbers were 195 and 22 respectively, and 267-55 in 2020.  Between December, 2018 and August, 2023 89% of the raids conducted on Mexican fentanyl laboratories were performed on inactive labs. 

Many have speculated this discrepancy in raid effectiveness has spurned from many sources, including the hands-off policies of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who took office in 2018. President Lopez Obrador has been vocal about trying to solve narcotics issues where they begin by addressing issues like poverty rather than the traditional game of narcotics whack-a-mole so to speak of aiming to take higher level cartel captains. The numbers, however, would also suggest that President Lopez Obrador’s administration has been inflating the data they share with the U.S. by only sharing the total number of raids conducted rather than including the context of how effective these raids have been, as was pointed out by Guillermo Valdes, Mexico’s civilian spy chief from 2007 to 2011.

“SEDENA is ripping up its prestige by altering the figures. Who is going to believe them after this?” Valdes said to Reuters.

Other possible causes for such ineffective raids could be the same problems that have plagued the country of Mexico for decades. Cartel superpowers buying off government, military and law enforcement officials to look the other way and killing those who oppose them certainly makes it difficult to conduct such high-risk operations. One ex-cartel member told Reuters the practice of giving up smaller labs with the understanding that the larger labs can continue business as usual has been commonplace long before fentanyl entered the picture.

“The trade offs happened a lot,” said Margarito Flores, a former associate of notorious cocaine kingpin El Chapo who turned government informant in 2008, eight years before El Chapo’s capture. 

Two active Sinaloan traffickers who refused to be identified for obvious reasons also told Reuters that these raids were often “for show,” as there were several Mexican military members sympathetic to cartel causes and/or on cartel payroll.

Since this data was made available some U.S. lawmakers have accused Mexico of running a completely fictitious war on drugs. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), co-chairman of the senate’s international narcotics control caucus told Reuters this data shows that our neighbors to the South are “fighting an imaginary war on drugs designed to score political points rather than save lives.”

In October of this year, several banners appeared in Sinaloa appearing to ban fentanyl production in the area, though many wrote this off as a cartel tactic to relieve pressure on their organizations by the U.S. and Mexican governments. 

“Attention. Due to the incessant disinformation of some media and the obvious omission of the government in not investigating and prosecuting the true culprits of this epidemic,” the banners said (in Spanish). “In Sinaloa, the sale, manufacture, transportation or any type of business that involves the substance known as fentanyl is strictly prohibited, including the sale of chemicals for its preparation. We have never been nor will we be related to that business. [Be warned of] the consequences. Att: Chapitos.”

The recent data put forth by Reuters was capped in August of this year so it was not immediately clear whether these banners had any effect on fentanyl production, though the U.S. has certainly kept the pressure on Mexico to do something about the issue as President Biden and President Lopez Obrador just spoke on the phone Thursday concerning the need for more enforcement at the border. President Biden also visited the country in November to discuss similar issues.

The post New Report Shows 89% of Fentanyl Labs Raided in Mexico Were Already Inactive appeared first on High Times.

The post New Report Shows 89% of Fentanyl Labs Raided in Mexico Were Already Inactive appeared first on Paradise Found.

Things got a bit spicy for border patrol officers in San Diego last week.

It was there, near the United States-Mexico border, that officers discovered more than $10 million worth of hard narcotics that had been hidden in a shipment of jalapeño paste.

The bust went down on December 13.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers said that they encountered a 28-year-old male driving a commercial tractor-trailer with a shipment manifested as jalapeño paste” at the Otay Mesa Cargo Facility.

“The driver, a valid border crossing card holder, was referred for further examination by CBP officers along with the tractor-trailer and shipment,” the agency said in a press release issued this week. 

“In the secondary inspection area, a CBP K-9 unit screened the shipment and alerted officers to examine the trailer more closely. Upon further examination, CBP officers discovered and extracted a total of 349 suspicious packages from vats of jalapeño paste. The contents of the packages were tested and identified as methamphetamine with a weight of 3,161.43 pounds and cocaine with a weight of 522.50 pounds,” the press releases continued.

As Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Michael Scappechio told the Los Angeles Times: “It was an extremely spicy situation.” 

“You never really know what you’re dealing with just in terms of dangerous narcotics and then you throw in there all that organic material; we had to break out the full [personal protective equipment],” Scappechio said.

“We won’t expose the reasons that led to the further examination,” Scappechio added, “but agent suspicion is often used.”

Rosa Hernandez, the director at the Otay Mesa Port, credited the unit’s K-9 teams for the bust.

“Our K-9 teams are an invaluable component of our counter-narcotics operations, providing a reliable and unequaled mobile detection capability,” said Hernandez “By implementing local operations under Operation Apollo and CBP’s Strategy to Combat Fentanyl and other Synthetic Drugs, we will continue to secure communities and stifle the growth of transnational criminal organizations, one seizure after another.”

According to local news station NBC San Diego, the “narcotics-in-jalapeño-paste seizure was just one of many successful drug busts in the border town recently.”

The United States Coast Guard said that it seized 18,219 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $239 million in the Pacific Ocean that was offloaded in San Diego earlier this month.

According to the Coast Guard, the offload was the “result of six separate suspected drug smuggling vessel interdictions or events off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America by the Coast Guard Cutters Waesche and Active in November.”

According to the Coast Guard, the Waesche “is one of four Legend-class national security cutters homeported in Alameda, California.” National security cutters “can operate in the most demanding open ocean environments, including the hazardous fisheries of the North Pacific and the vast approaches of the Southern Pacific, where a large amount of narcotics traffic occurs,” the Coast Guard said.

“The biggest of the six interdictions was the most recent interdiction, occurring Nov. 20, which was an interdiction of a self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) carrying more than 5,500 pounds of cocaine. The interdiction of the SPSS was the first in the Eastern Pacific since 2020,” the Coast Guard said in a press release.

Capt. Robert Mohr, commanding officer of the Waesche, said that all “four of our interdictions on this patrol are crucial to the Coast Guard’s efforts to keep illicit drugs off the streets, but our last interdiction of a semi-submersible vessel was noteworthy since it was the first semi-submersible interdicted in the Eastern Pacific in over three years.” 

“I am extremely impressed with the crew’s dedication throughout this dynamic patrol. They overcame multiple challenges with collective hard work, ingenuity, and positive attitudes to keep us in pursuit of these cartels and their dangerous drugs. A successful patrol like this one is rewarding and leads to better retention and recruiting efforts because everybody feels a sense of accomplishment,” Mohr said.

Vice Adm. Andrew Tiongson, commander, U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area, said he was “proud of the unity of effort displayed by U.S. Coast Guard members aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche and our partners who stopped these narcotics from entering our Nation through the maritime domain.”

The Coast Guard said that multiple agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security, “collaborate in the effort to combat transnational organized crime. The Coast Guard, Navy, Customs and Border Protection, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with allied and international partner agencies, all play a role in counternarcotic operations.” 

“The fight against drug cartels in the Eastern Pacific Ocean requires unity of effort in all phases, from detection and monitoring to interdictions and criminal prosecutions,” the press release said.

The post Border Patrol Seizes $10 Million Worth of Narcotics Hidden in Jalapeño Paste appeared first on High Times.

The post Border Patrol Seizes $10 Million Worth of Narcotics Hidden in Jalapeño Paste appeared first on Paradise Found.

A top member of the Sinaloa cartel responsible for allegedly distributing thousands of pounds of illegal cannabis was shot and killed in Southern California.

Eduardo Escobedo, 39, was found dead Thursday close to the intersection of Rosecrans and Towne avenues in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Escobedo and another man were both killed following a shooting incident.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office identified the second man who was shot dead as Guillermo De Los Angeles Jr., 47. Escobedo and De Los Angeles died at the scene after sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of shots being fired in an industrial area filled with warehouses. A third man was taken to a hospital close by with non-life threatening gunshot wounds. The third man was not identified.

Police officers and firefighter-paramedics arrived at the scene Thanksgiving morning after the shoot at an industrial property filled with warehouses.

ABC 7 reports that details about the shooting are scarce as officers sort through information. “We have no motive at this time. It appears that there was some type of gathering or party at the location from last night to early this morning,” sheriff’s Lt. Omar Camacho told ABC 7 Eyewitness News at the scene.

ABC 7 reports that details about the shooting are scarce. “We have no motive at this time. It appears that there was some type of gathering or party at the location from last night to early this morning,” sheriff’s Lt. Omar Camacho told ABC 7 Eyewitness News at the scene.

Video footage shows that investigators examined a black sedan that was near the bodies with its front doors open. Forty-foot shipping containers, semi trucks, and a forklift were all located nearby and provided a hidden spot where the crime could take place.

Who is El Mago, and What’s the Connection to El Chapo?

The Los Angeles Times reports that Escobedo is a convicted drug trafficker nicknamed “El Mago,” which is “The Magician,” in Spanish. Escobedo was the primary local cannabis distributor for Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Police believe Escobedo also allegedly put out a hit on a rival trafficker who was shot dead in his Bentley on the 101 Freeway in 2008. Escobedo was never charged in the murder, but his brother and another man were convicted and are serving life sentences.

In October 2013, Escobedo was wiretapped and allegedly recorded speaking with Guzmán Salazar about smuggling over five tons of cannabis through a tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border, prosecutors said.

Escobedo also allegedly laundered the drug earnings by purchasing exotic cars and shipping them to the cartel’s main hub in Culiacan, Sinaloa.

He served nearly five years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute more than 22,000 pounds of pot and laundering drug proceeds. For reference, 22,000 pounds is the equivalent of 11 tons or 10,000 kilos of pot. He was released in 2018 after serving time.

Then Escobedo eluded capture by police for over a decade. El Chapo, on the other hand, was arrested in 2014 in Mazatlan. In 2019, he was convicted by a jury of being a principal leader of a continuing criminal under his leadership of the crime syndicate known as the Sinaloa Cartel. 

In 2019, El Chapo was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, and was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture. The sentence marks the end of a 30-year drug trafficking career that saw Guzmán rise to the top of Mexico’s infamous Sinaloa drug cartel. 

Addressing the court at his sentencing hearing at the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York, Guzmán said he had not been given a fair trial and complained about being held in solitary confinement at Manhattan’s federal correctional facility before and during his three-month trial. “Since the government of the United States is going to send me to a prison where my name will never be heard again, I take advantage of this opportunity to say there was no justice here,” he said.

El Chapo’s wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, was released in September of this year from a California halfway house. Aispuro was sentenced in 2021 to three years in prison after pleading guilty to helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire. She had faced a minimum of 10 years in prison, but was spared under a so-called “safety valve” provision because she had no prior criminal record, was not considered a leader, and was not personally involved with violence.

Guzman Salazar is one of Mexico’s most wanted men.

Escobedo lived it up on social media in recent years, posting photos with Floyd Mayweather, Al Pacino, and others. He donned attire by Dolce and Gabbana and diamond-encrusted jewelry.

No arrests have been announced by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The post Cartel’s Primary Pot Distributor ‘El Mago’ Shot Dead in Los Angeles appeared first on High Times.

The post Cartel’s Primary Pot Distributor ‘El Mago’ Shot Dead in Los Angeles appeared first on Paradise Found.

A recent report by CBS News highlighted this trend, noting that as “ many veterans with PTSD remain desperate for healing, a growing number are turning to psychedelic-assisted treatment in Mexico — using substances the government they fought for says are illegal.”

“As I watched more of my teammates…more veterans start to take their own lives, I realized that that’s an option,” Herb Daniels, a former Green Beret, told CBS.

Following his retirement from the military, Daniels “said he faced a profound darkness that started to consume him,” which ultimately resulted in multiple suicide attempts.

He ultimately “found out about VETS, Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions,” a “nonprofit organization funds grants for veterans to go to Mexico for treatment that isn’t legal in the United States,” according to CBS News. 

The organization shuttles veterans from San Diego to Mexico for a psychedelic retreat each week.

Daniels embarked on his first retreat last year. CBS News has more on the experience:

“Upon arrival at the retreat site, the location of which CBS News was asked not to disclose for the safety and security of the participants, the veterans met with a local facilitator, Juan Aguilar, who guided them through the process. Aguilar first focused on setting intentions and preparing the veterans for their experience. The therapy session started with the use of mapacho smoke to cleanse the space, followed by a focused meditation with the medicine. The heart of the treatment involves a short, intense, psychedelic experience. During his session, Daniels went through a range of emotions, visibly moved as tears rolled down his face. The experience lasted about 10 minutes, and he said it felt ‘magical, like a fresh start.’”

“My heart was just opened, wide open, and there was laid bare so much pain, so much anger and as soon as I let it go, I became aware of my presence again, and I felt my body just relax,” Daniels told the network.

According to CBS, Daniels “and his wife now dedicate themselves to assisting veterans in getting the help they need – by helping them get to Mexico for treatment.”

The story highlights a significant component of the drive to make psychedelics legal in the United States: researchers are increasingly convinced of their potential as a form of mental health treatment, and they have been vulnerable populations, including returning veterans.

Earlier this month, Massachusetts Gov. Maura T. Healey filed legislation that includes a proposal to the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics for veterans.

“Our veterans have sacrificed so much for our country, and this transformative legislation marks an important step toward ensuring that Massachusetts supports them in return,” said Healey. “From day one, our administration has been committed to revitalizing veterans’ services in Massachusetts and ensuring that every one of these heroes receives the benefits, resources and support that they deserve.”

Veterans advocacy groups applauded the bill.

“We’re grateful to Governor Healey and her team for recognizing the need for giving back to the heroes who have served our country, both at home and overseas,” said Bill LeBeau, Adjutant for Massachusetts Veterans of Foreign Wars. “With this bill, the Healey-Driscoll Administration demonstrates a real commitment to accomplishing outcomes for our Veterans that will be meaningful and impactful in so many ways; it also sends a signal that more needs to be done to support them.”

The most decisive action will have to come from Washington, however, as psychedelics remain prohibited under federal law. 

A growing number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill have publicly endorsed making psychedelics legal for mental health treatment. 

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) and Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw (TX-02) introduced a bill this summer that would direct the Department of Defense to research psychedelics.

“This is a real wild coalition,” Crenshaw said after introducing the measure, noting the ideological composition of the bill’s sponsors.

The most crucial show of support would come from the White House, and there were signals earlier this year that President Joe Biden could actually be amenable to psychedelic treatment.

Biden’s younger brother, Frank Biden, said as much in an interview this past summer.

 “He is very open-minded,” Frank Biden said in an interview with radio host Michael Smerconish. 

“Put it that way. I don’t want to speak; I’m talking brother-to-brother. Brother-to-brother,” he added. “The question is, is the world, is the U.S. ready for this? My opinion is that we are on the cusp of a consciousness that needs to be brought about to solve a lot of the problems in and around addiction, but as importantly, to make us aware of the fact that we’re all one people and we’ve got to come together.”

The post U.S. Military Veterans Are Going to Mexico for Psychedelic Treatment appeared first on High Times.

The post U.S. Military Veterans Are Going to Mexico for Psychedelic Treatment appeared first on Paradise Found.