Posted on 04/19/2020 12:41:52 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
NEW YORK - Coronavirus is dealing a gut punch to the illegal drug trade, paralyzing economies, closing borders and severing supply chains in China that traffickers rely on for the chemicals to make such profitable drugs as methamphetamine and fentanyl.
One of the main suppliers that shut down is in Wuhan, the epicenter of the global outbreak.
Associated Press interviews with nearly two dozen law enforcement officials and trafficking experts found Mexican and Colombian cartels are still plying their trade as evidenced by recent drug seizures but the lockdowns that have turned cities into ghost towns are disrupting everything from production to transport to sales.
Along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border through which the vast majority of illegal drugs cross, the normally bustling vehicle traffic that smugglers use for cover has slowed to a trickle. Bars, nightclubs and motels across the country that are ordinarily fertile marketplaces for drug dealers have shuttered. And prices for drugs in short supply have soared to gouging levels.
“They are facing a supply problem and a demand problem,” said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former official with CISEN, the Mexican intelligence agency. “Once you get them to the market, who are you going to sell to?”
Virtually every illicit drug has been impacted, with supply chain disruptions at both the wholesale and retail level.
“The godfathers of the cartels are scrambling,” said Phil Jordan, a former director of the DEA’s El Paso Intelligence Center.
Cocaine prices are up 20 percent or more in some cities. Heroin has become harder to find in Denver and Chicago, while supplies of fentanyl are falling in Houston and Philadelphia. In Los Angeles, the price of methamphetamine has more than doubled in recent weeks to $1,800 per pound.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
The impediment of the drug trade is going to hurt North Korea big time.
All the bad guys of the world are always in the drug trade - it’s their number one gig!
From the Mexican and south American druglords ; to their Chinese chemical precursor makers ; to the Taliban and their opium poppy’s in Afghanistan ; to morrocan Hash merchants- all of it.
The opium and heroin and cocaine trades All of these have the source of the natural product a tropical climate and then the clientele in the northern climates of Europe and the America’s. That IS your drug trade
( Meth is not tropical. plant based and can be made anywhere )
One good thing about the COVID-19 lock-down, I suspect there has been a dramatic decrease in obsessive behavior (other than Freeping of course)
Don’t forget the CIA and the rest of the deep state in our country.
Time to give these ***holes the Escobar treatment.
L
” the clientele in the northern climates of Europe and the America’s”
And that is the number one driver of the drug trade. The dollars and euros and pounds that the users give to the drug dealers.
Can you believe the tone of this story? It is written as though this is a bad thing and as though the consumers are victims of inflation due to restricted supply.
The press ignores the problems experienced by the general public of the US, and focuses on scum. Typical.
You nailed it. That’s exactly what it sounds like. What a oddly disturbing way to write a story.
Nanzi will include them for billions in bailout money.
The Mexican peso has fallen from 18.50 pesos to the U.S. dollar to 23.6 pesos per U.S. dollar in the last month. I wonder why.
Well who else is going to be in a black market? Not something that draws the rainbows and sunshine crowd.
Yeah, I just can’t believe how much the meth is costing me these days.
I’m sure the billions the cartels have raked in will leave them in dire straits.
Yawn. Our government does not give a shit about the drug problem in this country.
No cartels in Baja California?
Why? Did drug prices rise or use fall when Escobar was brought down?
“Why?”
Because they’re killing Americans. A price must be paid for that.
L
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