Mexico says some 80 drug cartels at work in country, up from 8 reported by previous government
Published December 18, 2012
MEXICO CITY Mexico’s new attorney general said Tuesday that as many as 80 small and medium-size drug cartels are operating in the country, a number far higher than the last formal government assessment.
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Los Zetas controlling migrant workers and drug smuggling routes to USA
One of Mexicos most powerful criminal gangs has muscled into the migrant-smuggling racket, changing what had been a relatively benign if risky industry of independent operators into a centralized business that often has deadly consequences for those who try to operate outside it.
Los Zetas, who earned a reputation for brutality by gunning down thousands of Mexicans in the ongoing battle for drug-smuggling routes to the United States, now control much of the illicit trade of moving migrant workers toward the U.S. border, experts in the trade say.
Theyve brought logistical know-how, using tractor-trailer trucks to carry ever larger loads of people and charging higher prices, as much as $30,000 per head for migrants from Asia and Africa who seek to get to the United States.
Theyve also brought an unprecedented level of intimidation and violence to the trade. Los Zetas or their allies often kidnap and hold for ransom poor migrants who try to operate outside the system. If relatives dont wire payment, the migrants sometimes are executed and dumped in mass graves or press-ganged into jobs with the criminal group.
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"...said Los Zetas had been merciless with migrants.
Los Zetas control the trafficking of persons, he said. They are crueler and kill more easily. . . . They are voracious. They ask for more and more and more money.
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