Meth in Juarez

Here’s a story from the Albuquerque Journal that sheds some light on the recent spate of killings in Ciudad Juarez:

For the longest time, meth was “forbidden” on the streets of this gritty metropolis.

When people say “forbidden,” they don’t mean by law, although methamphetamine is as illegal in Mexico as it is in the U.S. What they mean is forbidden by the cartels.

But there is so much meth now flooding this border region that the drug has begun leaking into the local market, hooking addicts from poor barrios to well-off neighborhoods and sparking friction between the Sinaloa Cartel – a major meth producer – and the Juárez Cartel, which preferred until recently to push heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

It’s part of a series the Journal is doing on cartels.

Check it out.