Drug War: Mexico Crackdown Squeezing Cocaine Dealers In Canada
There's a new drug war brewing along the U.S. border -- but this time it's coming from up north. As Mexico cracks down on its warring drug factions, dealers in Canada are battling each other for market share and dominance. Since March, drug-related violence has escalated, infiltrating towns and communities with little or no connection to drug dealers or gangs. According to the Los Angeles Times, drug dealers are sparing no one --" gunning down women (one in a car with her 4-year-old son in the back seat), high school students with no gang allegiances and, especially, one another, in broad daylight in and around the city that will host the 2010 Winter Olympics." What's driving the killings? Authorities told the LA Times it's a reflection of tougher enforcement in Mexico.
Authorities trace the violence to the recent government crackdown on cocaine traffickers in Mexico, which has squeezed profit margins for cocaine north of the U.S. border. Canada's outlaw retailers are fighting to the death over market share, police say, a situation exacerbated by personal vendettas and power vacuums left by the arrests of gang leaders.
"The war in Mexico directly impacts on the drug trade in Canada. . . . There's a complete disruption of the flow of cocaine into Canada, and we are seeing the result," said Pat Fogarty, operations officer for the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, British Columbia's main law enforcement agency targeting organized crime.
British Columbia has emerged as the new power player in the drug market, specializing in its "powerful" homegrown marijuana, better known as "B.C. Bud." The LA Times reports Canada's dealers are employing various techniques and devices to avoid police detection, such as
planes, helicopters, drug-sniffing dogs, X-rays and, in one case, a tunnel to move drugs.
To read more the LA Times, click here
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First Posted: 06-30-09 11:49 AM | Updated: 07-31-09 05:12 AM