Gangland The Rise of the Mexican Drug Cartels from El Paso to Vancouver

Author: Jerry Langton
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9781118008058
Published In: October 2011
Format: Paperback , 288 pages
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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A frightening look at Mexico's new power elite—the Mexican drug cartels

The members of Mexico's drug cartels are among the criminal underworld's most ambitious and ruthless entrepreneurs. Supplanting the once dominant Colombian cartels, the Mexican drug cartels are now the major distributor of heroin and cocaine to the U.S. and Canada. Not only have their drugs crossed north of the border, so have the cartels (in 2009, 230 active Mexican drug cartels have been reported in U.S. cities). In Gangland,bestselling author Jerry Langton details their frightening stranglehold on the economy and daily life of Mexico today—and what it portends for the future of Mexico and its neighbours.

Offering a firsthand look from members of law enforcement, politicians, journalists, and people involved in the drug trade in Mexico and Canada, Gangland sheds a harsh light on the multibillion dollar industry that is the drug trade, the territorial wars, and the on-the-street reality for the United States, with the importation of narco-terrorists. With the unstinting realism and keen analysis that have made him an internationally respected journalist, Langton offers the bleak prospects of what a collapsed government in Mexico might lead to—a new Mexican warlord state not unlike Somalia.

Details the emergence of the Mexican drug cartels—the transformation of middlemen who ferried drugs from Bolivia and Colombia to the U.S. and Canada into self-styled entrepreneurs
Describes how the growth of the cartels led to violent territorial wars—with Felipe Calderon declaring war on the cartels in 2006
Offers a frightening look at how much the incursion of the drug cartels has affected American life and business—Wachovia and Bank of America have been found guilty of laundering cartel profits

An unflinching examination of the world's most lucrative—and deadliest—drug cartel, Gangland lets readers explore, with brutal clarity, the newest front on America's latest war.

Acknowledgments ix

1 Deadly Playground 1

2 The Eagle Eats the Snake 17

3 A Mexican-born Emperor 33

4 The Rise of the Drug Cartels 51

5 Enemies of the State 73

6 Trouble in Paradise 85

7 Calderón Versus the Cartels 103

8 Battling the Beltrán Leyva Cartel 113

9 Carnage in 2009 131

10 The Roll Call of Death 145

11 The War Expands 159

12 Exporting Drugs and Crime 169

13 The Violence Escalates 181

14 "A Phase of Very Intense Violence . . ." 209

15 Mexican Cartel Violence Moves North 235

Notes 255

Sources 259

Index 261

Jerry Langton is a journalist and the author of several books, including the national bestsellers Fallen Angel: The Unlikely Rise of Walter Stadnick in the Canadian Hells Angels and Biker: Inside the Nefarious World of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang. Over the past two decades, Langton's work has appeared in The Toronto Star; The Globe & Mail;National Post; Maclean's; The Daily News of New York City; The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.; American Banker and dozens of other publications.