The evidence keeps mounting that the war on the Mexican drug cartels is every bit the United State’s war as well. The cartels have sunk their tentacles into major cities around the U.S. like Chicago. In fact, the Post reports that the Justice Dept. has found that Mexican cartels are operating in 230 U.S. cities.
By Steve Fainaru and William Booth Washington Post Foreign ServiceThe Flores brothers had never looked like much in the eyes of local narcotics agents. But by the time it all came crashing down this year, the drug-distribution network allegedly run by the 28-year-old twins from the Mexican American barrios of Chicago was one of the largest and most sophisticated ever seen in the U.S. heartland, according to interviews and federal indictments.
Pedro and Margarito Flores allegedly operated as an American annex to a major Mexican drug mafia, and their arrest and the dismantling of their purported network opened a window on how powerful Mexican cartels operate in the United States, distributing cocaine and heroin with the corporate efficiency of UPS, while back home competitors are tortured and beheaded.