Thanks Lex Pelger for highlighting the following articles
Of course all he’s doing is creating space for newer younger, smarter and probably more violent individuals to fill the space.
But there’s no point repeating that ad nauseum
The DEA & the Cartels
Could US Deportations Compromise Trump Administration’s MS13 Crackdown?
https://insightcrime.org/news/us-deportations-compromise-trump-ms13-crackdown/
Will Arrest of Guatemala’s Most Wanted Fugitive Rattle Drug Underworld?
https://insightcrime.org/news/will-arrest-guatemala-most-wanted-fugitive-rattle-drug-underworld/
Salon says Trump’s plan to wage war with the cartels will backfire
https://www.salon.com/2025/03/15/trumps-plan-to-wage-with-cartels-will-backfire-experts-say/
The 2013 DEA “Hemisphere” phone records collection project that so angered civil rights advocates turned out to also have had internal watchdogs who had raised the alarm about the program’s legality
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/18/dea-hemisphere-phone-data-collection-surveillance/
The US Sentencing Commission released a report about the prevalence of overdoses in federal drug trafficking offenses
https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/overdoses-federal-drug-trafficking-crimes
Points that caught my eye:
– Less than five percent (4.8%) of sentenced individuals in this study knowingly misrepresented the drugs they were trafficking
– Almost 80 percent of the victims who overdosed on fentanyl did not know they were taking that drug & most overdose victims believed they were taking heroin, oxycodone, or cocaine
A narcoliterature study of friendship in narcotrafficking
Narcotraffic, Friendship, And (Infra)Politics: A Survey Of Narcoliterature And (Un)Sociability
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13569325.2025.2452559
And a thesis project on narco culture & luxury fashion in Colombia
NARCO CULTURE AND LUXURY FASHION: EXAMINING PERCEPTIONS AND
PURCHASE INTENTIONS IN COLOMBIA
https://repository.urosario.edu.co/server/api/core/bitstreams/4f07f92b-c0d1-4471-bebd-67692b42d585/content
