East Texas has emerged as a hub for the distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine in recent years, according to a Texas DEA agent.
The infiltration of the drug trade into East Texas became apparent when a recent raid of a trailer near Tyler uncovered over 170 kilograms of methamphetamine. As DEA agent Kaleb Sanderson told KLTV, the large manufacturing lab had been flooding Dallas-Fort Worth with the highly addictive stimulant — not the other way around, as some might have assumed.
Just south of Tyler in Cherokee County, a multi-agency bust of a home in Rusk on May 23 yielded yet another methamphetamine lab, according to KLTV. This lab converted liquid methamphetamine into crystal methamphetamine and had been under investigation for two years.
Around 540 grams of meth were seized, along with several weapons and a large amount of cash. Four suspects — all with connections to Mexico — were taken into custody. There were also 10 children between the ages of 1 and 14 found on the premises who were taken in by Child Protective Services.
The massive meth lab near Tyler had been operated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of many Mexican cartels which operate in a streamlined and organized way throughout the East Texas region, “just like Amazon,” Sanderson told KLTV.
“They have bankers, pilots, and the amount of cash they have is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. They have legitimate businesses they use to launder their money,” Sanderson explained to KLTV.
Cartels also align with local gangs or any individuals looking to make a profit.
As The Dallas Express reported, a federal court in Sherman recently convicted Debra Lynn Mercer-Erwin, the proprietor of an aviation trust firm based in Oklahoma City, on charges related to an international drug trafficking conspiracy.
Prosecutors argued that she knew and actively tried to hide that many of her clients were in the illegal drug business and used her planes to transport large amounts of illicit drugs.
With no limits to where or with whom they are willing to operate, the cartels of Mexico have built a huge illicit drug network in Texas, as The Dallas Express reported. The sons of the notorious Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán have played a large part in this, with recent federal indictments blaming them for the ongoing U.S. fentanyl crisis.
Fentanyl, named by the DEA as the leading cause of death among Americans under age 50, is highly addictive since it is approximately 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin.
Because it is often disguised as other substances, such as oft-abused prescription drugs like oxycodone, some have even characterized it as a poisoning problem more than a drug problem.
“We had over 107,000 people die of drug poisonings,” Sanderson told KLTV. “This is the most deadly drug threat we have ever faced in the United States.”
The traffic of illegal drugs is highly lucrative, meaning competition for resources and turf between cartels leads to outbreaks of violence on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
As The Dallas Express reported, due to the ongoing security issues related to cartel violence in certain areas of Mexico, the State Department has issued travel advisories warning U.S. citizens against going to Guerrero, Colima, Michoacan, Zacatecas, Sinaloa, and Tamaulipas.