New York Times Interviews Mexican Drug Lords Terrified of Trump’s Cartel Crackdown: ‘The Most Important Thing Now is to Survive’
Mexican drug cartels are reportedly worried about their futures with Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
According to a seemingly sympathetic report from the New York Times, the cartels are expressing fears that their business model is at risk because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug cartels.
The report states:
One cartel leader says he’s trying to figure out how to protect his family in case the American military strikes inside Mexico. Another says he’s already gone into hiding, rarely leaving his home.
Two young men who produce fentanyl for the cartel say they have shut down all their drug labs.
A barrage of arrests, drug seizures and lab busts by the Mexican authorities in recent months has struck the behemoth Sinaloa Cartel, according to Mexican officials and interviews with six cartel operatives, forcing at least some of its leaders to scale back on fentanyl production in Sinaloa state, their stronghold.
The cartels have sown terror across Mexico and caused untold damage in the United States. But here in Culiacán, the state capital, the dynamic seems to be shifting, at least for now.
Cartel operatives say they’ve had to move labs to other areas of the country or temporarily shut down production.