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on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Sunday, July 23, 2017

Mexican Drug Smugglers High on Ford

Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from The Daily Beast

SKUNK in the TRUNK
By: Jeremy Kryt

Fresh evidence turned up this month at the Ford dealership in Youngstown, Ohio.That’s where the bales of marijuana were discovered, hidden in a batch of Ford Fusions shipped by rail from the company’s plant in Mexico. A subsequent investigation turned up 17 other loaded Fusions in three other Ohio counties and nearby Pennsylvania. In total, police found 400 pounds of weed just between July 7 and 11. That’s more than $1 million which should have gone toward lining cartel pockets, instead of making headlines.

Trafficking in Traffic:

Long maligned for its lack of appeal to young drivers, the Fusion now seems to be trending with a certain demographic. Just not the one Ford had in mind.

So far this year dozens of other Fusions stuffed with hundreds of pounds of skunk in the trunk have been found from Arizona to Minnesota. And since the cars as such are shipped legally, no physical barrier would have kept the stashed cannabis out.

Trade between Mexico and the U.S. accounts for about $580 billion per year, making a long-term shutdown of commercial traffic on the border unrealistic. 

FORD Assembly and Stamping Plant in Hermosillo,  Sonora
Fusion Collusion: 

Ford produces the Fusion at its Hermosillo plant in Mexico’s northern Sonora state. A company spokesperson issued a statement in the wake of the Youngstown discovery, saying Ford was cooperating with the FBI and that: “We have confirmed that this is not happening at our plant or at our internal shipping yards.”

The first part of that statement about working with law enforcement might be true, but the second claim almost certainly isn’t.

Dillworth, Minnesota
The pot found in all the vehicles was carefully wrapped in half-moon-shaped packages designed to fit into the spare wheel well. Coffee grounds were used to mask the scent. Aluminum Foil and Saran Wrap was used as packaging. The degree of detailed planning, and the uniform use of Fusions from the same facility, likely means an inside job.

DEA Photo: Youngstown, Ohio
A federal law enforcement officer, who agreed to speak to The Daily Beast on background, says the marijuana would likely have had to be placed in the vehicles prior to them being loaded onto railcars for transport from the Ford plant. “The enemy is very agile, they’re dynamic, they’re constantly looking for a loophole,” the officer says, citing what he calls “infiltration from the cartels in the supply chain.”

Automotive workers in Mexico make on average about $50 a week. That leaves them vulnerable to bribes, according to the law enforcement source, who says the conspirators could be anyone from warehouse workers to drivers.

The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agency generally counts on their counterparts in Mexico to inspect vehicles. On the American side “they don’t open every single vehicle to see what’s inside,” says the officer. “Maybe someone told [the smugglers] these vehicles are pre-cleared.”

Mexican Auto Worker Earning an Average of $50 USD per WEEK
Only a tiny fraction of consumer goods coming across the border are screened, which can make them ideal for stowing banned substances. Once on U.S. soil the shipping containers housing narcotics are easily tracked down by stateside accomplices.

In Ford’s case, the likely culprit is the Sinaloa cartel—formerly run by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, currently imprisoned in the U.S.  Organized crime groups in Mexico are notoriously jealous and territorial of their plazas (production and shipping routes), and the Sinaloa syndicate is known to rule Sonora, at least for now.

62 comments:

  1. Surprisingly a very articulate topic as to the trafficking of drugs and its effectiveness of tactics used by organized criminals.
    Unfortunately, the Ford company became one of many companies used as a victim to illegal drug trafficking. Practices used by corrupt and bribery to obtain its mission ( destination).
    Clearly clever tactics to keep demand to those high consumption countries with fortunes to gain.
    Question ? How long has this operation been in operation? And who are involved?
    Moreover, who will be the next victim?
    A never ending cycle and a never ending battle against the war on drugs.

    E42

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    1. No cameras on that south of the border car factory? Seems like some one didn't want to lock them up or had access to the keys... thing is many crooked rats made lots of money out of it.

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    2. I believe most of the big American corps. Know what is going on. Drugs r crossed by 18 wheels here in Laredo. US cannot check all trucks
      Corporate Mexico is laundering $$$$$ on wall street

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    3. The cars arent locked coming from the factory- the keys are also in them. I work for a major railroad in the US- the autoracks are unlike boxcars as they open from the end and are double, sometimes triple leveled. They are hard to get into, but it can happen. We've found transients in the cars inside of the rail cars with the vehicle started to avoid the heat/ cold- they leave about a 1/4 tank in them for transport around ports- on/ off trains/ ships- and onto trucks for final transport to the dealer.

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    4. I am buying Ford Stock.since they r in the mota business. I love Mexico provides all my pot
      Viva Mexico

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    5. GRIFA, Such carefully packed "grifa", who needs to traffick that ant size quantities when you have airplanes and trucks and tunnels?
      --I smell BS, John De Lorean carefully packed his COCAINE in his cars, he was guilty but never went to prison, even carried on with his playboy life, cocaine would have been a much better investment, unless grifa is good enough to prove the evil ways of the mexicans.
      By the way, only very few select mexican automotive technicians make $50.00 dollars (USD) a week, specially when the minimum wage has come down from $2.99 USD A DAY to about $1.50 USD due to devaluation...
      Maybe politicians supplement their income by collecting for the workers and paying them their miserly hunger wages, CUBAN government is suppossed to get paid for their workers in US DOLLARS and then they pay the workers in Cuban dollars, worth about 2 US pennies each...

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    6. Sad to say you have been smoking shit weed, get out from under the rock. You need to check the quality of American grown Marijuana, it's quality surpasses any brown seedy brick weed they import from Mexico.

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    7. During the Second World War FORD, DUPONT, GENERAL MOTORS, and other American companies were supplying the nazis with munitions, and other wartime essentials, all while they lined their pockets.. supplying the enemy with weapons for personal gain while MILLIONS
      Of innocent Jews were being gassed with DUPONTS CHEMICALS is waaaay worse than a few pounds of ian organic plant that makes you happy and hungry.. Americans like drugs, but then they blame mexico, and if y'all think everyone in the US was innocent on this deal... you're oblivious.. drugs make everyone money, except the losers that use them... just my opinion.

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    8. Abe Soto: Seriously, would you please provide documentation for you provocative assertions that American corporations supplied the enemy with munitions and war materials. Thanks
      Mexico-Watcher

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  2. What'the problem with pot? Last I, heard in both Colorado and Washington states you can use it freely despite a "Federal" law against it. Are Federal officials hypocrites, lazy or just plain dumb and incompentent as to how to prohibit people in these two states from consuming marijuana???

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    1. And its legal in DC go figure smh....

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    2. @7:45 ok my obviously non-American friend, in the US we have something called STATES' RIGHTS. This means that something can be simultaneously prohibited at a federal level, and legal on a state level. Thus, while most federal officials ARE hypocrites, lazy, and dumb, that isn't the reason they don't stop people consuming marijuana in states where it is legal. The reason they don't intervene is a tension between their duty to enforce federal law, and their duty to respect the rights of states.

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    3. 7:45 Due to "legal pot", places like Culorao are full of mariguanos living on the street, they live in mattresses and camping tents, and carry on luggage with wheels, and the city stinks so bad because their smelly arses that they have started stealing their wardrobes and worldly posession and throwing all they own in garbage trucks...
      China had the same problem after allowing opium businessmen to open their opium dens, in the 1770s, because drug addiction sucks, legal or illegal, and soon noby pays any promised "taxes, wpecially those with million dollar licenses.
      If you wanna make money, hook up with a RUSSIAN SUGAR DADDY, report nothing, pay no taxes, and keep all you can offshored.

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    4. @8:01 or maybe there all busy having relations with Colombian hoookers, and worrying about petty stuff like "weed" .. they should focus on the crooked banks, rapist , terrorist.. they'll never be able to appease the American appetite for substances .. so go back to your office job, and take another rail...

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    5. @8:01 sneeze bullshit! Federal law is above State Law. The feds are simply imcompetent, lazy and hypocrites and all the rest of the shit.

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    6. 12:58 weed is no petty stuff,
      While the the one or two tomes some guy may have in his pockets may be bedbug size crimes, the quantities of guys supplying them tend to make up for a lot of crimes and murders all over the US, it brings along other drugs, gun crimes, prostitution, broken families and abandoned children, and I have seen many women forking their ass for a toke or a smoke turn into 2 dollar crack hoes, while they were told all the way down "it's ok, it doesn't matter, try it just this once"
      by other pendejos.

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    7. Feds can shut anything down anytime if they want too like The dispensaries and delivery services

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  3. Time for some more popcorn. Good times.

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  4. Its been going on like that or years my cousins in mx have been sending shit like that in all kinds of products we have made in mx .....you can not stop these guts they come up with everything and easy takes about 5 to 10 years for them to pick up on it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny how officials from us agencies believe they know everything when it comes to narcos.

      Delete
    2. No they don't stop lying.
      And if they did, you must not make much to risk talking about it

      Delete
  5. Mientras tanto en los estados de Ohio y Pennsylvania las gallinas andan todas alborotadas. - Sol Prendido

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  6. Ppl still buy weed from mexico? Idk anyone who smokes that crap, but i guess someones buying it

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    1. People don't know the difference. When I was younger I use to work at a meat packing factory that would serve to high end stores and places like food 4 less. It was the same meat going out to both places, only difference was one place was selling it for more. Same shit with weed. I bet I can sell some shwag to some dumb teenager who thinks he's a weed Connoisseur by telling him it's a newly created strain that has been in development for the last 5 years and they'll soak it all up.

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    2. HA HA exactly right and it dont even have to be weed: thyme will do !!!

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    3. Most likely wasn't regular weed. Must had been the other type that sells for over 300/oz. Why would they go for lots of trouble just to send the cheap wacky stuff in brand new cars? Don't believe weed was the only stuff they were able to send north.

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    4. Mexican weed has improved A LOT in the past few years. They have nice hydroponic now that even in California would be considered medium decent tier. Even regular earth weed has improved. No more compressed crap. Theu have more strains.

      I'm fron the Bay Area, i lived in Berkeley so i know weed. I also go to MTY a few months out of the year. My weed contact there has improved a lot in the past decade.

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    5. @9:46 you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you cant fool all of the people all of the time. only an idiot cant tell the difference between good steaks and cheap meat

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    6. Im just saying the best bud is in the us, and there is a lot of it.

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    7. @8:14 ok, so without googling it, tell me the difference between a good steak and a bad steak?

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    8. Now drug dealears in states like sonoroa, chihuahua, nuevo leon among others grow that 'hydrophonic pot' lots of that weed ends up in many places in the us. Sometimes even in weed dispensaries...

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    9. 9:46 You need to keep or go back to meat packaging..Your understanding of the drug game is minimum. Proof in point is when you said"I bet I could sell shwag to some dumb teen,which means you never have.In fact try doing just that and see what happens to you.Most ppl know Mexican weed from High grade.

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    10. 6:46 dude he/she is just giving an option. Just read the comments and be quite

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    11. 7:45 you obviously don't know the definition of opinion...You need to stop!

      Delete
  7. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there were lots of us from the upper midwest - Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, etc. who would make the long drive in the family station wagon (mine was a Mercury Marquis Colony Squire station wagon with fake wood panelling on the side, 500 cubic inch V-8) or van with surfboards on top from our middle-class suburbs to "Mazatlan to go surfing" with a side trip to Culiacan. wink-wink nudge-nudge. We would take a Polaroid photo to find the man with the mota, and it would never take more than a few hours to connect and score in C-can. The dope dealers there were happy to get cash dollars, radios, electronic goods, etc. and they were totally chill, puros costenyos and campesinos de buena onda. For a few bucks more they would stash the keys in the many places on our huge cars and vans, stuff the surfboards full and we would make our viaje back to Gringolandia todo tranquilo. There was virtually no security at the border then, nobody knew what weed was and there were no dope-sniffing dogs and high-tech detection equipment.

    My hippie friend J from StL would bring back 100 kilos every six months and we would distribute it all over MO and IL - sold some of it, smoked a lot of it and spilled some too. Those were the days when retail prices were $15/lid, $45/quarter pound, $150-140 pound. Of pretty good Sativas, from Sinaloa and Chihuahua and later from Michoacan, Guerrero and Oaxaca. (The best Mexican weed I've ever smoked was from San Jose del Pacifico Oaxaca.) I can't remember the price per kilo but we were making basically 6, 8, 10x markup with zero sales costs, people would camp out in our yards to buy with cash. Kinda like that one movie Blow, but we never graduated to the big time, just midwest stoners going to Foghat concerts and getting super stoned on quality weed.

    Back then in Mexico it was all about mota, like in the movie "Romancing The Stone." There was no cocaine, that came from Colombia via the Caribbean. Very low volume of heroin, that came from Asia. No meth labs either, back in that era crank was made by West Coast motorcycle gangs. So it was a weed vibe, really chill. Not at all like the drug war of the current era. So sad to read all these posts about how ugly it's all become.

    Peace, love and light to all from maryjane's boyfriend in San Francisco, California

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. God I miss that good marijuana. The people nowadays have no idea that mexico grew some of the best sativas ever. I dont even know if it exists anymore since weed has been so hybridized. I even quit smoking herb because the "new" pot does not make me feel good.

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    2. 9:43 EXACTLY RIGHT! The hybridized weed sold nowadays fucks you up and got NOTHING of the good vibe in it. Feel sorry for all those tokers out there who dont know what they are missing.

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    3. I agree. Mexican sativa is great conversation weed. I don't always like the new high potency "couch" weed. it's great for evening relaxation but too sedating to smoke all day. in my area it's mostly indica

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    4. Great now the border does truck loads

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    5. I prefer a little coke now days. The mota I am tired of.

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    6. The pot trade of the 60's and 70's were the good old days. No guns and a time when a man's word was his bond. One didn't just trade pot to make money but one did it because one felt like the world would be a better place if more people smoked pot. Coke killed all the goodness in the dope business. God gave us pot, the Devil gave coke, meth.

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    7. One main problem with that coke is, it turns lots of btches, m'frs into snakes... Same thing with meth, heroin, but coke is worst, is why in many places is known as devil's dust..

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    8. 6:36 the british gave us opium and morphine, then heroin, used the french connection, the sinaloans, afghanistan, iran, MAO, the Michuakass, the Jaliskas and the guerreroños, and many Don Pizzas. The mob was murdering over heroin before the 1920s but the british were abusing the chinese since the 1700s with their opiates from india, then everybody has their own drug trafficking colony in china, exacted by friendly treaties, because drugs are very good business, and it they are too bad habits, well, tough shit for you, the british even started people by giving them free samples.
      "The Opium WarAnd Foreign Encroachment" asia for educators,
      Colunbia.edu.
      Consultant Dr Sue Gronewold.
      --The Chinese Laundry: International drug trafficking and
      Hong Kong's banking industry. By Mark S Gaylord.

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  8. Youngstown Ohio has been historically attached to the Italian mob since the 70s and they have every hand behind this. The people sitting in the boardroom are either piss their shipment got seized or happy because they tipped off the cops to get their cut.

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    Replies
    1. Th United Automotive Workers of the US needed to make up for some lost quotas, their membership has lost their jobs to mexican slave laborers...
      Management t ships cocaine or heroine by the ton, in closed shipping containers, often by plane.

      Delete
  9. Drugs have boom for Federal jobs. Darn good pay. A boom for Mexican economy. A boom for money laundering along the border
    The money launders r make killing.

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  10. Thank you for borderland beat. It gives us in Mexico a chance to vent our frustration. We see the cost to human lifes because of drugs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gracias a ti, Thank You for your comment.
      I have seen first hand the degradation on society in small towns on both sides of the border , but esp in Mexico in areas that I have known for many years and with familias I know. Hardly anyone is untouched these days, a sad testimate to the ravages of time, greed, values etc. Most Good hardworking folks are strategizing in ways they never would of had to think about a generation ago to keep their jobs, their children safe, their extended families together and their traídonal cultural values.
      I am very happy to know we at BB offer you a space to vent.
      Please feel free to send suggestions of topics of interest to you.

      Delete
    2. Let venting take a back seat, name names...

      Delete
  11. They going to legally grow mota in Los Fresno texas

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  12. Built ford tough

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  13. That'll explain why Ford didn't need a bail out.lol

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  14. Price is way off on the weed, man. Maybe around $250,000 but not $1M

    - Sol mojado

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  15. The Ford was made famous by Texas' Cadillac Cartel, one of the largest marijuana smuggling operations in the US. The DEA has for years tried to tackle the Cartel and breakdown its infrastructure, but have been unsuccessful in doing so. They like to use Ford vehicles over Kia & Toyota due to the suspension.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. how bout that chevy cavalier or that dodge neon... Lol

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    2. The Cavalier anytime. Some little bugs easy to fix.
      It was so good chevrolet stop making it, son chingaderas!

      Delete
  16. who wants that crap brick weed anyways?

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    Replies
    1. I 'll take it, its cheap.i aint hating on it . no soy chiquion mucho menos un weedsnob.




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  17. Seems pretty sophisticated for running weed. I would have thought coke or heroin. It's surprising people still smuggle in buda from Mexico. I'm Mexican and I don't even smoke that crap.

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  18. Cheech and Chong up in smoke y pollos en la linea Tijuana jijijiji

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 12:20 Amber! "jijiji"?
      You have been smoking that shit!
      Tás como la chiva.

      Delete
  19. so what its legal in Cali and nothings come of it

    ReplyDelete

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