The dramatic increase in heroin use and heroin overdose deaths in the St. Louis metro area is a direct result of the expanding operations of Mexican drug cartels in the region, according to a new book written by a St. Louisan who is a retired Air Force special investigations agent and who specialized in operations against Latin American drug traffickers.
In 2010, there were over 200 heroin overdose deaths in the metro region, and law enforcement and drug treatment specialists expect that number to climb this year. At the same time, heroin use has spread to both suburbs and rural farming communities in broth Missouri and Illinois.
"St. Louis is now considered by the National Drug Intelligence Center to be a hub city for distribution of Mexican heroin," said Sylvia Lomgmire, author of Cartel: the Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars. "The various cartels usually bring heroin across the border, then ship it by car or small truck to St. Louis. Some of the drugs stay here. Others are stored in warehouses or rental homes, and then re-packaged for distribution outside the area."
Longmire was an Air Force captain and was with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, specializing in Latin American and Mexican cartel operations, until she received a medical discharge in 2009 due to multiple sclerosis. Since then, she was written and lectured extensively on cartel operations.
"Like most other places, the street-level distribution network in St. Louis is primarily made up of local street gangs," she said. "In this area, it would be Hispanic and African-American gangs. Most don't know who they are selling the drugs for, and they don't really care. The less they know, the safer it is. So in that way, the cartel's distribution model is much like terrorist cells, made up of lots of small, independent operators who don't know each other."
Because of demand here and elsewhere, heroin has largely replaced the cartel's two long-time staples, cocaine and methamphetamine. "Both Mexican brown powder heroin and Mexican black tar heroin have become much more popular in the St. Louis area," said Longmire. "The quality of heroin is much higher, and it's also getting cheaper. And that's the cartel business model: sell large volumes of relatively low-priced, high-quality heroin."
When asked about the link between the campaign against illegal immigration and fears of cartel violence expanding into the U.S., Longmire mostly dismissed the connection. "
The cartels certainly have started human smuggling operations," she said, "but illegal immigration and the Mexican cartels are two different issues. The vast majority of undocumented workers from Mexico are here to make a living doing things like agricultural work. They want nothing to do with the cartels."
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