By News Editor 
Jesús Esquivel, a renowned Mexican journalist from Proceso, highlights the little seen underworld of American grown cartels. According to Esquivel, law enforcement agencies, like the DEA, now apply the designation ‘cartel’ – once reserved for non-US based criminal groups – to entities that operate and originated in the continental United States. The groups operate with discretion and tact due to the need to avoid scrutiny from the vast amounts of law enforcement that exist in the United States.
Local and state agencies often bear the brunt of the enforcement tasks, which leads to a diminished national spotlight. That is often key for criminal cells since they are horizontal in nature; local operators distribute narcotics from one end of the country to another while staying under the radar in their local jurisdiction, but still buying and reselling the product to turn a profit.
The usage of violence is where the cartel designation comes into play. Esquivel alleges that the criminal syndicates are using violence that is discrete but growing in number and allowing the entities to circumvent the federal government’s stated intent to throttle fentanyl usage and production within the United States. The book is available on Amazon in English and Spanish.
Walter White Economics
While Esquivel does acknowledge Mexican and Latino origin operators, he notes that less known are those with Anglo-Saxon surnames. These groups have run afoul of the law openly. The Hells Angels have thrived, Esquivel notes, because society allows them to expand without much scrutiny.
For decades, the United States has discovered small and large laboratories with processes in place for synthetic drug production. In some cases, an average meth cook was producing the substance to both support their habit and provide themselves access to a decent lifestyle. Many of them technically unemployed are engaging in the same functions as their international counterparts within a larger structure of drug merchants. Like opium farmers, meth cooks in the Inland Empire, California, or other areas with vast amounts of open land, are providing the first sale in a large supply chain of drug mercantilists.
Additionally, when discussing why groups like Hells Angels have thrived, Esquivel notes that groups like the Hells Angels are allowed to expand without much scrutiny. While publicly asserting they are innocent of crimes, their image is one that betrays an ideal of being above the legal fray so to speak. They espouse a rebel imagery with none of the consequences. They are seemingly accepted by most Americans because of the motorcycles and leather jackets. Folk heroes. Even Donald Trump, a supposed law and order man, has called upon the Hells Angels for extra security.