Word: methed
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...Familia is estimated to export as much as half of the 200 tons of crystal meth that enter the U.S. from Mexico each year. It was thus a clear target for Project Coronado, the four-year operation by U.S. and Mexico anti-drug officials, which has collared 900 others, mostly La Familia associates, in both countries. Aside from meth trafficking, La Familia has also brought Mexico's gangland violence across the border, into communities as far flung as Atlanta and Seattle. The group, like Mexico's two largest drug gangs, the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, is also famous for beheading...
...Arguably, it is the world's first "narco-evangelical" gang. During this week's raids, U.S. officials found numerous religious images, "on fireplaces, in closets, everywhere," says one. La Familia members purport to be devout Christians who abstain from drugs themselves. In fact, they insist that while they sell meth and cocaine to the U.S., they keep it away from Mexicans. They also study a special Bible authored by their leader, Nazario Moreno, a.k.a. El Más Loco, or "The Craziest One." The cartel's profits have helped it build a large network of support among the poor...
When the U.S. Congress enacted the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act four years ago, it created a lucrative trafficking niche for La Familia. Michoacán has long been a meth-producing region, much like the northern state of Durango is known for making most of Mexico's heroin (called "brown mud"). La Familia and other Mexican gangs manufacture meth at industrial superlabs that dwarf small-town U.S. shops like those depicted on the AMC cable drama Breaking Bad, churning out tons of the white, flaky crystal each day. And while U.S. law blocks the export of pseudoephedrine to Mexico...
...Meth is now the most popular drug in the Midwest and West, ahead of cocaine, according to the DEA. It is smoked in pipes, injected or snorted, creating euphoric effects that let users work, party or make love for days without rest. But it also produces chronic paranoia, violent outbursts and loss of teeth, known as meth mouth. "It just amplifies the real evil side of people," says Craig Stuart, 25, a meth addict recovering in Phoenix...
...Familia has established a well organized and well enforced distribution system in its key U.S. markets, the sort of rural and suburban communities where meth has taken greatest hold in the U.S. "They set up in houses in middle-class suburbs," says Benson. "The only thing missing is the white picket fences." Those homes, where agents usually find large caches of automatic rifles and pistols, can also be scenes of violent kidnappings, beatings and murders. Last year a man abducted and badly beaten by Mexican traffickers because he owed them money was rescued by police in an Atlanta suburb just...