Houston Texas Is Considered a Home to Drug Cartels

HOUSTON (KTRK) — Violence is a big part of the Mexican drug trade. All too often its impact can be felt here in Houston, hundreds of miles from the border. Violent turf battles between the cartels are being waged on our streets. Some say what’s happening is a threat to national security. While the streets of our city are a long way from the bloodshed and violence associated with the drug cartels along the US-Mexico border, Houston has become home to some of these ultra-dangerous, highly-sophisticated criminal gangs. “They are a major supplier of drugs that go through Houston,” said Chief Harold Hurtt of the Houston Police Department. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) estimates that 92% of the illegal drugs that come into the US cross the southwestern border. Almost everything from Mexico comes through Houston, in part because of our geography. We have the dubious distinction of being one of the major drug distribution points for the Gulf Cartel and it’s become a multi-billion dollar a year business. “We see marijuana coming into Houston, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine,” said Associate SPC Agent Thomas Hinojosa of the DEA. The majority of which is then sold and dispersed to dealers in other parts of the country. Who’s selling the drugs? Try hundreds, if not thousands, of local cartel operatives who are greedy and hungry for money. “Once you enter that underworld, then you see everybody that’s doing it. You’d be surprised,” said Jose who used to import and …
Video Rating: 4 / 5