Mexico OKs "El Chapo's" Extradition to the U.S.

[Draggingtree]

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• by Julián Aguilar / May 20, 2016
• 1Comment

Mexican cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is one step closer to facing charges in the United States after Mexico’s secretariat of foreign relations said the Sinaloa cartel boss can be extradited.

[Draggingtree]

El Chapo and the Secret History of the Heroin Crisis

By Don Winslow Aug 9, 2016

 

If you wonder why America is in the grips of a heroin epidemic that kills two hundred people a week, take a hard look at the legalization of pot, which destroyed the profits of the Mexican cartels. How did they respond to a major loss in revenue? Like any company, they created an irresistible new product and flooded the market. The scariest part: this might not have happened with El Chapo in charge.

 

The phone rang. It was July 2014, and I was in a motel room in Tucumcari, New Mexico, about to step into the shower. My wife and I were two days into a cross-country drive from our home in California, and I wanted to clean up before we went to a sports bar across the parking lot to grab something to eat.

 

Looking at the phone, I recognized the number and felt my heart drop. The woman was a close friend. Her twenty-three-year-old son had struggled with heroin addiction for several years.

 

I knew the young man. He was smart, talented, funny—and charming when he wasn't high or jonesing. He was supposed to have called me that day to discuss getting back into school.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a46918/heroin-mexico-el-chapo-cartels-don-winslow/