Mexican Cartels are Taking over US Marijuana Production

Life is getting a bit harder for Mexican drug lords these days. Not only do they have to worry about the Mexican military and U.S. law enforcement tripping up their drug trafficking efforts. Now they have some supply problems from a place they might not have expected – competition from U.S.-based marijuana producers.

Several media outlets have published recent reports regarding U.S. marijuana farms, known as “grows.” A Washington Post article from Oct. 7 said that thousands of mom-and-pop grows in the U.S. are threatening cartel profits, partly because of recent changes in state laws that allow the legal use of medical marijuana. So what’s a Mexican cartel to do? Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), Mexican cartels have also moved to increasingly cultivate marijuana on public lands in the United States. McClatchy News recently published the following:

“There is no doubt” that three big marijuana fields uncovered this month in Ellis and Navarro counties, in Texas, “have a tie to the border and a Mexican drug cartel,” said a drug investigator for the Texas Department of Public Safety. “They brought the tenders up here from Mexico to do the work.”

The Washington Post article further stated that the Mexican traffickers’ illegal use of public lands is a response to the dramatic increase in U.S. production, according to authorities and growers. In the northern woods of California, illegal immigrants hired by well-heeled Mexican “patrones,” or bosses, lay miles of plastic pipe and install oscillating sprinkler systems for clandestine fields that produce a cheaper, faster-growing “commercial grade” of marijuana.