Word: familia
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Whether or not La Familia is Mexico's most violent drug cartel, it is certainly the weirdest. 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...
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...
...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...
...Familia's carnage is far worse in Mexico, where in recent years it has begun to terrorize Michoacán and neighboring states. It announced itself in 2006 when its hitmen rolled the severed heads of five rivals onto the dance floor of a Michoacán discotheque one night. More recently, in a taped conversation transcribed in Mexican law enforcement documents obtained by TIME, a La Familia boss called Mariano promises vengeance on federal police cracking down on the group's operations. "Anyone who messes with [us] is going to die," Mariano is quoted as saying...
...like other cartels, La Familia has broadly corrupted Mexican officialdom. The documents seen by TIME list a long La Familia payroll of public servants, including a mayor allegedly receiving $20,000 a month from the gang and a state police commander suspected of pocketing $35,000. Informants also describe how La Familia entertains those officials with raucous parties and truck loads of prostitutes...