Drug cartels set up shop deep inside US

Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the US border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the US — an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world’s most lucrative narcotics market and maximise profits.

If left unchecked, authorities say the cartels’ move could render the syndicates harder than ever to dislodge and pave the way for an expansion into other criminal enterprises such as prostitution, kidnapping and extortion rackets, and money laundering.

Cartel activity in the US is certainly not new. Starting in the 1990s, the syndicates became the nation’s number one supplier of illegal drugs, using unaffiliated middlemen to smuggle cocaine, marijuana, and heroin beyond the border or even to grow pot there.