Mexican gangs, operating much like pharmaceutical companies, send entire families to live in Texas and embed themselves in neighborhoods to live as normal people. The meth is manufactured in clandestine Mexican laboratories and smuggled across the border as liquid. Once in the United States, the supposedly normal families reconstitute the liquid into shards of “ice.” Often, they expose their small children to poisonous chemicals used to make the ice.
Jerry Don Castleberry, 72, was convicted on drug trafficking charges this week in East Texas. His case epitomizes a major trend in criminal activity involving guns and drugs in Texas and other border states.
Castleberry, aka “Grandpa,” is a former member of the Bandidos motorcycle gang, which has long been knee-deep in meth trafficking. He lived in Longview and was using his house as a home base for dealing meth.
Every so often, according to federal court records, Castleberry made the 100-mile trip to Dallas to pick up several ounces of meth from a Mexican drug gang based in the state of Guerrero.
Federal drug enforcement officers have been studying how the Mexicans use Dallas as a big drug warehouse and send salesmen out to rural Texas to connect up with white criminals such as Castleberry. Sometimes, he traded firearms to the Mexicans to pay for the meth.
The whole thing is based on common-sense marketing. You can only sell so much meth within the Hispanic, Spanish-speaking community. So, the Mexicans need to hook up with white criminals to expand into the Anglo market.
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