Photo: Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who was formerly the reputed principle leader of the Gulf Cartel, is escorted by U.S. federal agents in January 2007, moments after stepping off a Mexican government plane that flew him to Houston to face criminal charges. Handout photoInsidious Rise Of Gulf Cartel -- Houston Chronicle
Interviews, files and court records trace a syndicate's growth from small-time pot smuggling to a mega-empire with a hub in Houston.
Ronald Reagan was in the White House. Eye of the Tiger was on the radio. Cocaine cowboys roamed Miami.
And the seeds for what would become perhaps the largest and most powerful crime syndicate in the hemisphere were quietly being sowed in Houston.
It was 1982, and William Hoffman, an American drug runner later tucked into the witness-protection program, was busy using rental cars to ferry 25-pound loads of Mexican marijuana from Brownsville to Houston.
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My Comment: The key sentence in this report is the following ....
“The Mexican cartels are the most significant organized crime threat to the Western Hemisphere, without question,” said Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw, who was raised on the border.
Hmmmm .... that is saying it bluntly.