Video: Mexican Drug Cartels Target Montana, Indian Reservations

NBC News: On the evening of March 17, 2020, a former Mexican police officer working for the Sinaloa cartel left his hotel room in Tijuana and walked across the U.S. border into Southern California at 10:09 p.m.

Where was he headed? Montana.

Why? You can make a lot more money off of the drugs here.

Great to see NBC News put the national spotlight on the Mexican drug cartels and how they're targeting our Indian Reservations here in Montana in particular. According to one of the sources interviewed for this story, NBC saw a report I featured several months ago which inspired this piece.

Here's the headline:

Mexican drug cartels are targeting America’s ‘last best place’

Cartel associates have flooded Montana with fentanyl and meth – and also set up operations on Indian reservations, where law enforcement is scarce.

Here's the video:

I wonder which report in particular NBC News had seen of mine. I've interviewed Stacy Zinn several times on the radio here in Montana. She recently retired as the head of the DEA here in Montana, as was featured heavily in the above NBC News report. I'm assuming it must have been this piece I did back in May of 2023: BREAKING DOWN THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS IN MONTANA

Here's what Stacy Zinn told us back in May.

Mexican Drug Cartel Presence in Montana

Stacy Zinn-Brittain: We used to always hear whispers of Sinaloa Cartel being on the reservations. We have confidential sources that have told us that the Sinaloa monitors the reservations. However; just recently we see actual footprints of CJNG that has come on to the reservation and they are more overt. Whereas; the Sinaloa Cartel is more- they call them like the button down cartel now because Los Chapitos are the ones that are controlling the organization- it's split in half. Sinaloa was split in half between Los Chapitos and Mayo Zambada. So it's a different type of philosophy nowadays, but CJNG is now coming into the area they are actually trafficking on our reservations and they're more overt.

 

Here's another story I did back in 2021 highlighting the Mexican drug cartels and their push into Montana in the midst of the wide open southern border.

By the way Stacy Zinn is now running for Congress in Montana's Eastern Congressional District.