Mexican drug cartels have expanded north and are targeting America’s “last best place,” taking advantage of vulnerable Native American communities in Montana.
A recent report showed that Montana was the second most “addicted” state, with 18.2 percent of the state’s population using illicit drugs in 2021, a figure that has only been growing As time passes.
Mexican drug cartels are attracted to the state of Montana because of the amount of money they can extract from residents.
Fentanyl pills, for example, can sell for 20 times more in Montana than in other areas, such as urban centers closer to the border. The pills can be made for less than 25 cents in Mexico and sell for between $3 and $5 in urban cities, but could fetch up to $100 in parts of Montana.
The drug problem has specifically affected Montana Indian reservations, where traffickers trap Native Americans in a cycle of addiction and debt.
Mexican drug cartels have expanded north and are targeting America’s “last best place” by preying on vulnerable Native American communities in Montana.
A recent report showed that Montana is the second most “addicted” state, with 18.2 percent of the state’s population using illicit drugs in 2021, a figure that has only been increasing as time goes by.
Cartels have aggressively entered this notoriously beautiful state, even forming relationships with indigenous women to gain access to communities and get locals addicted to drugs.
Tribal leaders say crime and overdoses are increasing in their communities and that cartels “know who to pick,” according to Stephanie Iron Shooter, director of American Indian health for the Montana Department of Health and Human Services.
“Like any other prey-predator situation, that’s the way it is.”
Indian reservations are optimal targets for drug trafficking organizations because they have high rates of drug addiction and low numbers of law enforcement officers.
The opioid overdose death rate in Montana nearly tripled between 2017 and 2020, and the rate of overdose deaths among Native Americans was twice that of white residents, according to the state. Department of Health and Human Services.
Traffickers have manipulated Native Americans into becoming traffickers, giving them an initial supply of drugs to sell, then turning them into addicts and putting them in debt to the cartels, NBC reported.
In March 2020, a former Mexican police officer working for the Sinaloa cartel attempted to smuggle enough methamphetamine to supply the entire city of Townsend, Montana, with methamphetamine for several days.
The mule, Ricardo Ramos Medina, arrived in the United States and picked up a bag of groceries containing two pounds of pure methamphetamine that he planned to drive from San Diego to Montana.
Medina was detained by state and federal agents and arrested, leading to the dismantling of an entire drug trafficking ring that had brought at least 2,000 pounds of methamphetamine and 700,000 fentanyl-laced pills to Montana from Mexico in just three years.
Mexican drug cartels are attracted to the state of Montana because of the amount of money they can extract from residents.
Fentanyl pills, for example, can sell for 20 times more in Montana than in other areas, such as urban centers closer to the border.
The drug problem has specifically affected Montana Indian reservations, where traffickers trap Native Americans in a cycle of addiction and debt.
The rise of fentanyl in the United States has greatly affected Montana, where the state seized 350,000 dose units of fentanyl compared to 2022, when the amount was half that.
“Right now it’s like it’s raining fentanyl on our reservation,” said Marvin Weatherwax, Jr., a member of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council who represents Montana House District 15.
People are surprised that the drug epidemic from Mexican cartels has spread to Montana, according to Jesse Laslovich, the U.S. attorney for Montana, who has been overseeing the investigations.
“You’re as far north as you can get in the United States, and yet we have the cartel here,” he said.
Although it is often referred to as “the last best place” in America, Montana has been devastated by the pharmaceutical industry.
Near the state’s Cheyenne Reservation, abandoned houses once used as trap houses clutter the once-beautiful rural landscape, and gas stations leading in and out of the community are sites of drug deals.
Cartels linked to the Medina drug bust took control of at least two properties on the reservation to distribute methamphetamine to nearby communities.
Ranita R. Redfield and Zachary D. Bacon were added to the poster as community members.
Refield’s lawyer described how his vulnerable client was attacked after enduring a period of family upheaval and distress.
“Choosing to distance herself from acquaintances who knew her from the past and who had no place to live, she often remained in the cartel,” attorney Jessica Polan Wright wrote.
The rise of fentanyl in the United States has greatly affected Montana, where the state has seized 350,000 dose units of fentanyl compared to 2022, when the figure was half that.
Tribal leaders say crime and overdoses are rising in their communities, and cartels ‘know who to pick’ (pictured: 19 firearms seized by federal agents in Montana drug raids)
“Caught in the vicious cycle of addiction and under the control of the cartel, Ranita became a pawn in their operations.”
She was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to trafficking methamphetamine.
Bacon was caught after he began dating the daughter of one of the Native American drug dealers.
“The cartel removed tens of thousands of dollars in cash, weapons and vehicles from the Crow Reservation,” said Bacon’s attorney, Matthew Claus.
‘The money and weapons left the state and the country and then the cartel left. In their wake, they left addicted, exhausted and impoverished tribal members facing prosecution and long prison sentences, like Zach Bacon,” Claus added.
On another reservation in Montana, the Blackfeet Reservation, 17 people overdosed on fentanyl in just one week.
“We are severely underresourced to deal with a crisis that even our facilities are not equipped to handle,” said Durand Tyland Bear Medicine, director of Crystal Creek Lodge Treatment Center.
Reservations in the southeastern part of Montana are also being rocked by the widespread drug epidemic, but they are primarily victims of methamphetamine use.