Drug-related Violence
As a border town, Nuevo Laredo is known for its turf war in which drug cartels compete for control of the drug trade into United States. Nuevo Laredo is a lucrative drug corridor because of the large volume of trucks that pass through the area, and the multiple (exploitable) ports of entry.
Nuevo Laredo is the base of Los Zetas, originally the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel; the two organizations separated in early 2010 and have been fighting for the control of the smuggling routes to the United States. As of 2012, Los Zetas are thought to be Mexico's largest criminal organization. Drug violence involving the Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels escalated in 2003, when the city was controlled by the Gulf Cartel. 2012 has seen an unprecedented series of mass murder attacks in the city between the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel on one side and Los Zetas on the other.
Read more about this topic: Nuevo Laredo
Famous quotes containing the word violence:
“By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence.... I can sympathize with the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)