How does the drug chain, Detroit to Chicago to Cincinnati to Kentucky, that has become so predictable been so successful in distributing illegal drugs?

The drug trade has a vicious cycle on which it operates. The article below goes into full detail on one of the world's most notorious narcotics dealers, Jesús Vicente Zambada Niebla, the son of the biggest supplier of illegal drugs in the United States. His route across the Mexican border into California and to “transshipment” cities, like Chicago, and onto smaller distributing cities like Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Detroit has been like clockwork since 1990 according to the article below. We all see have our own personal ideas on how this might work from movies and television shows and it appears to me this picture in most of our heads isn't far off from the truth.

Zambada begins in northern Mexico surrounded by an army of cartel soldiers to ensure the pick up of the drugs goes cleanly. He'll then test a few of the drugs in the loaded trucks and if he is satisfied the process continues. Police have been paid on both sides of the border along the roads in which these trucks travel to be sure the transition into the U.S. goes smoothly. Once across the drugs are stashed away until it is time to move them into the transshipment cities, larger cities that can keep large quantities over a longer period of time. Chicago is one of the most important to the cartel's operation which explains the large flow of drugs down into Kentucky. Trusted officials have been paid off substantially to monitor all of these transactions so detecting the warehouses that contain all of these drugs has been difficult for uncorrupted law enforcement.

These drugs continue to get broken down into smaller and smaller batches as they go down the chain of distributors. "As cocaine moves down the supply chain, resellers eager to maximize profit almost always “step on” or “cut” it with things that resemble cocaine, such as powdered vitamin B12, lidocaine, or baby laxatives. By the time coke hits the streets, it’s usually only about 65 percent pure." So the already massive amount of drugs in the Chicago area gets "watered" down to create more drugs to spread out, making it easier for it to move down the chain over cities.

When drugs or the mid to high level dealers are found a lot of times things just get tied up in court. The Zambada case has been awaiting trial since 2009. With him behind bars for the time one would think the drug trade would slow down with one of its' most prominent leaders, but according to the father of Zambada, public enemy number 2, "the drugs will keep flowing no matter what—even if El Chapo (public enemy number 1) himself is brought down. When it comes to the capos, jailed, dead, or extradited, their replacements are ready."

Marcus AW

Source:
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/October-2013/Sinaloa-Cartel/