XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
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   From: barack@obama.com   
      
   For years, Chicago has been one of the cartel's top heroin   
   distribution centers, but officials say it’s gotten even worse.   
      
   “I’ve never seen it this bad,” said Jack Riley, a veteran   
   Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Chicago Field Division. “I’ve   
   seen what it does to families, communities, educational   
   settings, healthcare. It’s enormous.”   
      
   Almost all the heroin in Chicago is of the form produced in   
   Mexico, not Colombia, he said.   
      
   “Today’s heroin is being trafficked primarily by Mexican   
   organized crime, probably the most vicious, well-financed,   
   criminal entities we’ve ever known,” he said, referring to the   
   powerful Sinaloa cartel.   
      
   Most of the heroin bound for Chicago crosses the border in the   
   El Paso area, Riley said, and is then placed into the hands of   
   local gang members for distribution. “In Chicago, we’ve got   
   100,000 documented street gang members who largely make their   
   living putting Mexican cartel heroin on the street.”   
      
   Riley and area health-care providers insist there’s a direct   
   link between the rise in heroin use and the widespread abuse of   
   prescription painkillers in the United States. As authorities   
   crack down on opiate pills, heroin — which is much cheaper and   
   more powerful — fills the void, they say.   
      
   “What scares me the most is the Mexican organized crime, the   
   cartels, are geniuses at marketing,” Riley said. “They   
   understand the addiction problem in this country is caused by   
   prescription drugs, and that is exactly why the number one drug   
   of choice for the street gangs and the cartels is heroin,   
   because they’re linked.”   
      
   http://nbcnews.to/1lHtG31   
      
        
      
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