US officials say the Mexican cartels have turned Atlanta and thesurrounding area into a major operational hub for the distribution ofcocaine, marijuana and other drugs. And a key reason is the city’slocation – connected by three major motorways to large swathes of theUS.
“If they were making the television show Miami Vice today it wouldprobably be more appropriately called Metro Atlanta Vice, but with somedistinctions,” says Jack Killorin, director of Atlanta’s High IntensityDrug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) unit.
HIDTAs are anti-drug programmes run by the US Office of National Drug Control Policy.
His comments about the seriousness of the situation in Atlanta haveraised more than a few eyebrows and attracted a great deal of mediaattention in recent weeks.
Atlanta, after all, is best known as the economic powerhouse of the American South – the home of powerful multinationals like Coca-Cola and the parcel service, UPS.
It seems a far cry from the drug-fuelled violence and flashy 1980s cars and lifestyles depicted in television programmes like Miami Vice.
The drugs violence and the Colombian cartels which ran drugs-trafficking then have long ago vanished from the streets of Miami, despite the lingering image.
“I believe that the Mexican cartels, in taking over the distribution of narcotics and cocaine into the United States, learned some lessons from the Colombians,” says Mr Killorin.