DeepSummary
The transcript discusses the emergence of a new 'Pacific drug highway' connecting Latin American drug cartels to Australia and New Zealand via small island nations. Mexican cartels like Sinaloa and CJNG are now shipping huge quantities of meth and cocaine across the Pacific, corrupting officials and upending local gang scenes along the way. The remote Pacific islands lack resources to combat this influx of drugs, leading to addiction crises and challenges to law and order.
In New Zealand, deportations of criminal gang members from Australia under rules known as 'Section 501' have introduced more violent players to the local underworld, forging ties between biker gangs and cartels. The arrival of these '501s' has led to escalating gang violence and narco activity not previously seen in the country. Corruption also appears to be taking root as intimidation tactics used by the cartels spread.
The situation is even more dire in Fiji, where a billion-dollar meth bust in January 2023 highlighted systemic corruption allowing cartels to exploit the nation as a transit point. With little capacity to withstand cartel infiltration, Pacific islands face destabilization as 'narco nightmares' unfold amidst a booming drug trade enabled by geography and lack of law enforcement resources.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Major Mexican drug cartels have established a new trafficking route called the 'Pacific drug highway' across the Pacific Ocean to Australia and New Zealand.
- Small, remote Pacific island nations lack resources to combat drug shipments transiting their territories, leading to corruption and addiction crises.
- Violent tactics of Mexican cartels like intimidation and threats are being introduced to areas previously dealing with more localized bribery and crime.
- Deportations of Australian gang members to New Zealand under 'Section 501' rules facilitated cartel ties to local biker gangs.
- A billion-dollar meth bust in Fiji exposed deep corruption allowing cartels to infiltrate the nation as a trafficking hub.
- Local gang underworlds are being violently upended as Mexican cartels make inroads and disrupt the established criminal hierarchies.
- Pacific islands face potential destabilization as 'narco-states' unless the drug pipeline can be disrupted.
- Geography, lack of law enforcement capacity, and demand in lucrative markets like Australia enable the trafficking despite risks.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “The cartels can control the shore parties, biker gangs, much more effectively because they know where your family lives. You don't want to end up hanging from an overpass.“ by Bruce Berry
- “There are a lot of dedicated police officers, just a few that have gone the wrong side of the law.“ by Unnamed cop
- “We will call our guys in the police force and we will tell them, why don't you get the evidence you got last week from the b grade ones, switch it up and resell it.“ by Unnamed dealer
- “The Pacific island countries face a unique set of challenges, caught in the midst of the Pacific highway between major suppliers of illicit goods, large demand hubs and thousands of miles of coastline to monitor.“ by Interpol president
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Episode Information
The Underworld Podcast
The Underworld Podcast
6/25/24
For years the Pacific region, and its tiny, tropical nations, steered clear of the global meth and cocaine trade. But politics, war and wild profit margins have pushed ships and planes out from Latin America to Australia across a new ‘drug highway.’
The phenomenon is prompting mass murder, crippling governments, and creating a wave of addiction where none existed. Locals are getting corrupted into becoming cartel ‘doors.’ And local gang underworlds have been upended, uprooted and hunted down like never before. Unless something changes, it'll be Paradise Lost.
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