@ Sinatra
+1 to that, been missing your post my man.........

@pmac & scorcese


Only thing I disagree with is that they come to NY for coke connects. I think they come to NY to organize shipments FROM THEIR CONNECT, to their distributors in Europe. I think y'all misunderstanding NYs place in the chain here.

Its the MID-POINT, for the Calabrians. Not the starting point (where they purchase) or the end point (where they get money, distributing). Take the Dominicans right? NY is the END-POINT for them. That's where they GET money distributing. It's 23-25 thou in NY for a key. What makes this work is that it's 10000 a key in the Dominican Republic. Same price in Mexico, or Costa Rica, basically the closer you can get to South America. So THATS where you need your people for a high level connect.

NY is going to be the starting ( purchasing point) for like high level retailers- mid level wholesalers.


That's one of the main reasons these bust were kinda weird. The Siderno group consortium gets coke in Colombia', ships it around the Pacific coast, THROUGH THE PANAMA CANAL, over the Atlantic to Europe. So not only did their coke never go to NY, it never even went OVER LAND. It went directly from Colombia TO the ports in Gioia Tauro and I guess the Port in Montreal? ( I can't remember if they ship it to Europe first, then send it to Montreal, or if it's the other way around...edit: I realized I kept saying Montreal when I meant Toronto, sorry bout that...) This fact that they could bypass the Mexican border, over land is a big reason why they have become what they are today.
(It's also why the Dominicans have what they have in NY, they have the Water equivalent of what the Mexicans have with their land border. But land will always be cheaper to send product over than having to charter a ship or plane, so until they start building walls, increasing the difficulty at the border, and pushing more of the volume through the Caribbean again, the Mexicans kinda will always have the upper hand there as far as being able to move larger BULK shipments. But the Dominicans, because they have " distribution centers", their own neighborhoods they can sell on corners, they have no real reason to go to outsiders really, they are regional, but vertically and horizontally integrated, so they can maximize profits, with these profits, eventually, some Dominican drug lord will organize his own boats or planes and then volume wise they will compete with the Mexicans and Italians...)




My rule of thumb used to be, coke from Colombia over land, To the US = Mexico. ( interestingly, except for the North East...) Coke from Colombia over water, To Europe = Calabrian. But Coke from Colombia, over water to the Dominican Republic, and from there over water, ( be it plane or boat..) to NY and the North East, = Dominican wholesalers/Colombian suppliers. Now, the Dominicans aren't global, they are regional. (This is why I put the Italians and Mexicans a SLIGHT rung above em, the more coke passes through the Caribbean, the narrower the gap is..)

The other weird part of the bust was the MEXICAN CARTEL NOT BASED ON THE BORDER, BUT IN COSTA RICA, CLOSER TO THE COKE. I can't get an understanding as to WHAT CARTEL this is exactly. Sinaloa or the Zetas. I keep reading the Zetas are basically finished, so it must be Sinaloa I guess? They are the only cartel left with global capabilities I think. I always used to connect the cartels to what part of the border they controlled. (Juarez, the Gulf, Tiajuana, Sinaloa produces the most drugs, also has produced the most bosses amongst ALL the cartels) But this cartels strength seems to be based on the fact that they can get cheap coke, AND get the coke to Europe because they had their own shipment service in place. So you have a Mexican cartel, NOT based on moving product across the border.

See I think the Caribbean route is actually faster, better, going back to the rum running days of Luciano and Lansky. It's why they wanted Cuba as the transshipment/ command center for Narcotics. It's more direct, I guess. Whereas the land route is more secure? ( Coke can't sink over land)


So this is rival families, setting up their own TRANSHIPMENT POINTS, all their connects seem to be based in South America, or at least Central America.

What do you guys think, any more thoughts?

Last edited by CabriniGreen; 09/18/16 01:35 AM.