Personally, I envision athletes, musicians and cartel-level drug dealers all becoming cult media brands equal to that of, say, syndicated stars such as Rush Limbaugh or Al Franken.
They range from insurgent home-grown African groups using the proceeds for political gain to international cartel-level operators who are moving from smuggling drugs to ivory, and outright terrorist gangs financed by elephant poaching.
But on the day of the meeting, the agents' supervisors canceled it, expressing "concern about American agents meeting with a high-level cartel member like Zambada-Niebla".
A couple of decades ago, it wouldn't have been possible for an upstart group to wage war, take over a few cities, and develop a cartel without high-level federal government connections.
Considering that meetings with high-level cartel members and the media are "highly unusual," but not unheard of, he said the actor's story should be judged by what it reveals.
The official, John P. Walters, said Mexico's crackdown on drug cartels since December and the extradition of several high-level cartel leaders to the United States were the biggest factors in what he described as an unprecedented drop in the supply of cocaine and methamphetamine on American streets.
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The drunk guy was back, and he had brought [what looked like] some low-level cartel boss and his posse with him.
Operation Fast and Furious was intended to allow licensed gun dealers to sell weapons to straw buyers in the hopes that federal agents would be able to track the guns to high-level cartel members in Mexico.
The operation, known as "Fast and Furious," began in 2009 when the bureau essentially began allowing low-level cartel members to buy guns at Arizona gun stores -- the plan was to track the guns and tail the buyers back to their leaders in Mexico.
But on Thursday, the cartel let current production levels stand -- in part, analysts said, because they did not want to worsen the downturn.
