I live in Pueblo, Colorado. To be exact, I live in the East Side in whats known as a barrio/ghetto/hood. If you google Fearnowville Colorado you'll see my home. I also have a LOT of experience in hospitality and F&B and have had regular personal contact with a wide variety of immigrants. My homie Santos is an illegal from Neuvo Leon. Marianna grew up in Sonora. When I was 18 I went to prison for drug charges and made real friendships with mexican and american criminals of all stripes. I learned about ejidos, jesus malverde, mis animales, and I am intelligent. Now don't get me wrong, I'm clean and totally legit. I got kids and I don't roll with gangsters. I am respected by my peers and I earned that respect. So that's where I'm coming from. Now I gotta say you don't know much more about being a criminal than I do about Haskell. People DO disappear, and it happens a LOT. Here and there both. Here in my small southwestern town of 100,000 I can think of multiple black baggings.... once in the parking lot of a walmart, even. I know there's stats about Mexico DF that look good, but you believe the Mexican feds?
Personal anecdote: my wifes grandpa was a man named Jan Bonte. He was born in .dk, his dad was killed by nazis and he was placed in a camp. He immigrated after the war, first to .nl where he met and married his wife, and then to the US. They had a family in Colorado and after a late-life divorce he moved to Kino in the Sonoran desert for winters and came back to Colorado for summers. Because he routinely crossed the border he was ordered to mule something, and he declined. After a month of no contact we received news he died. We went to clean his remains from his house, which was gruesome after spending October in the sonoran heat after being chopped up by an axe.
Day 1 a duece n half came up with a gaggle of Mexican troops. Green uniforms, M-16s, idk if they were cops or 'cops' or what, but they gave us 3 days to gtfo.
Day 2, we picked up his ashes and had a small ceremony. He had local friends, who told us what happened and who did it.
Day 3, we were on the road
I put so many personal details because seriously: dox it if you'd like. You'll see Jan isn't counted among the victims of the drug war but it doesn't matter. The important thing is "this is how it is" and to hope it never happens to me or mine. Aqui hubo una mano negra
I don't have a point at all, I just feel I see/know an entirely different world from the average HN poster. You see alarmists clutching pearls and spreading tales - part of a bigger trend to spread fear and exagerate dangers. I see people I know and love suffer....and hope that black hand doesn't visit me.