Built by Prohibition: The Origins of Mexican Cartels
Update: 2025-08-06
Description
What started with speakeasies and rum runners during U.S. Prohibition spiraled into a global criminal network. In this episode, we trace the underground booze routes of the 1920s, and how these early smuggling networks laid the groundwork for today’s powerful cartels. From the Gulf Cartel’s origins to the chilling violence of CJNG’s death camps, this is the dark evolution of an illicit economy born in the dry days of Prohibition.
Sources:
Drug Enforcement Administration: National Drug Threat Assessment 2024
Cato Institute: Making a Narco: Childhood Exposure to Illegal Labor Markets and Criminal Life Paths
The New York Times: Canaries sing in Mexico, but Uncle Juan will not
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