Mexican drug cartels raid rave parties, crack down on rival pushers

"Raise your hand if you like weed," the gang leader asked the raver crowd. But nobody raised a hand or so much as moved. They were too scared. So he repeated his question, this time while firing a quick burst from his R-15 into the air. "I said who likes fucking weed?!!" Naturally, a lot of hands went up...

La Letra (what we call the Zetas these days because we're too terrified to call them by name) is at it again. It's getting worse than ever, thanks the lower ranks of the cartel business--made up of young, impressionable school dropouts and assorted jobless little motherfuckers. Now, these scumbags are letting their presence be known like never before. In Monterrey, the Zetas have started using them to police the drug use of the general population to make sure that people are consuming the right drugs and buying them from the "right sources." As in: them.

These junior squads have started doing rounds at parties like some sort of narco-security. If they see someone smoking weed, they approach and inquire about the source of the weed, breaking off a little from the joint and inspecting the mary jane (they know exactly what their product looks like and can recognize their product from the others). If it's not from one of their tienditas (remember those neighborhood drug stores I wrote about about a year back?), they just take him backstage to introduce the kid's naked ass to their little friend "la tabla," which'll leave them with welts for the next few weeks and mental scars for the rest of their lives...

To get hassled like that when you're all soft, tripping on acid or ecstasy or mescaline -- it's just brutal.

[Thanks Jim!]