Small Wars Journal

Drug Cartels in Oregon: Violence in the Northwest

Sat, 06/22/2013 - 10:07am

Drug Cartels in Oregon: Violence in the Northwest

By Les Zaitz, The Oregonian

 
June 21, 2013
 

...Perhaps most unnerving, cartel-connected traffickers lash out in violence to control territory, settle debts or warn rivals -- not just in Mexico, but here in the Northwest. Police suspect a cartel is behind the roadside execution early last year of a trafficker near Salem. They think cartel operatives shot two California drug dealers whose bodies were found buried in the sage northeast of Klamath Falls last fall. They also believe a cartel ordered a 2007 hit in which a trafficker and four friends were lined up on the floor of a Vancouver rental home and shot in the head...