Drug cartels fact or fiction?

When I'm sick I like to watch some of my favorite movies. Traffic is one of them. They cut my all time favorite scene out of the movie. "#22 Robert meets Javier." Robert asks Javier if it's possible to be the Drug Czar in Mexico without having some connection to one of the drug cartels?" Javier answers "Yes is possible, if he's ready to die."

Interestingly enough, the brand name of the cocaine coming from the Juarez cartel going through Tijuana in this scene Robert refers to sounds an awful lot like "nine-eleven." Maybe that's why all the references to Javier becoming the "Mexican Drug Czar" are cut out of the movie. Kind of weird because of the movie's release dates

Mexico extradites 10 drug cartel suspects to US
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico has sent 10 alleged drug smugglers to the United States, capping an already record year for extraditions between the two countries.
Mexico's federal Attorney General's office calls the suspects high-ranking members of the country's three most powerful drug cartels - the Gulf, Sinaloa and Arellano-Felix gangs.

Among them is a former federal official who allegedly worked as security chief for the Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix group. Armando Martinez Duarte is accused of protecting its members from police raids and killing cartel rivals in the border city of Mexicali.
Wednesday's extraditions raise the 2008 total to 95, up 12 from last year.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican soldiers have captured an alleged high-ranking member of a drug gang known as "The Family."
The Defense Department says Alberto Espinoza Barron was arrested in the Pacific coast state of Michoacan on Monday.
A Defense statement alleges he was in charge of U.S.-bound cocaine shipments arriving at the state's Lazaro Cardenas port from South America.
He is also accused of bribing police, extorting businesses and ordering kidnappings and killings.
Mexico's Attorney General's office was interrogating him Wednesday.
Drug-related murders have nearly doubled this year to 5,300, federal officials say, despite a government crackdown on organized crime.2008-12-31 20:58:57 GMT