Mexico: The booming trade fuelling a US drug epidemic and a deadly street war
We barely slow for red lights as cars pull out of our way.
We virtually take off as we scream over a hilly stretch of road.
We’re on board a Red Cross ambulance answering an emergency call in the northern Mexican city of Tijuana. It’s one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
A two-person team, talking into the walkie-talkie, asks for details of the emergency.
“It’s a shooting,” paramedic Zulma Cruz tells me. “We get as many as a dozen a day sometimes,” she says as we see blue lights flashing in the distance and pass a National Guard vehicle with a soldier holding a machine gun, silhouetted against the night sky.
Paramedic Zulma Cruz thinks a lot of the violence is linked to the growing fentanyl business
As we approach, what is now a crime scene as well as a medical emergency, I can see that the streets of one of the most cartel-infested neighbourhoods in this city are awash with police and military.
A second ambulance is surrounded by locals, watching on, and I can see ambulance teams inside treating a man who appears to be conscious.
“He is stable but critical,” Zulma tells me as she grabs an oxygen canister and her trauma pack and heads off to assist her colleagues.
Zulma is an experienced paramedic, who is used to the menacing presence of security forces and the stares of the local community, many of whom identify with or are part of the cartel.
This is another gangland assassination attempt – the patient has been shot in the head.
Three cartels are fighting for control over Tijuana – the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation, and the Tijuana Cartel.
There are over 2,000 murders a year here – that’s over six murders a day. To put that into perspective, in London last year just over 100 people were murdered.
It’s that crazy, and the Red Cross teams are the only ones capable of saving lives out here on the streets.
Zulma tells me that sometimes while she has been trying to save the lives of other victims of a hit, the cartel gunmen have approached her and told her to stop treatment.
Her Red Cross colleague, who didn’t want to be named, said the gunmen couldn’t be persuaded.
“That man dies here,” the gang member said, “then he shot him again,” her partner told me.
“We just had to walk away.”
I ask Zulma if she thinks a lot of this violence and chaos on the streets is linked to the growing fentanyl business.
“It definitely is, it definitely is,” she replies without hesitation.
“I think that it is linked to all that, the drugs, the cartels and fights for selling on the street, and sometimes they cross into each other’s turf…”
Another call for the Red Cross, this time for a fentanyl overdose.
Their medics carry the antidote to fentanyl poisoning – one of the most toxic drugs in the world.
Read more: Inside a secret fentanyl lab
It’s called Narcan, and it can save the lives of those who are almost dead.
They arrive on scene as the fire brigade administer first aid. Paramedic Alan Leon jumps out and gets ready to give the victim Narcan.
He briefly talks to the family gathered around the victim, unconscious on a pavement in a quiet residential area.
The man is completely unresponsive. His name is Juan, and he is dying.
Alan instructs a policeman holding a drip to raise it higher.
He then administers the Narcan directly into a cannula, and into the victim’s vein, while explaining to his emergency service colleagues what he’s doing.
They all wait. Time is critical and they’re hoping they’ve caught this victim in time.
Alan gently presses into Juan’s chest with his fist and tells everyone to wait.
He feels Juan’s chest again and then there is a sudden movement – the Narcan is working.
Moments later Juan sits up, utterly surprised, and grabs at the medical paraphernalia all around him.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” he says. It really is quite remarkable.
Alan tells him to wait a minute, and then gives him another shot of Narcan.
“It’s reversing the fentanyl,” he tells Juan.
After a few minutes, Juan stands up and leans against a vehicle parked nearby – he is talking, he’s shocked he’s alive.
His wife and young son, who had watched the whole scene unfold, hug him as he fist bumps our producer.
Fentanyl use, fentanyl trafficking, gang wars, death and murder – the ambulance crews see it all every day, and it’s all linked.
Read more:
Inside a secret drug lab: Gunshot wounds, deadly chemicals and cartel kingpins
Six adults and child, 7, killed in shooting at Mexican holiday resort
Tijuana’s red-light district is the most public location for the cartel wars and the use and sale of fentanyl on the streets.
It’s also a popular tourist hang out.
The gangs make a fortune from the drugs and sex industry here 24 hours a day, which is why they fight so hard to hold or take territory.
The area is constantly patrolled by police, the National Guard, and the Mexican army, who were deployed here last year to try to reduce homicides, and to fight organised crime.
An injured man is treated by paramedics
We joined the Baja California State Police on one of their patrols through the district.
They told us the cartels don’t care what fentanyl does to people, they are interested in one thing only – money.
“They know what they’re doing, they know what they’re producing, they know the problems they cause selling the drugs, they know that people are becoming more addicted in this country, they know it’s a problem, but they don’t care, they only worry about their own interests,” an officer, who didn’t want to be named, told me.
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The cartels know Mexico’s security services have a huge presence in the city, but they taunt them anyway, by posting videos on social media platforms like TikTok, showing off their guns, drugs, and money.
“Many times it’s to send a message to the other organisations, sometimes it’s to send a message to the police officers that we can’t touch them, but we are fighting back against all these organisations… we try to stop them in all the conflict zones and arrest them,” the officer explained.
Read more: The million dollar streets strewn with bodies contorted by the effects of fentanyl
‘Fentanyl steals your friends’: Pills bought on social media are killing kids in classrooms and in their beds
This district in Tijuana is ground zero for the fentanyl trade in Mexico, and the city is the gateway for drug and people smuggling over the border.
This trade is fuelling an illegal drug epidemic in the United States, and a street war inside Mexico.
An Afghan man who worked for the British military has told Sky News he feels betrayed and has “completely lost (his) mind” after his identity was part of a massive data breach.
He told The World with Yalda Hakim about the moment he discovered he was among thousands of Afghans whose personal details were revealed, putting him at risk of reprisals from the Taliban.
The man, who spoke anonymously to Sky News from Afghanistan, says he worked with British forces for more than 10 years.
But now, he regrets working alongside those troops, who were first deployed to Afghanistan in 2001.
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Afghans being relocated after data breach
“I have done everything for the British forces … I regret that – why (did) I put my family in danger because of that? Is this is justice?
“We work for them, for [the] British, we help them. So now we are left behind, right now. And from today, I don’t know about my future.”
He described receiving an email warning him that his details had been revealed.
He said: “When I saw this one story… I completely lost my mind. I just thought… about my future… my family’s.
“I’ve got two kids. All my family are… in danger. Right now… I’m just completely lost.”
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The mistake by the Ministry of Defence in early 2022 ranks among the worst security breaches in modern British history because of the cost and risk posed to the lives of thousands of Afghans.
On Tuesday, a court order – preventing the media reporting details of a secret relocation programme – was lifted.
Read more from Sky News:
Minister defends handling of breach
The struggle for equality in Afghanistan
Afghan women throw babies to troops
Reuters file pic
Defence Secretary John Healey said about 6,900 Afghans and their family members have been relocated or were on their way to the UK under the previously secret scheme.
He said no one else from Afghanistan would be offered asylum, after a government review found little evidence of intent from the Taliban to seek retribution.
But the anonymous Afghan man who spoke to Sky News disputed this. He claimed the Taliban, who returned to power in 2021, were actively seeking people who worked with British forces.
“My family is finished,” he said. “I request… kindly request from the British government… the King… please evacuate us.
“Maybe tomorrow we will not be anymore. Please, please help us.”
World
Ross Edgley: The British ‘Thor’ swimming 1,000 miles around Iceland – and what happened when he met killer whales
Towering waves, freezing temperatures and even some inquisitive killer whales. Iceland is doing its best to defeat Ross Edgley.Â
Inspired by “Thor”, the British extreme athlete is in the middle of a challenge worthy of the Norse god – spending four months swimming 1,000 miles around the whole of Iceland in the name of science.
And while it comes with its challenges – a video of parts of his tongue falling off because of the salty sea water went viral – there have also been moments of beauty in the rugged Viking landscape.
“We’re on the northern coast right now,” Ross tells Sky News as he prepares to get back in the water.
“There’s nothing to stop the wind coming from the Arctic, and it’s just smashing into the north of Iceland. We’re miles out, just like a bobbing cork getting absolutely battered.”
Ross is making his way around Iceland clockwise after setting off from Reykjavik
Ross, from Cheshire, is no stranger to endurance events like this. In 2018, he swam nearly 1,800 miles around the coast of Great Britain and earned a Guinness World Record for swimming 317 miles along the Yukon River in Canada.
But the punishing cold as 39-year-old Ross swims 30km (18 miles) a day around Iceland is something else.
“The body just takes a consistent battering,” he says, characteristically cheery and enthusiastic despite everything.
“You just do your best to keep it in some sort of shape, controlling the inevitable breakdown of your body, hoping that you get back into Reykjavik.”
Some of the injuries Ross has picked up so far, and the salt water hinders healing
He’s eating between 10,000 and 15,000 calories a day – with pasta and his new favourite Icelandic liquorice as menu staples – just to keep going.
“You’re basically running through all of that food – I’m constantly saying it’s basically just an eating competition with a bit of swimming thrown in,” he chuckles. “But that’s genuinely what it is.”
His average day – storms permitting – sees Ross getting up and swimming for six hours, resting for six hours, and then getting back in the water to swim another six hours.
“You just do that on repeat. It’s really simple in theory, but brutal in reality.”
Ross is covering about 18 miles (30km) a day
To get ready for the cool Icelandic waters, Ross took inspiration from animals that have made it their home for thousands of years: whales and seals.
“I ended up putting on about 10-15 kilos of just pure fat. A bit of muscle as well but a lot of fat.
“When you look at what sort of animals survive in Iceland, there’s that idea of sea blubber. You want insulation, you want body fat.”
Perhaps unlike a seal however, Ross takes great care to defend the reputation of the killer whales that hunt in Icelandic seas.
“We’ve seen a lot, pods of them have come by and checked me out, wondering what the strange Englishman was doing in Icelandic waters, and then we went our separate ways.
“I want to combat some of the bad PR that orcas might have because there’s never been a verified case of an orca attacking a human in the wild. It just doesn’t exist.
“They’re amazing animals that deserve our respect and shouldn’t be feared.”
Ross back on board his support boat after swimming
There’s also a big scientific focus for Ross’s challenge as well.
“If we achieve this, it will achieve so much in terms of sports science – the first person to swim around Iceland. But that wasn’t a big enough reason to do it.”
Ross spoke to scientists who said that if he was “crazy enough” to want to do the swim, he would be able to collect daily samples of environmental DNA in the water, as well as levels of microplastics.
“By the end we’re just going to have this map of biodiversity around the whole coast of Iceland in a level of detail we’ve never really seen before. It’s going to be so comprehensive.
“So I think as the legacy of this swim, records and everything will be nice, but I actually think the science and the research that we contribute and give back will be unbelievable and actually make the chafing and losing parts of my tongue worth it.”
The swim is being paid for by a mix of sponsorships and self-funding.
Ross Edgley is swimming 1,000 miles around Iceland. Pic: James Appleton/BMW
Ross says he was inspired to take on the challenge in part by actor Chris Hemsworth and his role as the Norse god Thor, joking that the feat would be the closest thing to swimming around Asgard, the realm of the deities from ancient Scandinavia.
As he makes his way around the island, he gets to meet a local community where stories of Nordic gods are still an important part of life.
“It’s amazing, we’re just hearing these stories of Nordic folklore, sagas written about every single fjord we go around. It’s unbelievable.”
Ross and his team rest on land between swims
Fresh off one marathon swimming session, Ross and his team jumped into action to help the local community rescue 30 stranded whales.
“The team were absolutely exhausted… but having rescued the whales was the most rewarding moment as well.”
A moment of downtime on the boat. Pic: Ross Edgley/YouTube
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Ross set off on his swimming quest on 17 May, and it’s likely going to be a couple more months before he arrives back in Reykjavik.
He suggested that September is the goal, but added: “But you make plans and Iceland laughs at them.”
Picture credits: Ross Edgley/YouTube
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