Ioan Grillo - Cartel Wars & The Fentanyl Crisis | SRS #046

Cartels, drugs, money, corruption—author and award winning journalist Ioan Grillo has seen it all in his twenty-plus years' of covering Latin America. In this episode, we cover the unprecedented violence that broke out in the city of Culiacán after Mexican authorities recaptured Sinaloa cartel leader Ovidio Guzmán, son of "El Chapo."

Grillo breaks down the inner workings of Mexico's most notorious cartels, their recruitment strategies and growing turf wars. We cover the issues with the US / Mexico border and how fentanyl has revolutionized the drug business while wreaking havoc throughout the country. We'll discuss the question—Should cartels be designated as terrorist organizations? The answer isn't as simple as you might think.