"Naive" Canadian gangsters pay heavily doing business with Mexican drug cartels

British Columbia gangs go "direct to the supplier," often with deadly consequences

Early this year I reported on the strange case of Salih Abulazis Sahbaz, a naturalized Canadian citizen who was murdered on the streets of Culiacán, in Mexico's northwestern Sinaloa state, on Jan. 15, 2012. Both the city and the state are well known for deadly drug violence. The Iraqi-born Sahbaz was shot nine times in the head at close range with a .45 caliber handgun, without any clear motive. Cash and travel documents were unconcealed on his person, but the assailant(s) plainly had no interest. Mexican authorities, noting that the execution had all the signs of a classic gangland hit, said that Sahbaz was not a tourist and solicited Canadian assistance.

According to British Columbia authorities, Sahbaz was the middleman for a B.C. narcotics organization known as the "United Nations," which buys its products directly from Mexican drug cartels to avoid the U.S. price markup. It's unclear why Sahbaz was sent to Culiacán, but a safe working assumption would be to deal with the Sinaloa Cartel, controlled by the world's most powerful and most wanted trafficker, El Chapo Guzmán. There are no theories on what went wrong, but Sahbaz may have angered, or worried, someone. Perhaps there was concern that he was providing information to law enforcement. Perhaps they were just tired of dealing with him. In any case, he paid the ultimate price for his buying trip south.

CBC News recently filed an interesting report on the case and others like it, noting that five B.C. men have been murdered in Mexico in the past four years. A RCMP investigator told the network that the motive for the extreme risks taken by Canadian drug dealers is obvious: a kilogram of cocaine that would cost $20,000 from an American supplier can be obtained in Mexico for half or less. But the agent noted, "I would describe it as a cutthroat business relationship. Particularly on the Mexican cartel side, you will find they deal with who they need to deal with and they will dispose of who they need to dispose of when it comes time." More details are in the CBC video clip below. B.C. gangsters in over their heads in Mexico.



Although U.S. narcotics demand is commonly viewed as fueling Mexico's yet raging drug war, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime has noted that Canadian consumers share responsibility as well. More evidence Mexican drug war strategy is working

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