Drug cartels are growing in numbers and reach in the United States, infiltrating every state and more than 200 major cities, according to FBI statistics.
Utah and Salt Lake City are not exempt from this statistic, as major drug cartels have found a home here too.
In April 2012, police officers and members of SWAT broke into a suburban home in Riverton, arresting several drug dealers. Other dealers from same ring were arrested later during a traffic stop. In total, officers arrested six dealers, all of whom were part of a Mexican drug cartel called the Zetas.
The dealers were among the largest drug suppliers in Salt Lake County, providing heroine, cocaine, methamphetamine and a new type of methamphetamine, 'Blue Meth.'
According to Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder, it makes sense why these drug dealers chose to operate in a nice suburban area. 'These cartels are not fools,' he told KSL News. 'They're going to use locations that historically we have not been aware of or are interested in. This particular circumstance was in the city of Riverton.'
The Zetas are one of Mexico's largest and most violent cartels. Relatively young for a well established cartel, the Zetas began in the late 1990s as a smaller part of the Gulf Cartel. The fourteen original members of the Zetas all had military backgrounds, and provided security for the Gulf Cartel.
However, the Zetas began pulling away from the larger cartel as they grew in numbers and strength, fueled by a constant influx of drug money. In 2010, the Zetas broke away completely from the Gulf Cartel, and both are now engaged in a violent turf war over valuable ports of entry into the United States which provide exploitable entry points for drug smuggling.
The Zetas are continuing to grow, and their presence in Utah is a sign of their growth. As evident with the arrests in Riverton, with the presence of the Zetas comes the presence of more drugs.
From the month of January to June, Utah police officers made 4,515 drug related-arrests, according to a semiannual Utah crime report for 2012. This is up from 4,375 in the same report from 2011.
These statistics also include arrests involving the possession and sale of marijuana, a drug that has now been legalized in neighboring Colorado.
Ironically, one of the reasons people support the legalization of marijuana is because of drug cartels. Proponents in Colorado, Washington and other states claim legalizing marijuana will actually hurt drug cartel activity in the United States, citing a recent study conducted by the Mexican Institute of Competitiveness. The study predicts the legalization of marijuana in just three states (Colorado, Washington and Oregon) would decrease cartels' drug profits by as much as 30 percent.
The legalization of marijuana in Colorado, however, could also increase drug related crimes in Utah, where marijuana is far from legalization.
'I expect Utah will see an increase in drug related crimes because of marijuana,' said Marc Phillips, a Colorado native studying information systems at BYU. 'It's only logical that more marijuana will find its way into Utah as the amount of marijuana increases in Colorado.'