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SALT LAKE CITY — Now more than before, the Sinaloa drug cartel is using the Salt Lake Valley as its hub for methamphetamine trafficking and sales, meaning that drug activity in California and Arizona has spilled into Utah.
"These guys are thugs and killers, but they also are businessmen. It's a multi-billion dollar business," Frank Smith said DEA assistant special agent.
He says Sinaloa will transport thousands of pounds of meth at $800 per pound in hollowed-out spaces in cars and trucks. Any local neighborhood could potentially hide a distribution center.
Smith also says Sinaloa produces the meth in superlabs South of the border.
"They're pumping out thousands and thousands of pounds methamphetamine," he said.
The only upside is that the giant labs are forcing out the "mom and pop" labs in Utah, according to Smith, which are notorious for exploding and are very dangerous.
