Interview with a Tepito Drug Vendor

BorderlandBeat.com

Translation of video narrative below video

Witness speaking:

You can find drugs, weapons, whatever you want

Interviewer:

About a lot of drugs accumulated, you are speaking about….?

Witness:

I haven’t seen that much drug altogether, that is what I mean

Interviewer:

How much are we talking about, warehouse or (inaudible)?

Witness:

As I said before, selling drugs is not much science; just that you need to take care of yourself and that is it. I don’t think that there are little groups, this is organized crime.

Reporter:

He is Edgar, since the age of four  he has been in the core of Tepito. This is his testimony:

Edgar (witness):

I got in out of curiosity at the beginning and I went with the purpose of getting things; hanging  out and time went by until I started working.

Interviewer:

What streets did you get to of the Tepito neighborhood?

Well the most known is Tenochtitlan. Everybody works on it (drugs) on that street. The hours of selling are, well some stores open very early and are open until 6 or 7 and others are open day and night, nonstop.

Narrator:

He is one of the teenagers that with radio in hand, surveillance one of the many selling points that are located in the neighborhoods of Tepito. While gaining trust of his superiors, he obtained the right of becoming part of the young army that offer drugs in that neighborhood.

Edgar:

There are 18 in the business, (inaudible) 18 that are on the scales, others that are delivering and others that are running errands. As I was telling you, it is just a business; you can even do of the narcotic sales like a franchise like McDonalds.

Well, it’s because the entire city, everybody sells it, I mean it is globalized, it is just not on the hood (Tepito); it is the whole DF

How much for a pill?

We have them 110 or 80 pesos.

Which drug is the most sold or which one do you sell the most?

The wheel

Which one is the wheel?

The tachas (MDMA aka Ecstasy-a stimulant/hallucinogen)

In one week, I invest 500 pesos and gain about 1,500 pesos, sometimes 1,000 and gained 1,800 pesos. I bought of ½ or ¼.

Narrator

Tepito is the biggest drug supplier of the DF (Federal District/Mexico City). Wholesalers that sell the merchandise in other points of the capital come here.

We are walking through the street Libertad. This is just one of the main points of whole sale and retail of drugs that exist in the colonia of Tepito.

On the streets that guide us to the entrance, you can see halcones (hawks) that watch the area, ready to inform about any unusual movement..

Between the stands, the young guards between 15 and 25 years of age, observe and are capable of distinguishing by just analyzing the dress code, the way of speaking, look or walk.

They can also distinguish if the person is a resident of the colony or is just passing by in search of any kind of merchandise. The competition is very high, says the distributors and more when you are working in a spot where several sellers are adjacent to each other, as it is on the streets of Tenochtitlan, Jesus Carranza or Libertad. Here everything is fair.

Edgar:

Large amounts of money are handled here either biweekly or weekly.

It’s like I told you, this is global, there are points everywhere.

Narrator:

Here, you don’t need to have a contact that gives protection to be able to buy more than 1 kilogram of drugs, you just need to have enough financial resources to pay the distributors.

Edgar:

The police are corrupt. Everybody gives money to the police the police are just making more violence. Like everything else, you buy time from the police; all the criminal organizations say: I will give you this much and you will give me 10 minutes

Narrator:

And it’s why despite the police operations, Tepito continues to be the grand warehouse that supply drugs to  DF.