the nefarious side of utah’s growth: drug & human trafficking, fascism and cartel violence
By: Sachet A. Sullivan
With the many changes taking place across the state of Utah, Brigham Young would indeed stand in awe at what the beehive state has become.
Could he have ever imagined that it would grow into one of the fastest growing states in the Union? One has to ask the question…. Has his dream manifested into a growing nightmare?
Many believe that if a town doesn’t grow, it doesn’t prosper, oftentimes forgetting that with growth comes consequence. Many times these consequences are overlooked due to the bows and pretty paper that economic growth comes packaged in, often leaving the more nefarious sides in the shadows.
Utah’s growth promises jobs and economic prosperity in what were once drug infested, poverty stricken rural communities just a decade ago, how can these communities refuse such offers? Imminent domain, security bonds, higher taxes, increased crime, human trafficking, drugs and arms trafficking, illegal immigration, sex trafficking, child labor, fascism which Mussolini described as private-public partnerships. Are these some of the consequences lurking behind Utah’s “growth”?
“Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
-Benito mussolini
What is Utah’s future? It’s no secret Utah has some of the worst recorded stats in the Union for issues like substance abuse, mental illness, pedophilia, pornography, prescription pill abuse, human trafficking and suicide of women but will growth mitigate those problems or make them worse?
Utah is located right in the middle of Interstate-15, one of the nation’s largest drug and human trafficking corridors. I-15 runs North to South from Canada to Mexico, and cuts right through the heart of Utah.
The new Iron Springs Inland Shipping Port with three connecting hubs being constructed in Southern Utah promise jobs and economic prosperity but will it add fuel to an ever-growing drug epidemic already occurring on Utah’s I-15?
According to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services “Utah Health Status Update” from August 2023, “the number of fatal overdoses involving any drug in Utah has remained relatively stable in the past three years (2020-2022) as well as the number of opioid-involved fatal drug overdoses”, indicating Utah’s drug epidemic isn’t changing much.
From 2013 to 2015, Utah ranked seventh in the Nation for highest drug overdose death according to the Prescription Opioid Death pamphlet produced by Utah’s Department of Health and Human Services in 2015.
The following year in 2016, Utah ranked fourth in the nation for drug overdose death according to a report conducted by ABC 4 News.
Is an Inland Shipping Port really a good idea in a state already crippled by drug and human trafficking and located right in the heart of one of our nation’s largest drug corridors?
Historically, drug cartels control global shipping supply chains as well as their subsequent shipping routes. The United States is typically a stopping point for large shipping vessels used in drug trafficking which then unload on to smaller vessels and are shipped to Europe.
According to the Financial Times “drug gangs have infiltrated shipping supply chains to an “extreme” degree, a leading industry executive warned.”
Furthermore, the article states “cocaine shipments to the EU have surged in recent years, with criminal gangs directing the flow of drugs via global shipping routes. A record 303 tons were seized in 2021, according to the latest continent-wide figures from the EU’s drugs monitoring agency, EMCDDA.”
In an article titled “Container Shipping: Cocaine Hide and Seek” published by Insite Crime, it states that “over the last decade, container shipping has become by far the most common form of trafficking into Europe. Every year, 750 million containers are shipped around the globe, but less than two percent of these are inspected. This has provided traffickers with the perfect opportunity to reach global markets. The challenge is camouflaging large consignments of cocaine to minimize the risk of seizure while maximizing profits.”
The article also states that the United States is not immune from narcotics trafficking via global shipping vessels, citing a large bust on the coast of Philidelphia in June of 2019 when it states a shipping vessel was “boarded by federal agents, who spent days using x-rays, sniffer dogs, and fiber optic scopes to inspect the thousands of containers on board. In seven of those, they found nearly 20 tons of cocaine”.
“It was one of the biggest seizures in US history.”
The article further states that “the story of the MSC Gayane says far more about where the ship was headed – Europe – than it does about the United States” also adding that “it shows how trafficking with containers has reached such levels that traffickers feel confident dispatching multi-ton cocaine shipments worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Europe. But more than that, it shows the constant criminal evolution in what is today the principal form of trafficking to Europe.”
The article continues stating that “traffickers are increasingly looking to avoid the risks from profiling by hiding drugs in the structure of the container itself. Traffickers stuff bricks of cocaine into cavities in the walls, ceilings, floors, and doors, or in the insulation or cooling equipment of refrigerated containers – known as “reefers.”
With the devastating immigration crisis occurring on the Mexican border as well as with its southern neighbors, Utah has seen a large influx of illegal immigrants taking sanctuary across the state. Many of them victims of human trafficking themselves.
Often illegal immigrants crossing our borders have direct ties and involvement with some of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartels. With I-15 in close proximity to border states like Arizona, Nevada and it’s cousin California… the state has already felt the devastating effects.
Citizens in Southern Utah are now left wondering whether the state can sustain the pressure of an inland shipping port. These issues also raise the question whether the state has the resources to deal with the criminal element often associated with these ports.
Many residents living in Utah are unaware of the leniency surrounding the states 2015 drug legislation named Utah’s Justice Reinvestment Initiative which was “designed to keep people convicted of nonviolent crimes — mostly drug offenses — out of prison” according to an article titled “Is Utah’s Reform Working” published by the Salt Lake Tribune. This leaves the residents of Utah wondering if this legislation actually weakened the states security when it comes to organized crime in connection to narcotics.
“While there are indeed fewer people in the Utah State Prison since the reforms were adopted, there is still no evidence they are breaking cycles of criminal behavior,” Jeff Buhman, Utah County attorney said in an article by the Salt Lake Tribune about the 2015 legislation.
Statistically, a community crippled by drug addiction also falls victim to other crimes like that of sexual abuse, physical abuse, property crimes, theft and witness an escalation in gang violence.
It makes one wonder, with three connecting hubs scattered across I-15 in Southern Utah, are we inviting the drug cartels to make home in our communities?
According to an article published by KUTV 2 one of the cartel operations in Utah is suspected to be connected to the deadly attack orchestrated on an FLDS family in Mexico in 2019.
Coincidently, the Langford and Lebaron families that were involved in the attack in Mexico, also have familial ties to Utah as well as suspected FLDS ties to BZI, the company that is largely responsible for creating the BZI Innovation Park which is heavily connected to the Iron Springs Inland Shipping Port which James Barlow, CEO of BZI states is a “public-private alignment” according to a post on his LinkedIn.
If the violence orchestrated on the FLDS families in Mexico is any indication of what is coming to Southern Utah and with ties connecting some of the FLDS in Utah to Mexican Cartel violence, do the people of Utah need to fear the community it is creating through this “private-public alignment”?
A cousin from one of the families involved in the deadly attack in Mexico conducted an interview with ABC4news in Novemeber 2019 stated that the family was “in intense shock and fear,” the article added that the family wanted “to conceal the identity” of the cousin “because family members are so scared of more violence to come.” Do the residents of Utah need to have the same fears with the ties connecting these people to cartel violence?
It’s no secret the FLDS have a long criminal history, among a few of them being child labor, human trafficking, tax evasion, child sex abuse and other things, how can the people of Southern Utah not be concerned with it’s new neighbors or fear more nefarious purposes for the port?
With so many unanswered questions surrounding the deadly attack in Mexico and the FLDS ties to criminal activity and subsequent cartel violence, is a shipping port really a worthy investment in the Beehive State?
This is the first article in a long series to come documenting the ongoing construction of the Iron Springs Inland Shipping Port being constructed in Iron County, Utah. Please subscribe and stay tuned for more!
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