      In late December, Edmonton Police Service arrested four Mexican drug cartel members and seized rifles, a handgun, a sawed-off shotgun, body armour, and ammunition. They also seized cocaine, methamphetamines, oxycodone, and cash.
           My friend from Alberta is actually working on a Masters, with intentions of completing a Ph.D. in Anthropology focused on violence along the Mexican/American border. She shared the link to a CBC article addressing the arrests, so I read it and told her I found it was quite interesting.
           The article explained La Familia alleged gang members were arrested including a Nova Scotia man.
           Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team (ALERT), which specializes in investigating serious and organized crime, found themselves investigating the cartel’s involvement in attempting to take over Alberta's drug trade. The group was trying to take on the supply lines to Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Drayton Valley, Lloydminster, and Red Deer.
           To do this they were looking to recruit new members and expand into new territories.
           She asked my opinion on the situation and I found myself wondering more about the Canadian situation regarding already established drug trafficking gangs. Is there going to be an escalation of violence in Canada between these gangs and the Mexican cartel that is attempting to move in.
           According to an article in September from a site looking at Organized Crime in the Americas, Canadian gangs are actually beginning to work with Mexican cartels. Apparently the connection benefits both groups because Mexican cartels have the supply lines, while the Canadian criminal element has easier ties when transporting their product to Australia.
           So my wonderment of whether or not gang-related violence is going to escalate, may not necessarily have been the right question when expressing my thoughts on the article.
           Apparently by working together, Canadian organized crime and Mexican drug cartels can eliminate the middleman, while increasing revenues through this relationship.
           Ultimately I guess the question is simply how this will affect Canada. Will the country be flooded with drugs, will the RCMP be able to keep up with the narcotics trafficking set to occur, or will everything simply run the way it has until now.
           My friend's reaction to the CBC articles were along the same lines of wanting to know what this will mean for Canada. She did say that she found the articles to sound very dangerous, which the situation is dangerous, but at the same time she found it to be somewhat sensationalized. However, she's used to a different element of violence studying the Mexico-U.S. Border where finding a couple of .22s, a handgun, four cartel members, and drugs has become a common occurrence: in fact I would venture to say that what was seized in Edmonton would be trivial where the war on drugs is mainly being waged.
           So, I do think the weight of this bust in Canada is on a different spectrum, which means it isn't necessarily being sensationalized in Canadian media because this kind of thing is either not talked about a lot or is not a common occurrence. Thus, it sounds sensationalized, when really it is something usually not talked about resulting in it being construed in this way by my friend.
