Not an American in Luxembourg, but a Luxembourger in America: Georges Reuter, born in Capellen, gives us a tour of the jail in his new home in Pinal County, AZ, close to the Mexican border, where sheriff Mark Lamb, 50, is in a constant battle against Mexican cartels.
Pinal County is 5 times bigger than Luxembourg, and has 500,000 inhabitants. Sheriff Lamb tells Reuter he agreed with plans for Donald Trump’s famous border wall, but construction stopped as soon as Joe Biden was sworn in as president in 2021. He sees himself as a symbol, elected by the people, and working for the people of Pinal County. He says there is a huge issue with drug runners gaining illegal entry to the US along the highways near the Mexican border, and takes Reuter on a patrol to show the complexities of his daily workload.
According to the US Department of Defence, the three most powerful cartels have around 100,000 members. They control which drugs are supplied to the US, and the majority of traffic goes through the cartels. In this corner of the United States, you would not be faulted for thinking that Wild West rules still apply.
Reuter, member of a local city council and a self-confessed weapons enthusiast with a collection worth over $150,000, took RTL’s camera crew on a tour of the local police station, as well as a country jail.
The United States of America have around 2 million prisoners in its 5,000 prisons and jails. This makes up around 25% of those incarcerated globally, when the country represents just under 5% of the global population.
Many of the prisons and jails have become true recruitment centres for the cartels.
Watch the report, in Luxembourgish and in English:
