VIDEO – GUNS and VIOLENCE –
June 14, 2026 – As Mexico struggles with a cartel-driven methamphetamine crisis, even makeshift rehab centers have become vulnerable to gang infiltration and attacks. Yet with little else available to those seeking addiction help, some officials now see regulating these underground facilities as the path forward.
Nicolás Pérez drives his pickup through dimly lit streets in central Mexico. Five men are in the back. They are on a “spiritual mission,” he says, looking for people struggling with methamphetamine addiction to force into treatment at his rehabilitation center.
The truck stops at an abandoned house. The men get out, slip under a fence and enter. Seconds later, a shout is heard from the upper floor, and the tallest of the group escorts out a much smaller man, who is pleading in vain. They want to lock him up in rehab at La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family), the center that Pérez has directed for 20 years in Silao, the heart of Guanajuato state.
