Happy Friday! Before we dive into this week’s newsletter we have an announcement to make. We are officially launching our In Good Spirits community Discord channel! This will be a place for our readers to chat about anything and everything bar, spirits, and industry related. We felt like it would be nice to not only get to hear from readers directly but also to have our readers be able to interact with each other directly. We love building and focusing on community so it just makes sense.

If you have a Discord account you can just click here to join! If you don’t have a Discord account you can click that link and make an account so you can join. Its free to join and free to stay. Nothing hiding behind any paywalls. Lui and I will both be on there to talk directly with you and share videos and resources as applicable. We look forward to seeing you there!

What’s happening and Why You Should Care

We are not breaking the story about what’s going on in Mexico right now. Everyone by now has heard some or all of the coverage on the Mexican military taking out cartel leader "El Mencho”. We’re here to talk about how it’s tied to spirits and the layers and nuance that everyone should really care about.

In order to understand the significance of this military hit and the resulting fallout it is important to understand how the cartel and the powerful in Mexico are intertwined. First of all, ‘the cartel’ is used as a general term to describe what is actually known as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, or CJNG). Led by Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes (also known as El Mencho), this group grew out of the remnants of another former cartel group and quickly rose to the top of Mexico’s drug trade. The CJNG is known as one of the most violent and dangerous crime groups in the country’s recent history. Their ruthless nature is a major reason why so many fear speaking out against them or operating contrary to them in any industry.

As far as spirits are concerned, the mayor of Tequila (the city in Jalisco) was recently arrested for extortion. Diego Rivera Navarro, Tequila’s mayor, is accused along with three other officials of extorting beer and tequila companies specifically. This includes companies like Cuervo, which filed an extortion complaint against Navarro and others claiming that they demanded payments in order to continue to be allowed to produce tequila.

After the killing of ‘El Mencho’ the CJNG launched a series of terror attacks in Guadalajara and throughout Jalisco. The group set fire to businesses and vehicles, intending to cut off major roadways and sew fear among the people. Many people were forced to shelter in place as these attacks unfolded, some of which were tequila tourists and influencers like Doug Price, the creator behind the Agave Social Club. He had this to say about his experience during all of this:

When events like this unfold it is important to remember that not everything you see online is true. In the current age there is so much AI it can be hard to tell the real from the fake. There are also plenty of people circulating old video and images online that paint the picture that all of Mexico is on fire right now. Thankfully most of the targets of this most recent attack were nonresidential, and most of the casualties were military and cartel members (not that loss of any human life is okay). Right now it is important to center the voices of the Mexican people, the ones who live in and around the realities of this push and pull of power everyday.

Despite Resistance From Fawn and Keith Weaver, the Sales are Starting

With all the back-and-forth happening in the courts with the Weaver', their receiver, and the creditor that owns their debts it can be hard to keep up. Here's our most recent recap if you want to catch up.

As of January 26th the receiver for Uncle Nearest officially listed the property that started all of this financial drama for sale. The property was purchased using a $2.3 million loan “which was allegedly […] through a separate LLC and later mortgaged to another lender, in violation of the loan agreements.” The receiver listed the Massachusetts property for $2,595,000 and allegedly has received 3 full-price offers.

This all comes with Uncle Nearest founders claiming that the property is not collateral to the company, having also allegedly provided proof to the creditor. This doesn’t prevent the sale from moving forward, since it is well within the power of the receiver, but it does continue to raise questions about what is true in this whole mess.

If you don’t want to read about the Uncle Nearest situation and would rather listen/watch to get your information Lui recently posted this video explaining what exactly is going on. Sometimes it’s easier to process this amount of information in a visual and audio format as opposed to reading it on your own.

Quick Hits: