Rose Pastel, referring to a pink party drug, is the latest hit from the immensely popular Peso Pluma in Mexico, stage name of 23-year-old Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija. The singer glorifies the infamous Mexican drug cartels in his music. On April 20, he launched a song entirely devoted to the Netherlands.
The lyrics describe the (sporadic) presence of Mexican drug crime in the Netherlands. In June 2020, a drug lab was rounded up in Gelderland, where the police found two Mexicans who were manufacturing methamphetamine. Was there Mexican expansion into the polder?
About the author
Joost de Vries is Latin America correspondent for de Volkskrant. He lives in Mexico City. He previously worked on the economic and political editorial board of de Volkskrant.
Singer Peso Pluma (‘light weight’, due to his thin stature) suggests that the two Mexican ‘chefs’ were no exception. Rose Pastel presents Amsterdam as an attractive destination for drug tourists and Mexican traffickers. Whether that’s true or not, what he proclaims is being heard in Mexico and the surrounding area. He currently dominates the Mexican Spotify top 50 with fourteen songs and is touring full houses in the US.
dessert
The young artist recorded his clip in Amsterdam at the beginning of April and visited his compatriot and Ajax defender Edson Álvarez in the Johan Cruijff Arena. The video shows Peso Pluma and colleague Jasiel Nuñez on the Magere Brug, under the Oude Kerk, in Amsterdam North and in the Ajax stadium. They sing: ‘There in Amsterdam I move her (drugs, ed.). We brought a dessert. Go ahead, try it, how do you like it? Take a few ounces of pastel pink.”
Narco-pop, which is rapidly entering the mainstream in Mexican pop music, is not an innocent artistic expression, says Javier Oliva, a security expert at the Autonomous University of Mexico. “The Dutch authorities should investigate the video and the lyrics of this song,” the scientist says over the phone. ‘Without a doubt there are alliances (between Mexican and Dutch crime, ed.).’
Kabande in his twenties is currently the most popular of a large group of young artists who are putting a new twist on the long-established ‘narcocorridos’, Mexican country songs that honor the big drug lords. Mixing country style with urban rhythms and designer clothes, the new generation breaks all records. “Always ready,” sings Peso Pluma in a tribute to drug lord El Chapo. Critics argue that this is problematic in a country plagued by endemic drug violence. But young people run away with it.
‘Criminal Glamor’
Kabandes ‘pastel pink’ is about a drug known in the Netherlands as tusi, a pink powder that, according to the Trimbos Institute, consists of ‘MDMA, ketamine and/or caffeine’. Admittedly a drug that has recently gained popularity in Dutch nightlife, but has not yet led to major accidents. The organization found no ‘acutely life-threatening substances’ in samples found.
‘Criminal glamor sells’, criminologist Damián Zaitch (Utrecht University) responds by telephone. Scarfaceserials like Narcos. And now this Peso Pluma.’ Although it is a dubious honor for Amsterdam, Zaitch suspects that the song is based on little more than tough stuff. ‘We have been waiting for the arrival of the Mexicans for a long time, but apart from incidents we do not yet see a trend.’
It is true, says the criminologist, that there are international ties between criminal organizations at the highest level, but there is as yet no evidence for a structural Mexican presence in the Netherlands. It is still the South Americans and their cocaine that dominate the European market. And Peso Pluma’s pink MDMA? ‘It can be made much cheaper in Brabant.’
