The Link

Recently, a group of seeking homeless veterans in Tucson came upon what they described as a sex trafficking camp on the outskirts of large property owned by a multinational cement company from Mexico. While no one is exactly surprised that such a thing is happening near the American border, news media were quick to dismiss the allegations and the various connections between CEMEX, The Clinton Foundation and various powerful figures on multiple continents.

I began looking at other Cemex plants to see if there was a pattern, some commonality between all the plants I could use to confirm or deny the potential existence of so-called sex-trafficking camps or operations. And boy, I was not expecting this.

A series of cement companies around the world appear to be working closely or setting up show adjacent to golf courses, athletic centers, nature preserves, trampoline parks and amusement parks, dog racing tracks, but mostly (and in some regions, almost exclusively) golf courses. At first, I thought that my biases were just making me see two large rural properties close by. But then I realized that this setup also happened in both urban and coastal settings.

Cement companies involved include some of the world's largest, but most importantly our first two, LafargeHolcim and Cemex. We have also looked at LafargeHolcim subsidiaries around the world and seen an identical pattern.

Methodology:

Cement plants owned by LafargeHolcim, CEMEX, St.Mary's cement and its subsidiaries were evaluated for proximity to golf courses. Included are those which are either attached, on the same street, rail line, river, within approximately a mile in an urban environment and a little more in rural areas, though about 20 images have been omitted because the golf courses are not beside each other. After extended evaluation, other symbols, such as the four-pointed baseball diamond, were considered as potential signs of a criminal presence In countries where golf is less popular, proximity is considered less important (but I still found this pattern in Indonesia, Philippines and even with a Dangote Cement plant in Ghana).

Back roads, service roads, private dirt paths and routes preventing interstate/highway use are considered especially important. The use of landscaping and gravel is considered an incentive to keep golf courses near cement plants. But after extensive research, it appeared that having a gravel plant nearby was not a necessity for many golf courses.

Symbols to look out for:

• Four-pointed clover shape, often in the form of baseball diamonds

• Pyramid/Triangle shape

• Racetrack oval/hippodrome

• Cross, or "x marks the spot"

Some highlights on the list

• A golf course in Paris on an island on the Seine flanked by Cemex and Lafarge plants

• Near Philippines presidential palace

• Beside Haitian Prime Minister's residence

• Several ancient Welsh castles

• Downtown Jakarta, Bangkok

• One cement plant/golf course hundreds of miles from any city in the Australian outback

• Many casinos and county fairgrounds all over the world

• Orlando Pulse Nightclub is right behind Cemex plant