The Long Reach of the Cartel
Most have heard of the drug cartel, and most are familiar with their activities south of the U.S. border. While much remains to be understood about the connections between the drug cartel and U.S. based gangs, connections have been proved. Therefore, when it comes down to combating the drug trafficking into the United States, one of the questions that must be analyzed is this; should we focus on the stateside gang affiliates of these drug cartels, or target the cartels themselves? While I would argue for the latter, as you analyze what you read here, what conclusions would you draw?
The drug cartel’s operations begin in such countries as Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. From those countries, the goods are smuggled by aerial, maritime, and more increasingly land-based means toward the United States; the world’s principal market for some of these high-dollar drugs. Their shipments originate in tonnage. By the time they reach the border; they are diminished to measurements by the kilogram. As these shipments become smaller, an increase of man-power is needed. The smuggling process involves large numbers of low-level, dispensable smugglers – often just desperate for the income. But once it hits the States, street gangs and border gangs are the main tool for retail distribution. Although some of these gangs are involved in the smuggling trans-border, the majority of the gang activity is in the United States itself. Or at least, this is the assumption currently, as many of the details of gang / cartel connections are ambiguous.
These American gangs often work with more than one cartel. While the members of these gangs are often associated to Mexico, either through family connections or simply because of the proximity to the border, they are in it for the money; not out of loyalty or support of one cartel. In fact, the transport and sale of drugs is most often just an addition to already thriving gang activity. These gangs include street gangs, motorcycle gangs, prison gangs, etc. Drug trafficking is the most lucrative business a malefactor can engage in; gangs are more than eager to get an “in” on it.
This year, the U.S. is distributing millions of dollars through the Merida Initiative into Mexico and Central America in an attempt to provide incentive for those governments to choose to step up their efforts in this war against the drug cartel. However, the drug cartels are mighty and any government that would question it would face serious and deadly opposition. As already evidenced in Mexico. Unfortunately, most of the Central American countries do not have the capability to wage such a war.
Is the government doing what it should be by targeting the cartels with this initiative? Or should its main interest be in controlling our own gangs? Well, let’s play it out: suppose we crack down on the gangs stateside (which is already happening to a large degree). This would solve our problem in a way similar to the way that painkillers solve the problem of a broken arm – it won’t attack the real issue. Are these cartels about to lose their U.S. business because some of their dealers got busted? Conversely, suppose that the U.S. takes a central, hard, and swift role in bringing down the drug lords in the Central American. The result would be that it would be the U.S. gangs on the lookout for new business instead of the cartel looking for more manpower.
One may argue that it is not the job of the already internationally active United States to involve itself in the cartels of these countries. But these cartels are infiltrating our border. Not only through the U.S. gangs they are involved with, but through the cartel violence that is making its way into such cities as Dallas, Austin, and especially Phoenix. Mexican criminals, as a matter of fact, have been involved in crimes in Peru, Argentina, and Guatemala and apprehended as far away as Italy. Their illicit activity, therefore, is not restricted to Mexico. These brutal criminals, therefore, or are not just the problem of their native country anymore. They have become our problem too.
As an instance of this violence spreading north of the border, one magazine detailed the account of armed cartel men masquerading as Phoenix policemen in that city. They reportedly fired 100 rounds into the house of a double-crossing dealer. Phoenix has been, by far, the hardest hit by the spread of cartel related violence. Another significant influence these Mexican drug-traffic organizations have in the United States is the incredible number of for-ransom kidnappings that are taking place in Phoenix. Several sources put the number at 368 reported kidnappings in that city for 2008 alone. Most of these kidnap victims are illegal immigrants whose families are not eager to bring attention to themselves by reporting the crime. Victims can also be legal immigrants often of the same ethnicity of the culpable drug-traffic organization. But with the flow of illegal immigrants slowing down due to the U.S. economy, this could change. These gangs could go to other cities deeper in the country that also have a prominent population of their homeland’s immigrants – whether legal or not.
Along with the fact that cartel violence is finding its way into the U.S. is the reality that whereas our government can combat the violence erupting here, our law-keeping counterparts in the Central Americas are unable to combat the cartels themselves. Our law enforcement agencies are professional and effective and generally uncorrupted, but the law in the Central Americas is profoundly incompetent and often corrupt. Would it be circumspect to leave the apprehension of such dominant drug-lords to such agencies? Certainly, our own law agencies are by no mean perfect, but to the degree we have attained, should we not aid in the pursuit of such influential and formidable malefactors? I would contend that it would be in our own country’s interest of security to do just that.
While broad sociological roots could and should be addressed – especially in the context of our own gangs – the pressing urgency in the dismantling of these cartels cannot be ignored. Stronger border control is certainly essential. Watching one’s own borders is elementary in any country’s responsibility. But our efforts must go deeper than that. If you go after the wasp and not the wasp nest, you’ll never get rid of your pest. The currents of U.S. cartel violence flow from deeper south, and to stop the tide, it is south we must go.
Works Cited
Meiners, Stephen. “Central America: An Emerging Role in the Drug Trade.” Stratfor Global Intelligence March 2009. 26 March 2009 < http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090326_ central_america_emerging_role_drug_trade
Burton, Fred & West, Ben. “When Mexican Drug Trade Hits the Border.” Stratfor Global Intelligence April 2009. 15 April 2009 <http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090415_when_mexican drug_trade_ hits_border
Burton, Fred & Stewart, Scott. “The Long Arm of the Lawless.” Stratfor Global Intelligence February 2009. 25 February 2009. <http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090225_long_arm_ lawless
Will, George F. “Kidnapped by the Cartels.” Washington Post March 2009. 22 March 2009 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/20/AR2009032002311.html
Vincent, Lynn. “Border Wars.” World Magazine March 2009. 28 March 2009 <http://www.worldmag.com/articles/15132
