Terrorism and the Mexican Drug Cartels

War on Drugs -- Mexican Drug Trafficking

When examining the behaviors and goals of various Mexican drug cartels, any well-informed observer can clearly see these groups aren't just drug pushers -- they are also terrorists. The cartels have been known to show their power by going into Mexican communities and simply slaughtering dozens of people then dumping the bodies in a shallow grave, or even stacking bodies by the roadside for citizens to see and become fearful. In fact, on June 18, 2014, twenty-eight bodies were found in a "mass grave" in Veracruz, and the identification of the corpses was difficult because of the decaying bodies (AP).

This grim scene is likely the result of the ongoing war between two cartels, the Zeta and certain rivals; the bodies are likely those of migrants that were coming up into Mexico from Central America, and found themselves in a crossfire between violent drug cartels. In short, by any new or old definition, this is terrorism, pure and simple. This paper covers the security threat that the Mexican drug cartels pose to Mexico and to the United States.

Mexico's Drug War

An article in the Council on Foreign Relations, researched and written by Brianne Lee, explains that in 2006, the then-president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, partnered with the United States in a "massive crackdown against drug trafficking organizations" (Lee, 2014). However, that crackdown didn't accomplish what it intended to accomplish: from Mexico's point-of-view it was designed to find and arrest cartel leaders; and from the U.S. perspective, it was intended to "stanching the flow of drugs into" the United States. The pertinent question -- was the campaign a success in any sense? -- can be answered with one word: no.

In fact, according to Lee's research, this crackdown (the U.S. provided funding for intelligence) led to a "…conflict that would contribute to the deaths of tens of thousands of people in drug-related violence" (Lee, p. 1). The campaign was not a new one because for many years Mexican officials have attempted to slow down the cartels or bring them to justice. But, Lee continues, because of a "system-wide network of corruption" that even offered "official government protection for drug traffickers in exchange for lucrative bribes," very little progress was made in fighting the cartels.

It is very important to the United States that drug movement be stopped at the border, but that has not happened. Indeed, today Mexican drug cartels are the principle suppliers of heroin into the American market; and the Mexican cartels are the "largest foreign supplier of methamphetamine and marijuana" (Lee, p. 1). Indeed, movement of these three drugs across the U.S. border has "increased since 2005"; and upwards of 90% of the cocaine used in the U.S. comes through Mexico (from South America). That is up from 77% of the cocaine that came through Mexico in 2003, a startling statistic, and it shows that the war on drugs in the U.S. has essentially been a flop.

The Mexican cartels include: the Zetas; Sinaloa Cartel; Juarez Cartel; Tijuana Cartel; Beltran Leyva; and the Knights Templar (Lee, p. 2). And members of these cartels are very good at bribing the police; Lee points out that police on average only earn about $10,000 a year, which is far below the average salary for employees in the public sector in Mexico. In fact, a cop can make "double or triple" what his salary normally is by simply "looking the other way" when a cartel is moving drugs into the U.S. Or otherwise conducting trafficking activities (Lee, p. 2). In other words, the police officer doesn't have to agree to buy into the cartel's activities at all, he just has to let them carry out their evil deeds and not report it or try to stop it.

By allowing huge quantities of cocaine, heroin, and meth to come into the United States authorities are also allowing a huge security threat to continue. Gangs in the United States -- usually the groups that sell these drugs on the street -- are themselves often violent in nature, and therein exists the potential for violence.

Cartels Cause a Refugee Crisis

Meanwhile, not only are the cartels moving drugs across the border into the United States -- and committing acts of terrorism -- they are creating an "incentive for people to flee" northward from their communities, because the Central American countries where cocaine and heroin are produced are very dangerous for citizens in those areas. Basically, according to Ted Carpenter, writing in CNN, the cartels have "seized control of human smuggling routes through Mexico" (Carpenter, 2014). The cartels charge refugees "several thousand dollars for passage" into the United States. This is clearly a dual problem for American border officials and law enforcement along the southern border of California, Arizona, and Texas, in particular, Carpenter explains.

By keeping the U.S. Border Patrol busy with a flood of immigrants, it distracts the Border Patrol from dealing with drug lords, Carpenter continues. Because of the crackdown by the Mexican government -- which has not been all that successful -- some cartels have moved their operations into Central America. "When pressure mounts in one area, they simply relocate to another jurisdiction where the risks and problems are at least temporarily less imposing," according to Carpenter (p. 2).