What are Drug Cartels?

•Drug Cartel- criminal organization developed for the primary purpose of promoting and controlling drug trafficking operations

How Drug Cartels Operate

• Methods of trafficking include tunnels, small aircraft, drug mules, and boats

• Employ “enforcer gangs” known as sicarios, sometimes acting as paramilitary forces to support larger cartels

• Police corruption and government complicity are key parts of the cartels success

• Ongoing drug war is characterized by heavy bloodshed, with 35,286 officially recorded deaths to date (December 2006—January 2011)

U.S. Involvement

• Primary efforts focused on border security along the U.S.-Mexico border, but no U.S. troops have ever been deployed in Mexico

• First example of this is Operation Intercept under President Nixon, which began in September 1969 and was aimed at reducing marijuana trafficking from Mexico

U.S. Involvement

• Systemic influence of free trade: NAFTA

• Mexican government criticizes U.S. approach as failing to support reduced arms trafficking into Mexico, reduce the demand for illicit drugs in America and stop the trafficking of drug earnings back into Mexico

Mexico’s Drug Cartels Quick Overview

History-Origin / early

drug lords- The divide up

OriginMiguel Ángel Félix Gallardo

- “El Padrino” (The Godfather)

- Guadalajara Cartel : based in Guadalajara, Mexico :drug trafficking money laundering

extortion murder

and arms trafficking

The Divide Up

The Divide Up

Tijuana Cartel (The Arellano-Félix Organization)

• Based in Tijuana, Baja California

• The Tijuana cartel is present in at least 15 Mexican states with important areas of operation in Tijuana and Ensenada in Baja California.

• Criminal Activities

Tijuana Cartel(The Arellano-Félix Organization)

Sinaloa Cartel(Pacific Cartel / Federation)

• Based in Baja California, Sinaloa, Durango, Sonora and Chihuahua.

• Major producer of Mexican poppy and marijuana.

• Between 1990 and 2008, Sinaloa Cartel imported and distributed nearly 200 tons of cocaine and large amount of heroine.

• Other criminal activities

Sinaloa Cartel(Pacific Cartel / Federation)

• Joaquín Guzmán Loera- Mexico's top drug kingpin in 2003 after the arrest of his rival Osiel Cardenas of the Gulf Cartel

- Forbes Magazine : 60th of 68 most powerful people : World’s 937th richest man

Mexican Drug War Statistics

Casualties:

+30,000 since start of war (Dec 2006-March 2010)

(4,324 From the city of Ciudad Juarez alone)

+3,300 from January to March 2010

2010 brought the most drug-related deaths since 2006

100 kidnappings in Arizona related to the Mexican Drug War over the past 2 years

Marijuana

• Mexico is world’s largest exporter of marijuana

• Accounts for half of the cartels’ revenue

• Marijuana and cocaine are largest sources of revenue, but marijuana is more profitable

• Sends almost all its crops to the US

• Production increased 35% in 2009 from the past year

• Nearly 30,000 acres of Mexico planted in cannabis in 2009

• Marijuana cultivation is not the problem, organized crime is

Mexican soldiers destroying crops of marijuana. The soldiers rip up the plants first because they don't burn well.

• Mexican cartels also running pot farms in the US

• One example: Sequoia National Forest, agents have found farms with over $40 million dollars worth of plants

• Most workers are in the US illegally

• Growers carry with them everything they need: tents, food, guns, fertilizer, irrigation hose and marijuana seeds

• Armed men keep watch over the gardens day and night during planting season

• Federal and local authorities use aerial surveillance, human intelligence to find marijuana gardens

• “Organized criminal threat of the 21st century”

Special agent with the National Park Service looking for marijuana farms

Recent Activity• US is stepping up efforts to stop the drug war• Goal: Identify and take down whole criminal organization• To do so, the US will:

1. Cooperate with the law enforcement in Mexico- Help Mexico with surveillance by giving items

such as helicopters, vessels, planes. Will provide later in

20112. Attack cartels all at once, so there won’t be one super cartel left that does not need to compete with others3. Help establish a strong judicial system in Mexico4. Stop flow of weapons to Mexico by more aggressively

pursuing gun laws and delegating more agents to fight the drug war

Domestic Consequences

Domestic Consequences• Influx of narcotics due

to cartels led to sentencing disparities, with the heaviest punitive measures falling on minority groups

• Critics argue that the prohibition framework which the United States currently tries to enforce is counter-productive

Domestic Consequences

• Demand for drugs in the U.S. creates need for distributors like the cartels, and the illegal status of many drugs drives up prices

• Conclusion: cartels will exist as long as profits are high