...The Drug War: Will It Ever Stop? INTRODUCTION The United States and Mexico share a border that stretches 2,000 miles. The border is a product of the clash of the British and Spanish Empires. It is a place of lawlessness and violence. Drug cartels have used the border to smuggle illegal drugs into the United States for years. The United States market for drugs is a multibillion dollar a year industry. 90% of the illegal drugs that are smuggled into America come through our southern borders. As a nation we consume over 50% of the worlds illegal drugs, which exemplify the problem that America has with drug consumption. The demand for illegal drugs in the US allows drug cartels in Mexico to make billions of dollars by smuggling Marijuana, and Methamphetamines through the US/Mexican Border. Efforts to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the US have been unsuccessful. Drug Cartels use various methods in the transportation of their merchandise. Such methods include using underground tunnels, semi trucks, automobiles, and humans to transport these illegal drugs. Only 3 to 8 percent of the drugs that are smuggled from Latin America into the United States is confiscated, which is a very discouraging number. Our border patrol and DEA need to do a better job securing our borders and preventing the flow of such harmful drugs into America. There are a reported 7 cartels that operate in Mexico; the biggest players in the drug trade between Mexico and the US are the Tijuana, Juarez, Sinaloa...
Words: 2571 - Pages: 11
...The Drug Business Tawni Masters CJA 384 January 30, 2012 Sherryl Roten-West The Drug Business The illegal drug business in the United States is not a new business. This business has been around for quite some time. In this paper I will discuss the history of illegal drug business in the United States including the types of drugs that involved in the illegal drug business. I will also be discussing illegal drug syndicates and cartels a long with their structures and operational methods. Also I will be talking about some of the modern trends of organized drug trafficking. Finally I will answer, explain, and provide recommendations to the question, is there is a better solution to the ways in which we combat the drug business in the United States. The illegal drug business in the United States consists of all different types of activities from drug use to drug sales to producing and manufacturing to trafficking. Until the 1940’s most Italian Mafia leaders were strict with their rules telling their outfits that they were to avoid dealing drugs. A few leaders, notably Charles “Lucky” Luciano, broke that rule and used their organizations to push other gangs out of the drug trade and developed sophisticated networks for importing and selling illegal drugs in the United States (Mazzeno, 2011). During World War II illegal drugs were becoming less available in the U.S. because traffickers had a difficult time importing the drugs from overseas areas that were already in a conflict...
Words: 1431 - Pages: 6
...Impact of United States Drug Policy on Mexico and Colombia Drugs are not new to this Earth. Mankind has grown and consumed drugs for millennia. Marijuana, or more appropriately Cannabis, is indigenous to Central and South Asia, and has been consumed widely since 3000 B.C.E. (ElSohly 8). In more recent times (1938), Albert Hoffman synthesized Lysergic acid diethylamide, more commonly known as LSD, while searching for treatments for psychiatric diseases (Hoffman). Initially, many drugs were used in religious/spiritual functions. In several instances, the strong fibers of the Cannabis plant were used for building, much like jute, and the narcotic aspects of the plants were not even explored (ElSohly 8). However, today, drugs are frequently used recreationally, and as a result are highly profitable commodities. It is common knowledge that across the world, the vast majority of drugs are illegal or are restricted in some way. Almost nightly, proponents for the legalization of drugs, decriminalization of certain drugs, and the continued ban on drugs debate their positions through the media. This debate is a hot button issue that is almost entirely centered upon the views and policies of the world’s largest drug consumer, the United States of America (CIA Factbook). Governments and the media very often focus on drug consumption trends and drug flow into the United States, while largely ignoring Latin American perspectives and impacts on Latin America. Though drug production and drug use are...
Words: 4217 - Pages: 17
...Drug cartels have affected this world in many ways, such as drug trafficking between countries, drug cartel gangs, and the threat to many countries’ national security. Drug trafficking is a heated topic of this century and is mainly practiced in Central and South America. It is hard for the countries’ police forces to crack down on drug trafficking due to drug cartel gangs. Drug cartel gangs are spread out throughout the world. The gangs in Mexico have ties throughout the United States and many more countries. The drug cartel has gotten so powerful that it is considered a terrorist group by many countries. The main concern is members of the cartel spilling over into the United States of America. The drug cartels are responsible for overthrowing...
Words: 1271 - Pages: 6
...What is the impact of Mexican drug cartels in the United States? Andres F Urueta Dr. Maugh LIB-495-GS001 December 5, 2014 Abstract This research paper examines the impact of Mexican drug cartels in the United States. Most Americans are not aware of how far reaching these cartels are in the United States. Their power has an influence in our government and communities. This project examines who the Mexican Drug cartels are, what their purpose is, where they have influences, and when did they start to become a problem for the United States. This paper also touches base on the impact of the drugs that are illegally brought into the United States by these cartels and their methods for justice. These cartels generate billions of dollars at the expense of Americans who become addicted to the drugs that are transported in the United states. Are these cartels a problem of the past or an indication of the future. Contents Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Literature Review Chapter 3 Research Design and Methodology Chapter 4 Results of Study Chapter 5 Summary and Discussion Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 6 Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction The Mexican drug cartels have been a cancer that has grown throughout Mexico. Influenced by Colombian cartels, such as the Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel. In 2008, over 5,600 people were killed in Mexico. Many of them were tortured or beheaded (Hixson, 2009). The cartels have stretched from the border town of Tijuana...
Words: 1883 - Pages: 8
...international drug trade from Latin American states is having an impact on a global scale. The trafficking of drugs along with corruptness and murder is an international conflict that is being fought daily. There are many aspects of the drug war from Mexico and other Latin American states which have effects on United States policy as well as policies from other countries that participate in the global suppression of illegal drugs. It can be hard to differentiate between conflict and issue in regards to Latin America’s drug war and International Relations. The Mexican drug war is a global issue because it interferes with the states ability to collaborate and form policy in order to address the issues between international borders. Conflict arises because certain states want to resolve the situation and are willing to do what is necessary to do so. While drug-related violence in Mexico receives considerable attention, the Northern Triangle of Latin America is far worse. Venezuela has emerged as a major departure point for cocaine trafficked to Europe. Between 2006 and 2008 over half of all detected maritime shipments of cocaine to Europe came from Venezuela. (Crime 2010) These ports in Latin America have had an impact on the cities in the Bahamas as well with the drug cartels exporting their drugs quicker to the surrounding countries; they use the ports of the Caribbean to refuel while on the way to America. The waters of the Caribbean islands are patrolled by navies from the United States...
Words: 1134 - Pages: 5
...Mexico’s Drug War Drug trafficking has become an increasingly growing problem in the world today. Illegal drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging, and sale of illegal substances. Although today’s "War on Drugs" is a modern phenomenon, drug problems have been a common problem throughout history. The market for illegal drugs is massive, when we consider the estimated global drug trade value is worth $321 billion (Vulliamy). The most drug trafficking happens on the border between Mexico and the United States. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, “Our neighbor is the largest consumer of drugs in the world. And everybody wants to sell him drugs through our door and our window” (Catholic Online). Mexico is the main foreign supplier of marijuana and a major supplier of methamphetamine to the United States. Mexico is responsible for 90% of drugs that comes from the southern border of the United States. Mexico has been a producer and distributer of illegal drugs for generations; the country now finds itself in a battle with powerful and well-financed drug cartels. The corruption in the Mexico, the trafficking of weapons and the violence has made it possible for cartels to keep operating. Since 2006, when president Calderon declared the war on drug cartels, violence in Mexico has increased dramatically. The country has certainly seen a big rise in drug violence, with cartels fighting for control of major shipment routes. Mexican...
Words: 305 - Pages: 2
...The mafia has been participating in a love/hate relationship with the world of illegal drugs for many years. For a number of years the moneymaking entity has been narcotics and earning the gross domestic product of most countries. However, right in the center of it all was the mafia. The Sicily Cosa Nostra has one of the most successful businesses that are drug related of course. The Sicily mafia earns approximately 130 billion Euros, nearly 165 billion, and profit approximately 70 billion euro in which adds up to 90 billion in American dollars (Wise, 2008). The earning is after all investments and expenses are deducted. The Sicily mafia is indeed one of the prevalent companies in Italy. Drug trafficking alone earning nearly 59 billion Euros year, which is considered to be one of the main sources of income for Sicily mafia as well as for other organized crime in general (Wise, 2008). The Sicily involvement in the illegal drug industry is so big that other methods have evolved. For instance, loan sharking. Loan sharking is one of the most recent activities that has been invented and up scaling to greater height as a source of income from the business sector (Wise, 2008). The mafia organization has stretch beyond your typical contraband, extortion, and drug dealing, but has gained access into different sectors of the legitimate economy (Wise, 2008). For instance, tourism, restaurants and food production (Wise, 2008). According to Confesercenti, the Sicily mafia alone is worth nearly...
Words: 1276 - Pages: 6
...El Cartel de Medellin Organized crime has been a problem since the early 1900s and has grown to become a major problem for law enforcement. The start of organized crime is known to be part of the prohibition from the early 1920s. In the 1920s organized crime groups were first known to society members as gangs. Most gangs were known to be immigrants from the same group that gather together to commit illegal crimes on other society members or the government. In the United States, organized crime is also known as racketeering. In 1970, congress passed an act known as the RICO act. RICO stands for "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act” (Organized crime, 2003). This act made it easier for law enforcement officials to prosecute individuals who have not committed a crime but has been found guilty of being the head person in charge of an organized crime group. In order for a organized crime group to succeed in a committing crime, history proves that blackmail, bribery, and other forms of manipulation have been used by gang members to gain what they want form society members. One of the best ways that organized crime groups have continued to succeed in the United States is because they have been known to have connections with many different levels of law enforcement and within the government. Organized criminal groups are known to be the main contributors of drug trafficking. Today the types of crimes committed by organized crime groups have grown. As organized crime...
Words: 2797 - Pages: 12
...Life Inside of the Mexican Cartel Christian Thomasson American Public University System Life Inside of the Mexican Cartel The Mexican Drug War has been an ongoing armed conflict that is taking place among cartels that are feuding with one another for control of a specific region or regions. With the Mexican government seeking ways to combat the drug trafficking, more violence and rage is erupting among these groups who continue to fight for turf. Although United States military forces have attempted to intervene, new technology and communication devices gives these groups an edge on law enforcement. They are now able to communicate with their substations and various groups throughout the U.S. while their traffic goes undetected. This student will be discussing the various groups, their activities, and their communication tactics. Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel often described as the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in the Western Hemisphere, is an alliance of some of Mexico’s top capos (McDermott et. al, 2011). The members of the coalition have been known to operate in concert to protect themselves, they also rely on high connections and corrupt law enforcement to keep the upper hand against rivals or those that attempt to infiltrate their operations. The state of Sinaloa has been named the center for contraband in Mexico, as well as the home for marijuana and poppy cultivation (McDermott...
Words: 2636 - Pages: 11
...Drug trafficking is getting more serious everyday that if we do not make an attempt to stop or slow it down, deadly consequences may occur. There have been so many articles on this issue and the rate of deaths of people using drugs is increasing rapidly. Everything has a start and so do drugs. The drugs come from traffickers who don’t care about the result of people using it; they only care about how much money they gain from it. Drugs destroy you from your health to your job, business, and worse, your relationships. According to Fitzgerald, by 1925 there were at least 30,000 to 100,000 of illegal premises in New York alone (Fitzgerald). This proves that the spreading speed of drug trafficking is increasing fast, and making more people suffer from the effect that is creates. The dealing of illegal drugs has existed for a very long time in Canada. People have been smuggling drugs in many different ways and there have been many popular drug busts that occurred as a result. Some of the most common illegal drugs being dealt are marijuana, cocaine, opium, and etc. Some of these drugs damage your body while others act as medicine and help people to overcome certain types of illnesses and diseases. The big debate these days is whether to legalize some of these illegal drugs, which provide benefits to people. Also, since many people are using them today this causes problems as these people are arrested and thrown in jail causing them to be overcrowded. In addition to that, a drug such...
Words: 2133 - Pages: 9
...5/15/2013 Per.5 History of Drug Buisness In this paper I will discuss the history of illegal drug business in the United States including the types of drugs that involved in the illegal drug business. I will also be discussing illegal drug syndicates and cartels a long with their structures and operational methods. Finally, I will answer the questions, if there is a better solution to the ways in which we fight the drug business in the United States. The illegal drug business in the U.S. has different types of activities from drug use to drug sales to produce and manufacture trafficking. A few leaders, notably Charles “Lucky” Luciano, broke the rule of avoiding dealing drugs and used other gangs of the drug trade and developed sophisticated networks for importing and selling illegal drugs to the United States (Mazzeno, 2011). During the WWII illegal drugs were becoming less available in the U.S., traffickers had difficult times transporting drugs from overseas that were already in a conflict. After the war, drug trafficking picked up making the Mafia the lead supplier of illegal drugs. The Mafia’s were smuggling drugs into the country through ports (and later through terminals), where it controlled many of the operations (Mazzeno, 2011). These groups were mainly African American, Asian, and Latino gangs. These countries mainly got their drugs from Latin American countries via Mexico. There are different types of illegal drugs smuggled into the United States each day. Cocaine, heroin...
Words: 684 - Pages: 3
...Arms Trafficking between the United States and Mexico: The Drug Trafficking Nexus Transnational Crime and Globalization By: Katrina T. Mason May 2, 2008 The United States is quite known for their proactive stances on the “War on Drugs”, “War on Terror”, and “War in Iraq”. Some view them as the international police and others view them as the international fiend, but it is in no doubt that the United States takes a very active stance in fighting what they believe is evil and wrong within the world. This is increasingly true for the evils that occur within its own borders such as the continued drug epidemic, domestic violence, child abuse, poverty, gangs, and prostitution (with the exception of Nevada). Unfortunately though, the United States’ stance on legal activities crossing from their own governance into neighboring states where the activity is illegal is not held with the same level of concern or dedication. A primary example of this double standard can be seen on the Mexican-United States border. This is not in reference to the debris from the giant wall being built on the Mexican border falling to the southern side, the young Americans fleeing across the borders to intoxicate themselves, or even the revolution of McDonalds springing up in towns throughout Mexico; but instead to the small arms and light weapons trafficking continually flowing down from the border states into Mexico causing alarming murder rates, economical...
Words: 8003 - Pages: 33
...Mexico’s Drug War Drug trafficking has become an increasingly growing problem in the world today. Illegal drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging, and sale of illegal substances. Although today’s "War on Drugs" is a modern phenomenon, drug problems have been a common problem throughout history. The market for illegal drugs is massive, when we consider the estimated global drug trade value is worth $321 billion (Vulliamy). The most drug trafficking happens on the border between Mexico and the United States. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, “Our neighbor is the largest consumer of drugs in the world. And everybody wants to sell him drugs through our door and our window” (Catholic Online). Mexico is the main foreign supplier of marijuana and a major supplier of methamphetamine to the United States. Mexico is responsible for 90% of drugs that comes from the southern border of the United States. Mexico has been a producer and distributer of illegal drugs for generations; the country now finds itself in a battle with powerful and well-financed drug cartels. The corruption in the Mexico, the trafficking of weapons and the violence has made it possible for cartels to keep operating. Since 2006, when president Calderon declared the war on drug cartels, violence in Mexico has increased dramatically. The country has certainly seen a big rise in drug violence, with cartels fighting for control of major shipment routes. Mexican...
Words: 3045 - Pages: 13
...Abstract Illegal drugs are no longer just a domestic problem. The drug trade business is a multibillion dollar enterprise that is run by international criminals. The drug lords behind these operations, non-nation-state actors, have become more powerful than the nation-states in their respective regions. The current “War on Drugs” strategy has offered little hope for any decisive victory; instead it has dealt primarily with domestic drug prevention, treatment, and market disruption. In this paper, I will demonstrate that because illegal drug trafficking is so inextricably linked to international crime and terrorism, there is a critical need to increase Department of Defense initiatives, in conjunction with the other elements of national power, to develop a decisive anti-drug cartel strategy that will provide security for not only our nation but other nations as well and its citizens at home and abroad. Narcotics, guns and violence, the powerful elements of a never ending war. All these elements are part of the campaign to rid the world of the disaster that drugs so ferociously have inflicted upon the United States and Mexico. The United States and Mexico has for the past three decades declared that it is in a full fledged attack against drugs and the violence it fosters. For decades billions and billons of dollars have been justified through the infamous War on Drugs. The money and military activity have not been enough, and the “urban problem,” has not been solved. It...
Words: 1678 - Pages: 7
