According to the textbook, most of the violence in northern Mexico is a consequence of the U.S. demand for illegal drugs, not the smuggling of illegal migrants (Alden, 2008). Mexico is a major producer and supplier to the U.S. market of heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana, and the major transit country for more than 90% of the cocaine sold in the United States.
Mexico has pursued an aggressive anticrime strategy and increased security cooperation with the United States. These efforts have helped Mexico arrest or kill record numbers of drug kingpins, but more than 55,000 people have died as a result of organized crime-related violence since December 2006.
The United States has also made significant efforts in the fight against drug trafficking. In 2011, the New York Times reported that the United States began sending unarmed drones to collect intelligence on traffickers. It also reported that the United States had expanded its role in cross-border raids, sending CIA operatives and retired military personnel to a Mexican military base, while training federal agents to assist in wiretaps, interrogations, and running informants. The United States has also improved security on its own side of the border, spending approximately $3 billion annually on patrolling the border. (CFR, 2013). For years, drug trafficking organizations have used the Mexico's political system to create "a system-wide network of corruption that guaranteed distribution rights, market access, and even official government protection for drug traffickers in exchange for well-paid bribes.
According to the Mexican government, there are three major cartels present in Mexico. They are the Gulf, Tijuana and Juarez. These drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illegal drug market in the United States. The arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States (CFR, 2013). Despite attempts to broaden its economic ties with other countries and build its domestic economy; Mexico continues to be greatly dependent on the United States as an export market and tourism revenues. The economic conditions in Mexico tend to follow similar patterns of that of the United States. When the U.S. economy is expanding, the Mexican economy tends to grow as well. However, if the U.S. economy remains stagnates or is in decline, the Mexican economy tends to decline as well, often by a greater degree.