Drug Trafficking

Drug Trafficking

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Drug Trafficking

The Mexico–United States border is an international border that separates Mexico and the United States. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the East. It is the most often crossed border in the world recording over 350 annual crossings. It is furthermore the tenth longest border between two countries on the globe with a total of 3,145km length. From the Gulf of Mexico, it goes through Rio Grande to the border crossing at Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and El Paso, Texas. On the west, from El Paso–Juárez, it navigates large tracts of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts to the Colorado River Delta and San Diego–Tijuana and finally reaching the Pacific Ocean (Limb, 2018).

There have been a number of issues arising on the border that has seen both countries joining hands in an attempt to develop solutions to combat these issues. For instance drug smuggling has been a source of concern for both countries and the exigency to stop the passage of illegal narcotics from Mexico to the United States has had significant implications for the Mexico-U.S border region. This is the region where plenty of the efforts to enforce this mission occur. People and cargo crossing the border are both affected by the drug imposition expedition. The smuggling of drugs across this border has resulted to a number of other illegal activities by criminals taking place on both sides of the border. These criminal activities include corruption by officials who are supposed to be enforcing the necessary laws, money laundering and violence. Both of these countries presume drug trafficking to be a prime ultimatum to their respective national security. They have as a result decided to coordinate and come up with a bi-national counter-narcotics strategy in their attempt to neutralize this threat. The U.S has focused it efforts on providing support to its law enforcement firms on the border to facilitate the capabilities of drug interdictions. The U.S Customs Service, the Department of Defense, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) make up the chief agencies entrusted with fighting the flow of drugs into the United States.

Mexico is the current leading transit route for most of the cocaine and plenty of the heroin and marijuana produced from outside the U.S. It is estimated that approximately 60% of cocaine which has over 340 metric tons entering United States came through Mexico in 1998 (Campos, 2018). Despite the drug eradication efforts by the Mexican government, the country has remained to be a major source for heroin and marijuana that are sold in the United States. The DEA affirms that just about the 6metric tons of heroin mass produced in Mexico in 1998 gets to the markets in U.S. It further states that a significant amount of methamphetamine found in the United States is likely to have been manufactured in the country by Mexican drug traffickers or manufactured in Mexico before being transported in the United States.

Corruption which is highly influenced by drug smuggling activities is the major hindrance to the efforts by both U.S.A and Mexico in countering the flow of these narcotics between both countries (Sasikumar, 2020). The drug traffickers have influenced even the law enforcement officials. It is estimated by the U.S that drug traffickers squander billions of dollars annually to obstinate Mexican public officials across all levels. The Mexican president, after realizing the effects of corruption on law enforcement agencies expanded the military’s role in counter-narcotics activities. Personnel screening for individuals working in given law enforcement activities were also put in place. However, none of these initiatives proved efficient enough to be universal remedies for managing issues brought about by narcotics. In fact, some top officials in the agencies and military were found to be involved in drug trafficking upon personnel screening. Corruption of drug enforcement officials is not affecting Mexico alone, some employees belonging to the U.S Immigration and Naturalization Service and U.S Customs Service have also been found to be engaging in illegal narcotic related activities such as gesticulating drug loads and enhancing their crossing at the border crossings, facilitating transportation of narcotics past U.S Border Patrol checkpoints. Some go ahead to sell the drugs and even revealing drug intelligence information to drug lords (Gaunt n.d).

Violence is another result of drug ball game affecting either sides of the U.S Mexican border. Violence has become an essential tool for the trade used by the organized crime groups coming from Mexico. For example, the DEA recorded 141 violent occasions between 1996 and 1999 (Toth and Mitchell, 2018). These were against pubic officials, informants and law enforcement officers from both countries. It is currently reported that most of these drug-related violent incidents have become often in Mexico and spread over to some communities in the United States. Money laundry is another problem arising from drug trafficking across the U.S Mexican border. Mexico is said to be the sanctum for money concealment in the whole of Latin America, this is according to the American Department of State. Legitimate businesses in both U.S.A and Mexico are used by the drug cartels to launder money. Transport and other sectors of the economy are considered for facilitating the movement of cash, drugs and even fire arms which are in some cases purposed to develop and expand their laundering activities. Operation Casablanca, which took place in May 1998 by the U.S Customs, is the biggest and most thorough narcotic money laundering investigation ever recorded in the history of U.S.A law administration. This investigation lasted for three years. It obtained an estimated $100 million dollars in illegal drug proceeds and resulted to the arrest of 168 people from the 12 of Mexico’s largest financial institutions. Three of Mexican banks were found to be involved in the money-laundering conspiracy (Marshall, 2017).

Both countries have since developed strategies to counter drug trafficking across both countries. For instance, both nations have put together their efforts in ways like meetings of government officials from both countries taking place periodically and development of a drug-counter strategy (Lebow and Lebow, 2016). The American government has increased its aid to the Mexican government’s law enforcement organizations. More support has been directed to the Southwest border to improve the competency of drug interdiction. There are also formal and informal mechanisms put in place by the United States and Mexican governments with the aim of boosting of cooperation and coordination between the agencies of the two countries on issues related to narcotics. The U.S- Mexican High-Level Contact Group on Narcotics Control and Senior Law Enforcement Plenary are the two major formal forums for coordination between the two countries. The contact group whose leader is the U.S. Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Mexican Foreign Secretary and the Attorney General, met twice in 1998. It resulted in the initiation of a proceeding for enhanced consultations and cooperation in cross-border operations that were deemed sensitive. Mexico further generated the Bilateral Task Force in the office of the Mexican Attorney General that was meant to investigate and dismantle major drug trafficking cartels along the U.S-Mexican border. Furthermore, the Bi-National Drug Strategy of 1998 held 16 general objectives including the reduction of manufacturing and distribution of illicit drugs in both nations, maximizing security at the border and increasing the focus of law enforcement efforts on criminal firms. This strategy has since led to the formation of various U.S –Mexican officials’ joint working groups. These have in turn led to institution of achievement measures meant to assess the progress and accomplishment of the objectives of the Bi-National strategy (Vajda, 2016).

The U.S. Customs Service is the primary agency when it comes to border crossings. They are aided by INS Inspections, who are in charge of halting the movement of illicit drugs on U.S. ports of entry. Furthermore, the Customs’ drug interdiction program conducts routine check-ups to search passengers, cargo and conveyances for illegal drugs. It also investigates other activities distinctive to specific ports. In carrying out its drug interdiction role, their core setback is to efficiently practice its interdiction and trade enforcement missions while enhancing people and cargo’s movement across the border. Customs took a grip of 31,769 pounds of cocaine, 830,891 pounds of marijuana, and 407 pounds of heroin along the U.S.-Mexico border in 1998. Customs is installing various state-of-the-art X-ray systems to check cargo and vehicles to enhance combating the drug problem at the border. It is further evaluating other new technology forms to be used in high-risk areas (Gabriel et al. n.d). The Department of Defense is the leading supporter of these and includes the support of and coordination with other law enforcement agencies. The Border Patrol is the chief agency in INS accountable for revealing and seizing drug traffickers along the border between the ports of entry. The Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that the Border Patrol seized 22,675 pounds of cocaine and more than 871,000 pounds of: marijuana in 1998 (Sanchez and Zhang, 2018). The INS further affirms that it was answerable for the arrest of more than 8,600 people for drug-related violations along the southwest border.

References

Campos, I. (2018). Mexicans and the Origins of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States: A Reassessment. The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, 32(1), 6-37.

Gabriel, S. T. A. P. D., Assist, P. S. T., & PIELMUŞ, C. THE USA IMMIGRATION POLICY, BORDER SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL.

Gaunt, S. T. El NARCO.

Lebow, D., & Lebow, R. N. (2016). Unilateralism across the Border: The US–Mexico Relationship1. The Bush Leadership, the Power of Ideas, and the War on Terror, 91-112.

Limb, M. K. (2018). The US–Mexico Border: Place, Imagination, and Possibility. The Journal of Modern Craft, 11(1), 85-89.

Marshall, W. C. (2017). Discount Banking in Mexico. Studies in Political Economy, 98(3), 263-278.

Sanchez, G. E., & Zhang, S. X. (2018). Rumors, encounters, collaborations, and survival: The migrant smuggling–drug trafficking nexus in the US Southwest. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 676(1), 135-151.

Sasikumar, J. (2020). NARCO-CORRUPTION: A DESTRUCTIVE PRAXIS IN DRUG CONTROL AGENCIES. INDIAN JOURNAL, 1(1), 33.

Toth, A. G., & Mitchell, O. (2018). A qualitative examination of the effects of international counter-drug interdictions. International Journal of Drug Policy, 55, 70-76.

Vajda, J. (2016). US policies to combat Mexican drug trafficking organizations.