Pubdate: Fri, 26 May 2006
Source: East Valley Tribune (AZ)
Section: Page A-21
Copyright: 2006 East Valley Tribune.
Contact:  http://www.eastvalleytribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2708
Author: Bill Richardson, Retired Mesa master police officer

DEALING WITH DRUGS

Instead Of Seizing Cars And Cash, Lawmakers And Law Enforcement 
Should Focus On Crushing The Mexican Cartels

"The kingpins of this hemisphere's drug trade are no longer 
Colombians. Mexican cartels have leveraged the profits from their 
delivery routes to wrest control from the Colombian producers. The 
shift is also because of the success authorities have had in cracking 
down on Colombia's kingpins. As a result, Mexican drug lords are 
calling the shots in what the United Nations estimates is a $142 
billion a year business in cocaine, heroin, marijuana, 
methamphetamine, and illicit drugs on U.S. streets." -- The Christian 
Science Monitor Aug. 16

That's a lot of money -- $142 billion-- being made off of the dope 
business in America. Estimates are that the northern Mexican cartels 
alone make between $10 billion and $20 billion by selling South 
American cocaine, homegrown heroin, marijuana and homemade meth to 
American customers and smuggling illegals across the Mexico-U.S. 
border. According to a Feb. 16 story in the Dallas Morning News, 
Mexican crime lords are gearing up for the increased border security 
that's designed to slow the flow of illegals into the U.S. And we all 
know most of them enter the U.S. via Arizona.

Small Take

Will a wall, multimillion-dollar electronic sensors from Arizona and 
federal governments, National Guard and U.S. Border Patrol really 
stop the cartels from making billions of dollars off of the United 
States? It's never worked before, why would it this time?

Two weeks ago, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard announced the 
state's latest efforts at taking on Mexican cartels. Following a plan 
of attack he and Gov. Janet Napolitano concocted as their way to go 
after cross-border crime while getting maximum election year 
publicity, Goddard announced the seizure of ill-gotten cash and 
assets. To hear Goddard tell it, you'd have thought his army of 
police officers had seized billions.

"We're going to go after the leaders anyway we can to take their 
houses, jewelry, clothes if possible, cars, every asset that they 
have," he boasted.

In reality, he got $600,000. He went on to say that Arizona 
authorities had seized a grand total of $17 million over the past six 
years. If the cartels were only making $10 billion a year, Goddard's 
sixyear seizure record of $17 million nipped them for roughly .0017 
percent of a single year's profit.

Add this into the equation: It's estimated that 4,000 illegal 
immigrants enter Arizona daily and pay as much as $2,000 apiece to 
the Mexican mob to be smuggled into our state. These guys are making 
billions and billions of dollars.

How To Win The War

Do our elected and law enforcement officials really think they're 
breaking the backs of the Mexican cartels and scaring them away from 
doing business in Arizona? Are they that naive?

Goddard's goal of "taking every asset they have" is a sad commentary 
on what our state's chief law enforcement officer really knows about 
the cartel billionaires who continually demonstrate their lack of 
respect and fear for our government and their contempt for our laws. 
Even with an occasional arrest of purported coyotes or local 
"highlevel" drug dealers, the cartel's brains and cash are tucked 
safely away south of the border with the blessing and protection of 
the Mexican government.

A 1996 San Francisco Chronicle article said Mexican drug lords were 
spending more than $500 million dollars a year to bribe corrupt 
Mexican officials. Today's estimates are they pay out $1 billion.

According to the 2003 report "Organized Crime and Terrorist Activity 
in Mexico, 1999-2003" by the Library of Congress' Federal Research 
Division, there are three major drug cartels in Mexico supported by a 
half-dozen smaller cartels. Mexico is also home to Russian and Asian 
organized crime families.

Then there's that thing about terrorists in Mexico. At least one 
terrorist group has ties to one of the Mexico's biggest drug cartels.

Seizing cash and assets was the plan that was supposed to win the war 
on drugs. We know how that turned out; we lost. While cops and 
politicians grab up drug money and make press releases, the Mexican 
cartels have grown at such a profitable rate that it makes 
stockbrokers wish they'd start trading on Wall Street. The Mexican 
cartels invade and attack us daily and they get away with it.

President Bush, Napolitano, Goddard, our congressional delegation and 
law enforcement appointees tout their plans for the war on drugs and 
immigrant smuggling. But if they don't take the war into Mexico and 
topple the cartels and destroy the corruption in the Mexican 
government, we're going to lose this war, too.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman