Pubdate: Mon, 04 Jul 2016
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2016 The Washington Times, LLC.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: William C. Triplett II
Note: William C. Triplett II is the former chief Republican counsel 
to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

IF TRUMP WINS, THE DRUG CARTELS LOSE

Illegals Aren't The Only Worry Americans Encounter With Open Borders

The two groups with the most to lose with a Donald Trump victory on 
Nov. 8 would be the Mexican drug cartels and their Chinese suppliers. 
The reason is pretty simple: Mr. Trump has made securing the border 
his principal campaign theme. If the border is secured by a wall or 
some combination of means against the flood of illegal aliens and 
potential terrorists, then it automatically puts a major hit on the 
flow of narcotics across the border. If they can't get the illegals 
in, they can't get the dope in, either.

Absent the threat of a Trump victory in November, the Mexican drug 
cartels and their Chinese suppliers must have a bounce in their step 
these days. To begin with, even if we didn't have open borders as 
de-facto administration policy, the reality that heroin and other 
illegal drugs from Mexico are widely available and cheap would 
confirm that the doors are open. There is more than enough supply 
available on street corners from coast to coast.

Second, while the old standbys, cocaine and methamphetamines, are 
perking along quite nicely from the cartels' viewpoint, the United 
States is about to receive a tsunami of heroin as new Mexican poppy 
production goes online this year. By the time President Obama leaves 
office, Mexican poppy production will have tripled from the George W. 
Bush days, and there seems to be no administration interest or 
program to deal with it.

The cartels don't have much to worry about from enforcement side of 
the Obama administration, either. Then-Sen. Joe Biden was apparently 
the first to use the term "drug czar" back in 1982 and he certainly 
is as responsible as anyone on the Hill for the establishment of the 
Office of National Drug Control Policy as a cabinet-level unit within 
the executive office of the president. In the past, some heavy 
hitters -Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, Houston Mayor Lee 
Brown, Florida Gov. Bob Martinez and Gen. Barry McCaffrey - occupied 
the post of drug czar, but one would be hard-pressed to name the 
current incumbent. The office has been downgraded to sub-Cabinet. As 
soon as he took office in 2009, Mr. Obama's first drug czar banned 
the term "war on drugs," signaling a kinder, gentler policy of 
dealing with narcotics enforcement issues. The results speak for themselves.

Then there is fentanyl, which has fallen into the lap of the Mexican 
drug cartels. Sourced largely from China, it is far more potent than 
heroin, easier to produce and more addictive. On top of that, 
fentanyl commands a big street premium over heroin. Fentanyl is a 
dream product for the cartels but a nightmare for American young people.

Lastly, the cartels will look forward optimistically to a Hillary 
Clinton presidency. Based on her campaign website, she is even more 
firmly committed to open borders than Mr. Obama. Nothing in her 
record as a U.S. senator or secretary of state suggests that blocking 
the illegal importation of narcotics would be on her radar screen.

In this context, there is the curious case of kingpin Carlos Vignali. 
As recounted in her book, "The Final Days," (Regnery 2001), the late 
Barbara Olson noted that Carlos was in federal prison facing some 
serious time. The feds were happy to get him off the street as he was 
the chief supplier of crack cocaine to minority areas of the Twin 
Cities. In fall 2000, Carlos had heard that commutations were maybe 
available if the price was right. In the end, the Vignali family paid 
the Rodham brothers $400,000 and Bill Clinton gave Carlos a "Get Out 
of Jail Free" card - i.e., he was released for time served. We can 
only speculate whether Mrs. Clinton bullied her husband into doing 
something he would not ordinarily want to do, but that seems the most 
likely explanation. In any case, the story of how Carlos got out of 
prison deserves more attention. So far as can be determined, she has 
never been seriously questioned about it.

Since it is illicit, nobody really knows the total value of the drug 
trade in the United States. The RAND Corp. was asked about five years 
ago and they came up with a figure of $100 billion per year. That 
included heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines and marijuana, but not 
fentanyl. Whatever it is, it is at least in the high tens of billions 
of dollars and probably more. We can expect the Mexican cartels and 
their Chinese suppliers to defend what is theirs if Mrs. Clinton 
begins to drop in the polls, and that may show up in more attacks on 
Mr. Trump's supporters.

"We win; they lose," has a nice ring to it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom