Omar Petty

Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
November 10, 2016
More Homeruns than Strikeouts: Mexican Drug War
Imagine sitting in bed, drinking a nice glass of water when suddenly, youre interrupted
by a phone call. On the other end of the line, is a mild mannered policeman who has had to do
this one too many times. He is almost annoyed at the fact that he has to go through all of this
because he had to make a similar call just two nights before. The policeman says, Maam, we
need you to come to the hospital and confirm the identity of your son, and he hangs up. Nothing
could ever prepare a mother walking into a hospital and seeing their sons chest wide open
because he was part of a Mexican drug cartel. This is the harsh reality that many Mexican
families go through as they battle the war on drugs, as they have for the past decade (CNN).
A drug cartel is an organization that has ties into the drug trafficking operations. Some
are as small as a couple of people growing a few coca plants to a full blown commercial
enterprise. The people that are controlling the industry are labeled kingpins. They set the
prices, track the shipments, manage the employment and deal the money. (Lawson) An
undercover DEA agent states Part of the way the cartels retain control is through fear. Mexicans
will cooperate to a certain level, but they wont talk about Sinaloa. They know their family back
home will be killed. This is a tactic used by the cartels to make sure their confidentiality
remains secure. No one wants to cross the paths of an upset kingpin; thats one of the quickest
ways to be murdered.

Will there ever come a time where we defeat the drug cartels that cause so much

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destruction and tear apart families? The question persists and there are many views on this
matter. In 2006, Felipe Caldern, was elected the new president of Mexico and he wanted to get
rid of the cartels as much as the citizens did. His plan was to deploy the military into the streets
and try to find people who worked for cartels. Some say it was a success, and others say it
wasnt. President Caldern saw it as a victory when his people had captured/killed 25 of the top
37 drug lords in the country (CQ Researcher). In fact, it was the total opposite because as soon

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as one king pin would fall, another would take his place and carry on the duties that his
predecessor had left for him to complete. The cartels had an answer for President Caldern. They
fought violence with violence and started to murder government officials and policeman. In
2010, an unknown cartel targeted a very important government official. Rodolfo Torre was a
gubernatorial candidate that was ambushed on a rural highway, along with some of his
coworkers. No one knows why he was targeted but there are a couple of theories on the matter.
Mr. Torre was an honest politician who posed a threat to drug gangs; Mr. Torre had struck a
deal to protect one gang and was killed by a rival gang angry at being cut out; or a cartel killed
him just to make life more difficult for a rival gang that controls turf in the state. Whichever one
of these is true, one thing that can be certain is the cartels do not care who you are, or what you
mean to the people of Mexico. They want to show everyone that they have a little bit of control
on what goes on around the country. The homicide toll at the end of Calderns presidency in
2012 had totaled up to 120,000. To put in perspective how many people that is, the city of
Charleston, South Carolina has a little over 120,000 people (Travel and History).
Enrique Nieto, the current president is reiterating the same plan that Caldern had
implemented, but there have has been no signs of improvements unless you cut out the civilian

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deaths. The death toll has doubled through his presidency and there is an average of 18 deaths
per 100,000 people compared to that of the USA which is approximately 4.5 (VeirasNew York
Times). Sicarios are the cartels hitmen and all they do is listen to the orders of their higher
leaders and kill on request. The hitmen are considered to be the most loyal to their cartel
compared to that of other jobs in the cartel business. Deaths range from knocking on the door
and being shot in the head, to being tortured for hours and slowly dying until they get
information out of you.
The emergence of new cartels around 2009 havethat sprung up all over Mexico which
meant more competition. More competition meant producing more drugs and in the end more
drugs resulted in more money for the cartel. One of the most well knownwell-known Mexican
cartels happens to be the Sinaloa cartel. Their leader, Joaquin Guzman, widely known as El
Chapo, is one of the most feared human beings that ever walked the Mexican streets. According
to the United States Intelligence Community, they are the most powerful drug trafficking
organization in the world. They are the major exporters of opium and marijuana all across the
globe The capture of El Chapo was a remarkable one in February of 2014, but as many people
expected, he escaped. He did this twice from 2014-2016. El Chapo is currently being held in a
prison in Brooklyn, New York (Sanchez). A former MDC prisoner stated Hes definitely not
going to be digging any tunnels in Brooklyn, I can tell you that. Once those metal doors close
behind him, its pretty much over.
According to the United States Intelligence Community, they are the most powerful drug
trafficking organization in the world. They are the major exporters of opium and marijuana all
across the globe. Connects in different parts of the world open up an endless amount of
possibilities of where the drugs could end up. This is one reason it is very hard to stop the cartels.

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The capture of El Chapo was a remarkable one in February of 2014, but as many people
expected, he escaped. He did this twice from 2014-2016.
Mexican officials are thought to be some of the most corrupt in the business and they are
easily bought by the cartels to let things go under their noses. Since most of the policemen are
basically paid by the cartels, that makes another reason whyreason it would be so difficult to stop
them. The cartel is a very complex system that employs many different types of people. Sicarios
are the cartels hitmen and all they do is listen to the orders of their higher leaders and kill on
request. The hitmen are considered to be the most loyal to their cartel compared to that of other
jobs in the cartel business. Deaths range from knocking on the door and being shot in the head, to
being tortured for hours and slowly dying until they get information out of you. They have
accountants, secretaries, judges, and little kids that are used for spotting watching out for
incoming military personnel, just to name a few. Connects, or different business partners in
different parts of the world open an endless amount of possibilities of where the drugs could end
up. This is one reason it is very hard to stop the cartels.
Mexicano drug cartels arent isnt just doing this just to do it for fun. There is big money
to be made and the drugs have createdit is an estimated $30 billion industry (US-Mexico
Relations). They Cartels have gotten this way because people are buying, and guess who their
biggest buyer is? Yes, you guessed correctly if you said the United States. Fernandez de Castro,
former Mexican government official, states, Drugs, for the U.S., are a public health problem,
for Mexicans, its about making sure our children can walk in the streets and play in the parks
safely.(qtd in CQ Researcher). He hit it home with this statement. People in the United States
are not necessarily concerned with the violence that the cartels bring because its usually not in
our home country. Mexico on the other hand is experiencing the violence first hand so there are

different ways Mexico and the U.S. will have to deal with this. The United States has given
Mexico well over $100 million in police assistance and military training to help fight the cartels
(LaSusaTruth Out). The US Marshal Service has recently been sending specialists disguised as
local security forces to hunt down criminals (Barrett). The United States spends so much money
to try and slow down the criminal acts of drug violence. So far, it hasnt worked as well as the
U.S. would like. The US Marshal Service has recently been sending specialists disguised as local
security forces to hunt down criminals (WSJ).Since 2015 however, with the incident of 43
missing students and the escape of El Chapo, the United States has cut back the funding of
security aid. They are estimated to withhold around $5 million this year because of the
mistreatment of prisoners and torturing people. Human rights organizations have raised
awareness from the widespread abuse that has being going on with the Mexico military and
police. The United States are being criticized for supplying the Mexicans with more money when
they know they are using this money to violate peoples rights. People are skeptical about this
though, saying we shouldnt risk our men into a war that isnt necessarily our own, however; the
war is also Americas since they are spreading throughout the states.
There is a presence of the Mexican drug cartels that operate in the United States. There is
a total of seven cartels that supply America with marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, currently. The
Sinaloa Cartel is present in Charlotte, NC (BenderBusiness Insider). So far, police havent found
them doing any kind of violent acts around here, but as they continue to stay, Im sure there will
be some conflict that needs to be dealt with, knowing the reputation of this cartel. Once they
establish positions in the community they are in, they try and recruit others that they can trust to
help them operate the business. Its a constant cycle of hiring people and killing people down in
Mexico. People in the United Statesstates dont really know about the presence of cartels here

because they are not seeing bodies pile up in the streets with pictures surfacing the internet as
they do in Mexico.
Drug cartels are a bigger threat for the United States than ISIS will ever be. They have a
heavy presence here in the country. Russ Baer, the DEAs staff coordinator for the Office of
Congressional and Public Affairs says in an interview with The Daily Beast, Mexican

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transnational criminal organizations pose the greatest criminalthreat to the United States. He
then goes on to state Mexico TCOs will continue to dominate, there are no other organizations
this time with the infrastructure and power to challenge [them] for control. (The Daily Beast)
Cartels are very dangerous to the American citizen and will continue to grow if we do not put an
end to their reign soon.
The corruption in the Mexican government poses a threat for all of its citizens because if
people cant even trust the integrity of their higher leaders, who can they turn to for help? Most
of the homicides do not get solved and when thats the case, anyone could be killing anyone and
getting away with it. Once that happens, its so hard to implement policies that will override that
because of the corrupt leaders that are supposed to enforce them. If the executive office doesnt
enforce the laws and bring people to face the courts, what is stopping the cartels from killing
each other? In order to stop the cartels, you have to start at the core and work its way out. The
core in this case is the government.
Tom Wainwright is the Britain editor for The Economist. He has spent time covering the
Mexican illegal drug trade where he has been on Mexican soil to see firsthand what is going on.
He has written a book titled Narconomics and one topic is where he describes the process of how
to defeat the Mexican drug cartels. Wainwright states in an interview with Fresh Air that The
choice that I think we face isnt really a choice between a world without drugs and a world with

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drugs, I think the choice we face really is between a world where drugs are controlled by the
governments and prescribed by pharmacists and doctors, and a world where theyre dealt by the
mafia, and given that choice, I think the former sounds more appealing (NPR) I see this as an
interesting point of view that I hadnt thought about before. Starting with the government
regulating some of the drugs would help a lot. Trying to get the streets drug free will be a very
difficult task but look at states such as Colorado, where the medicinal and recreational use of
marijuana is legal. Theres absolutely no evidence that our change in marijuana laws has
contributed to any specific crime increase, said Mason Tvert, an activist who helped pass
legalization in Colorado (Ingold).
The government is supposed to help their citizens to feel protected and safe when in
reality therethere may be congressmen that know there are killings happening and do nothing
about it because they are business partners with the cartel. with bodies on their belt! Scary to
think of, right? Finding the corrupt people in the government isnt as easy as people would
expect it to be either. Cartels arent just going to give up peoples names if they are helping them
get away with things in exchange for money. Money talks and just about anyone can be bought;
its a sad reality when people get elected and the citizens do not know which ones work for
cartels. Trust is the first step in voting for a person, and once the trust is broken, it ruins it for
everyone. Dont get me wrong, there are good congressmen in the Mexican government, but like
the saying goes, one person can ruin it for everyone. This in turn gives people a bad view when
looking at any person that is elected to office. In order toTo distill the trust back into the citizens
of Mexico, and surrounding areas, the government will need to go through a thorough cleaning
and background check of all the members of congress. A law should be implemented in Mexico
where all candidates of congress require an extensive check before being cleared. Interviews

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with family members and friends should also be conducted. Even though this could have flaws,
it would be a good start in finding out the good and bad.
Immigration from Mexico to the United States is a big issue for many Americans to think
about because of the stereotypical views that a lot of immigrants have drug related backgrounds
and do nothing but live off welfare. that we instill upon the group because of the flaws of a small
percentage . In Obamas first two years of presidency, the border patrol had seized 7.7 million
pounds of illegal drugs trying to cross the border into the United States. Janet Napolitano,
Homeland Security Secretary, states The plain fact of the matter is that theres more manpower
and technology at that border than ever before. There are ground sensors, drones, and hundreds
of cameras lined up all around the border. People would think with all of that, no one would get
through with illegal drugs, right? You would think so, but that just isnt the case. Eric Feldman is
the Assistant Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations and he states The
cartels are always looking for a guaranteed way to cross narcotics into the US, and a
sophisticated tunnel can allow them to cross large-scale loads. Cartels hire airplane pilots, truck
drivers, and even submarine drivers to bring in tons of illegal drugs into the US (BBC). Drug
cartels personnels pay men and women to swallow narcotics and try and get it across the border.
This is very dangerous for the person that consumed it as a little baggy may burst open and spill
the contents inside the victims body. These victims are known as drug mules and are usually
granted the promise that they will be able to cross international borders freely, and once they get
there the drugs are retrieved from their bodies. One account was that up to 1kg of cocaine was
found in the body of a woman after the bag had burst open. She died almost immediately..
(UNODC)

Without the ongoing support of a strong government, drug cartels will be in the hands of
the future generations that want to see a change. Although people do not see an end coming to
the cartels soon, many experts believe a breakthrough could happen in the future that would
jeopardize the smoothly running cartels. This includes the capturing of more kingpins to disrupt
the functions and it would slow down crime tremendously.
Works Cited
Barrett, Devlin. "U.S. Marshals Service Personnel Dressed as Mexican Marines Pursue Cartel
Bosses." The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 21 Nov. 2014.
Bender, Jeremy. "Mexican Cartels That Are Operate in the US." Business Insider, Business Insider,
31 Jan. 2016.
Botelho, Greg, and Martinez. "'Mission Accomplished': Mexican President Says 'El Chapo' Caught
." CNN, Cable News Network , 8 Jan. 2016.
Karaim, Reed. "U.S.-Mexico Relations." CQ Researcher, CQ Press, 6 Sept. 2016.
LaSusa, Mike, and Albaledejo. "US Support for Mexico's Drug War Goes Beyond Guns and
Money." Truthout, Truthout, 1 Dec. 2014.
"Huge US-Mexico Drugs Tunnel Found in San Diego." BBC.com, BBC, 21 Apr. 2016.
"Mexico Drug War Fast Facts." CNN.com, Cable News Network, 18 Aug. 2016.
"Secretary Janet Napolitano, Before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs: "Securing the Border: Progress at the Federal Level"." Homeland
Security, Homeland Security, 3 May 2011.
Veiras, Jos Luis Pardo. "A Decade of Failure in the War on Drugs." The New York Times, 9 Oct.
2016.