The Relationship Between Terrorist Organizations And Drug Cartels

Drug cartels have arisen as a major crisis for the future in the Americas. Individuals indulge themselves on drugs for many reasons such as tradition, attempting to escape poverty, and generating revenue for rebellious activities. Drug trafficking has proven to be ludacris, with the increasing involvement of corrupt government officials in their distribution. The UN has stated the approximate estimation of profits of drug trade is roughly around $150 billion alone in the Americas, which accounts slightly less than 5% GDP. Currently the most common way of drug transport is land through Central American countries like Mexico, and it eventually crosses over the border to the United States.

The Mexican gun smuggling cartel business started around the year of 2003 (Grillo, par. 2). The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) began to research and investigate the Mexican drug cartels (Detty, pg.3). The ATF started to use a tactic called “gunwalking”. This tactic ran a series of sting operations in order to arrest Mexican drug cartel leaders (Detty, pg.4). The citizens of Mexico were given the

The United States agency of drugs have discovered that for all of the illegal drugs consumed in the nation has been transported by the Mexican cartels. “U.S. federal officials say that the mexican cartels operate in dozens of U.S. cities and analysts say they are moving to consolidate their control of the entire supply chain of illegals drugs”(Schwartz, 1). The government of the United States have been conducting the investigation to now if the cartels are north. Many big cities today have a piece of the cartel organization working there and also producing drugs to distribute within the city. According to the investigation done by the DEA and U.N officials “Mexican cartels have established command - and - control centers to orchestrate cocaine shipments by sea and air along the still wild caribbean coast with the help of local authorities”(Booth, 2). All though that the cartel are moving to the United States they are still leaving command center in mexico to conduct shipments by ground or any other shipments overseas. The cartel is able to transport such quantities of drugs with help of the local authorities and other corrupt government officials.

Mexican drug cartels have been expanding its portfolios to include doing business in sex trafficking. The Zetas are the most feared drug cartel in Mexico’s drug, sex trafficking trade, and etc.; the Zetas are a criminal army made up of defectors from the Mexican military. Anybody who crosses them will more than likely get their heads chopped off or won’t live to see another day.

Mexican Drug Cartels have been a problem for many years. The cartels are an organized crime organization and they don’t just deal drugs; they commit murders too. The Cartels origins are traced back to the Columbian Cali and Medellin mega-cartels who were responsible for the majority of drug trafficking into the United States. Crime has existed for many years but it surfaced more when Pablo Escobar was popular. Pablo Escobar was one the main transporters for cocaine throughout Mexico and the United States coming straight out of Columbia. Law enforcement tried to stop the drug trade but Escobar formed a relationship with Mexico-based traffickers who smuggled drugs into the United States. Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo also known as “The Godfather” of the cartels. Seeing how he established the Guadalajara Cartel, which is recognized as the first Mexican Cartel, and were the first to link up with Escobar and started the transportation of cocaine

At first, Mexican drug cartels were structured just like family owned businesses. There would be a family member who was the main drug lord and cousins and uncles of the family would be the body guards and drug dealers. After the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost their power within the Mexican government the structure of drug cartels became much more complex. A hierarchical diffusion is seen within the drug cartel system because the drugs spread from one important drug lord to another, and we generally see this happening in the urban part of Mexico, more than in the rural areas. A corporate structure began forming as hierarchies began developing under drug lords and more people got involved. Professor Guillermo Trejo of Notre Dame 's Kellogg Institute claims that once the PRI lost their power there was a rapid increase in violence. This is because of Mexico’s former President, Felipe Calderón, who politically associates with the National Action Party (PAN). In 2006 President Calderón declared war on the drug cartels. This milestone triggered a huge change within Mexico’s international relations, government, and culture.

The homeland security mission and goals face many roadblocks and challenges in today’s world. The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review lists six strategic challenges which the Department of Homeland Security feels are of exceptional concern to the nation. Of these outlined challenges I believe that transnational criminal organizations

Summary: The southwest border region is the most significant national level storage, transportation and transshipment area for illicit drug shipments that are designed for markets throughout the US. The south west region is the biggest drug smuggling zone in the US. More illegal drugs are seized in this area than in any other arrival zone. Mexican cartels have developed expensive drug transportation networks extending from the Southwest border to all regions of the US. Drugs gets smuggled between ports of entry along the southwest border and are stored all throughout the US. The threat posted to the nation by the Mexican cartels that operate in Mexico and the southwest border region extends well beyond drug trafficking to other criminal activities including border

The United States Department of State classifies 58 different organizations as foreign terrorist organizations (US DOS). Of those 58 FTOs only one is located in South America, and none are located in Mexico. Despite the lack of official FTOs in Mexico, non-state violence is at an all-time high and the country is more dangerous than ever. This is because of the presence and prevalence of drug cartels throughout the country. These drug cartels employ violent tactics as part of their drug trafficking network. But these cartels are more than just criminal organizations. The scope of the violence, the fear they instill in the population, and the influence they have on policy shows that these organizations should be considered as more than petty criminals trying to make money. While economic gain remains one of the main goals of these groups, there is much that falls under the umbrella of terrorism.

The purpose behind this research paper is to analyze how transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are able to exploit the land and sea borders of the United States in order to produce billions of dollars annually. There will be a background completed not on just one specific TCO but the ways that these organizations produce substantial amounts of money. The methods in which they conduct their operations utilizing border crossings or getting through sea ports, as well. Then, finally, an overview on how these TCOs exploit the vulnerabilities of the United States law enforcement agencies and the security personal that are in place to protect the citizens of America from the illicit activities of these TCOs.

Since then the cartel violence have grown stronger and led to an estimated 40,000 deaths and several more people missing. (Hernandez 1) These mass murders are a cause of the government trying to intervene with the cartels operations. Some of the most notorious cartels in Mexico are, Los Zetas, El Cartel de Sinaloa, El Cartel del Golfo and La Familia Michoacána. However, ever since President Calderon’s war on drug cartels there have been many new smaller cartels created due to the cause of leaders being captured or killed. The fight for power and leadership between the cartel members have made several streets of Mexico a complete war zone full of gruesome murders and raining blood. The leader of El Cartel de Sinaloa, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is one of the most known and famous drug lord of Mexico. He is in the ranks of Pablo Escobar and John Gotti. According to Forbes Magazine El Chapo Guzman has an estimated net worth of one billion dollars in 2009 and estimated to grow over the next couple of year.(Dolia, Forbes 1) All the different cartels control the drug trade from different regions of Mexico, for example, El Cartel Del Golfo controls the region nearest The Gulf of

For instance, between 2005 and 2009, opium production “jumped” from seventy-one tons to an astounding four hundred and twenty-five tons (Mercille 1638). As a result, the correlation between high rates of drug abuse in America and the lack of a wall between Mexico and the United States makes Trump’s administration think that a wall would be the solution. Sure, immigration laws are in place, but that does not mean drug cartels cannot access the American populace even with a wall in place. Far from it, drug trafficking in Mexico and other countries has spilled over to affect the United States as well. The use of United States banks to launder money is a case in point. Apparently, an estimated “$500 billion to $1 trillion” gained through criminal activities pass through different banks each year and half of the total utilizes the American banking system (Mercille

During the early 1990’s Colombia being one of the biggest exporters of narcotics in history, led by Pablo Escobar, who had a wide range of organized crime affiliations throughout Latin America. Pablo Escobar was a Colombian drug lord and he smuggled narcotics all the way to South Florida as when authorities tried to capture him. One of Pablo Escobar’s most important alliances was that of the Mexican-based traffickers. Escobar knew that this was an important trade route because of its geography and how it would be easier to smuggle the narcotics into the United States. This allowed a smuggling partnership between both countries and Mexico was to eventually lead their own drug based trafficking system with the help of Pablo Escobar. From the distributed drugs, cartels would take a certain amount of profit, and would use that money to bribe Mexican officials. By bribing Mexican officials it was insured that if smugglers were to be arrested they would either be let go, the case would be dropped or taking action against a rival smuggling group by giving away information about the rival’s plan to carry

Drug trafficking has become an increasingly growing problem in the world today. Illegal drug trade is a worldwide black market consisting of production, distribution, packaging, and sale of illegal substances. Although today’s "War on Drugs" is a modern phenomenon, drug problems have been a common problem throughout history. The market for illegal drugs is massive, when we consider the estimated global drug trade value is worth $321 billion (Vulliamy). The most drug trafficking happens on the border between Mexico and the United States. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, “Our neighbor is the largest consumer of drugs in the world. And everybody wants to sell him drugs through our door and our window”

Transnational crime is a growing problem. Transnational crime is defined as “self-perpetuating associations of individuals who operate transnational for the purpose of obtaining power, influence, monetary and/or commercial gains, wholly or in part by illegal means, while protecting their activities through a pattern of corruption and/ or violence, or while protecting their illegal activities through a transnational structure and the exploitation of transnational commerce or communication mechanisms.” (National Security Council, n.d.) . Transnational crimes are known under other names such as cross-national crime, global crime, international crime, and