Research Paper On Drug Trafficking

The Mexican Mafia was founded by Luis “Huero Buff” Flores in 1957 at Deuel Vocational Institution in California. The territory of the Mexican Mafia includes the US federal prison system and Southern California. The Mexican Mafia is involved in extortion, drug trafficking and murder in the prison system. The purpose of the Mexican Mafia was to show their Maya and Aztec heritage as well as protect its members from prison guards and other inmates. Now they focus on primary ethnic solidarity and control of drug trafficking. Federal

They are mostly situated near the northern, west coast, east coast, and southern border regions. The Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel are two main examples of this. They have set up and taken over trafficking cocaine produced in Colombia and exporting it to the rest of the world. However, what makes Mexico unique from Colombia is that there is an ongoing constant struggle for power between rival cartels. Over time one weakens, and another topples it, effectively taking over the business and becoming the next major enemy of the state. Currently, there are about 7 major cartels that include; Los Zetas, La Familia, Juarez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel, and the Knights Templar. This staggering number of Cartels all within close proximity of one another, creates an environment hostile to everyone that resides or finds themselves in these heavily contested areas. These include, but are not limited to innocent civilians, tourists, to politicians and even police officers. Certain cartels have different values, targeting specific people and willing to do certain things to express and convey a message in order to gain the attention that they crave.

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

The changes in key government leadership positions have had significant implications on Mexico 's drug trade business (Lupsha 1995). Take the example of one of Mexico 's leading drug traffickers, Juan Garcia Abrego who is widely known as the inventor of Mexican drug trafficking. Abrego 's drug smuggling operations flourished under former President Salina 's administration. When former President Zedillo entered office in December of 1994, Abrego lost the high-level protection provided under the former President Salina. Without this level of protection, Abregos influence in the drug trade industry decreased dramatically to the point of bankruptcy, in a traditional business sense. During this transformation, other well-connected cartels gained uncontested access to large drug trafficking corridors once controlled by Abrego. Despite Abregos deteriorating drug influence in Mexico, President Zedillo put a large bounty on him, making Abrego the most wanted drug smuggler in Mexico. Nevertheless, Abrego 's eventual capture was highly celebrated by the United States as a sign of Mexico 's increasing efforts and dedication to the elimination of illicit drug smuggling operations. In my opinion the example of Abrego 's lost influence and highly celebrated capture directly relates to the politic rhetoric and corruption that is associated with

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.

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.

Mexico has a long history of cartels the deaths, drugs and weapon trafficking is in all time high increasing year by year. “Mexico's gangs have flourished since the late 19th century, mostly in the north due to their proximity to towns along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it was the American appetite for cocaine in the 1970s that gave Mexican drug cartels immense power to manufacture and transport drugs across the border. Early Mexican gangs were primarily situated in border towns where prostitution, drug use, bootlegging and extortion flourished” (Wagner). They keep themselves armed and ready with gun supplies shipped from the U.S, taking control of the drug trades. The violence is spilling so out of control that

Pablo Escobar was one of the most violent, notorious, profitable and yet one of the most powerful organized crime bosses in history. Escobar began his criminal history in Medellin, Colombia, arrested at the age of 26 for possession of cocaine but never tried or appeared in court. The Medellin Cartel appears to be the most dangerous effulgently this gang was a ruthless, highly organized and much feared Columbian drug cartel that originated in the city of Medellin, Columbia, operated through the 1970’s and 1980’s in Bolivia Columbia, Central America, and the United States. The cartel was found and run by Ochoa Vazquez brothers Jorge Luis, Juan David and Fabia together with Pablo Escobar to become the first modern-day cocaine trafficking alliance.

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

For many years in Medellin a civil war had occurred costing many lives between both sides of the parties concerning government and guerilla groups, later to become the Medellin Cartel (Fukuyama and Colby 2011). The war had begun and had been prolonged due to the weakness of Colombia’s national government who only commanded a small army and police all around Colombia (Fukuyama et al. 2011). It was by this that the beginning of The Medellin Cartel was able to start strong and continue a successful business. In the book Kings of Cocaine an Astonishing True Story of Murder, Money, and Corruption, authors Guy Gugliotta and Jeff Leen (Gugliotta and Leen 1989) name the founders of what can

The government has made some gains, but at a heavy price. A total of 34,612 people have died in drug-related killings in Mexico in the first four years (Siddique). Most of these killing are between cartel rivals fighting for the control of territories. There are five cartels operating in Mexico: the Sinaloa, the Gulf, Juarez, Tijuana, the Zetas. The major cartels are the Gulf, Sinaloa and Juarez (Cook 21). Many of these cartels have joined together forming powerful alliances known as the “Federation” (Cook 17). The cartels work together, but they remain independent organizations.

West Africa’s primary operational appeal to traffickers is not only from its geography, but through its low standards of governance, low levels of law enforcement capacity, and high rates of corruption. Latin American traffickers recently relocated a share of their wholesale distribution from the Western Hemisphere to West Africa, with the “sub-region moving from being merely a short-term transit point to becoming a storage and staging area for wholesale repackaging, re-routing and resale of drugs” (David E. Brown,

Jorge Chabat has been a professor of International Studies in Mexico City at the Center for Research and Teaching on Economics since 1983. He is also an expert not only on national security but drug trafficking as well. Since Chabat is located in Mexico City and has for a number of years, this makes him a knowledgeable and credible source regarding problems such as drug trafficking in

Crime and Violence in Mexico as we know it is all too common. The Drugs power and control is often heard way too many times. Drug traffickers often come from a childhood of poverty. But the battle for survival among cartels in Mexico, in which thousands of people, mostly in the drug trade or fighting it, have been killed, has only led drug traffickers to redouble their efforts to get their drugs to market in the United States. These Drug Traffickers all have one thing in common they all want territory control and want to be the number one organization. One of the most powerful Drug lords in today’s history is named El Chapo Guzman. He became Mexico’s top drug kingpin in 2003. He was considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world

Mexico hosts the largest, most sophisticated and violent criminal organizations in the hemisphere. These organizations have emerged from Mexico's long history of smuggling and its proximity to the United States, the largest economy in the world, to become a regional threat. It is well known that Mexico is presented today as one of the countries with the highest crime rate, and with a high number of murders, many of them linked to drug trafficking. The violence is certainly linked to the increase of power and the activities of criminal groups involved in drug trafficking and other illicit activities ranging from extortion and kidnapping to smuggling and even human trafficking. Violence is also due to the "war" against drug trafficking and organized crime declared by the Mexican government.