| Mexican drug traffickers take advantage of the border as they transport
cocaine into the United States for the Colombian drug mafia. In fact, most of the cocaine
that enters the United States comes through Mexico. The Southwest Border problem is even
more significant because the Mexican organizations are polydrug traffickers; that is, they
deal in heroin, marijuana, and methamphetamine as well as cocaine. |
That's because the DEA has made it highly profitable for these people to
engage in drug trafficking. |
| To strengthen law enforcement's ability to deter drug smuggling along the
border, and to target and attack specific Mexican organizations, the Southwest Border
Project was adopted in the summer of 1994 as a joint DEA-FBI initiative. This enforcement
program brings together the collective investigative and prosecutorial skills of the DEA,
FBI, and Department of Justice, including U.S. Attorneys' Offices. It is the first
interagency cooperative effort of its magnitude, and it promises to be a highly efficient
and lucrative enforcement and prosecution program. |
Despite this impressive array of force, there is no evidence that they
will ever have a significant impact on the flow of drugs across the border. By their
own estimates, they only seize a small percentage, anyway. It is significant to note
that the DEA thinks this program will be "lucrative". In order to be
"lucrative", the DEA must seize money and other assets. Money and other
assets can only be seized from:
1) drug dealers who have already made a significant amount of money in the drug
trade (rather like closing the barn door after the cow has already left), or;
2) People who are not major drug dealers but happened to run afoul of a narcotics agent
at the wrong time. About eighty percent of all people from whom property is seized
are never charged with any crime. |
| The Southwest Border Initiative targets identified Mexican trafficking
organizations operating along the border by attacking their command and control
infrastructures. |
"Attacking the command and control infrastructure" is basically
what they did when they arrested General Manuel Noriega in Panama. As a result of
arresting the top leader, they opened up the market for a host of new entrepeneurs and, as
a result, cocaine shipments through Panama doubled after Noriega was captured. There
is every reason to believe that the DEA will ultimately provide the same service to the
small time dealers near the border. |
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