ILLEGAL DRUGS

Mexican Drug Cartel . . .

. . . a brief history

Mexico is the main drug producing and major foreign supplier of marijuana and methamphetamine to the United States.  Mexico is also a major transit country and it is estimated that 90% of the cocaine entering the US comes through Mexico.  Since the demise of the Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s, Mexican Drug Cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the US.

According to the Mexican Government, there are 7 Drug Cartels operating in Mexico with the major ones listed as:  Gulf, Sinaloa, and Juárez.  In recent years, the major cartels have formed alliances with one another and are coordinating their efforts, their power, and their influence.

By the writing of this writing, the Mexican Drug Cartels were operating in all US States except for 2, with the most locations in Tennessee and North Carolina.  There is strong evidence that Mexican Drug Cartels are forming alliances with US street gangs as well as developing relationships with prison inmates.

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In addition to drug trafficking, the Mexican Drug Cartels have been linked to human and arms trafficking, auto theft, and kidnapping.  Mexican cartels employ individuals and groups of enforcers, known as sicarios.  These sicarios are so well armed and financed that many inside as well as outside of Mexico see them as a para-military force.  These sicarios act as assassins for the major Mexican cartels.

Mexican cartels are gaining strength because of their ability to corrupt Mexican law enforcement personnel in all towns in which they are located.  Some agents of Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency (AFI) are believed to work as enforcers for the Sinaloa cartel, and the Attorney General's Office (PGR) reported in December 2005 that one-fifth of its officers are under investigation for  criminal activity.  Presently, the 7 Mexican Drug Cartels are waging war on each other as many of their leaders are sitting in Mexican prisons attempting to form alliances with other Cartel inmates.

Over $250 million has been given to Mexico by the US from 2002-2008 to help the Mexican Government suppress the strength of these Drug Cartels with little to no positive change.

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It is estimated that the revenue received by the Mexican Drug Cartel for selling illegal drugs is $11 Billion most of which is coming from their US operations. 

Recently, The New York Times reported that the drug cartels, after shaking the political and economic structures of Colombia and Mexico to their foundations, are moving into Central America. Just one more sign, as if we needed it, that the United States is losing its endless war on drugs.

No one who has ever taken Econ 101, or read the works of Friedrich Hayek, should be the least bit surprised. The drug cartels are strong because the US strategy in the drug wars makes them strong. Here's why.

First, what we learn from Econ 101. The key concept is price elasticity of demand—the percentage change in quantity demanded associated with a one percent increase in the price of a product. If a one percent price increase reduces the quantity people buy by more than one percent, demand is said to be elastic. If the quantity sold falls less than one percent, demand is said to be inelastic. Elasticity, in turn, determines what happens to the seller's total revenue when the price changes.

If the percentage change in quantity is greater than the percentage change in price, demand is elastic, and revenue goes up when the price falls. (For example, suppose you can sell 100 widgets at $1 apiece and 120 when you cut the price to $.90. Your revenue goes up from $100 to $108.) If the percentage change in quantity is less than the percentage change in price, demand is inelastic, and revenue goes up when the price rises. (Suppose you can sell 100 gadgets at $1 and that you still sell 90 if you raise the price to $1.20. This time it is a price increase, not a decrease, that will increase your revenue.)  Read more

 

Who taught them Economics?