America’s drug habit, Mexico’s drug war

The dope flows north; the guns and cash flow south. Drug trafficking produces billions of dollars in profits for the Mexican drug cartels. Indeed one cartel kingpin —- they call him Shorty —- made the Forbes 2009 billionaires list. The Justice Department has declared the drug cartels “the biggest organized crime threat in the United States.” President Barack Obama announced last week that he would send 450 federal agents, new crime-fighting hardware and drug-sniffing dog teams to the Mexican border to fight the two-way flow of drugs and guns. These are the challenges facing U.S. and Mexican authorities:

> Ninety percent of the cocaine in the U.S. moves through Mexico.

> About 2,000 weapons a day are smuggled into Mexico from the U.S.

> Those weapons are used in 95 per-cent of all killings in Mexico.

> Drug cartels make about $10 billion in annual profits from U.S. drug sales.

> Drug killings in Mexico totaled 6,290 in 2008; 1,600 occurred in Ciudad Juarez.

> Drug-related kidnappings in Phoenix rose from 160 in 1999 to 368 last year.

What’s a drug cartel?

“Cartel” comes from the Latin “carta,” which means paper. (Magna Carta, for example, means Great Paper.) In the 1500s it took the meaning of a written agreement. In later centuries, cartel came to characterize a business relationship in which parties cooperated so they could monopolize a certain kind of trade. OPEC is such a cartel. Mexican drug cartels compete violently with one another for market share; sometimes, however, certain cartels confederate, extending the power and reach of each. Some authorities say “cartel” is a misnomer because Mexican drug gangs do not set prices as cartels normally do. They prefer “DTO” —- drug trafficking organization.

The Sinaloa cartel

Named for the region in which it operates, including the Pacific coast Sinaloa state and Baja California. Police scored a coup this month when they arrested Vicente Zambada, reputed to be operations chief of Sinaloa.

The Gulf cartel

With Sinaloa, one of the two most powerful cartels. Controls part of the Texas border. On March 20 the army arrested Sigifrido Najera Talamantes, a Gulf soldier suspected in an attack on a U.S. consulate.

The Juarez cartel

Operates in one of the most violent zones of the drug war. Ciudad Juarez, scene of hundreds of killings last year, is separated from El Paso, Texas, by the Rio Grande. There were 18 suspected drug killings in El Paso in 2008.

The Atlanta connection

The leading drug cartels in Mexico aren’t just operating in their home country. They’ve turned Atlanta into the principal cocaine distribution center for the eastern U.S., authorities say. “The same folks who are rolling heads in the streets of Ciudad Juarez are in Atlanta. Here they are just better behaved,” said Jack Killorin, who heads a federal drug task force in Atlanta. Last year, federal agents seized more drug cash in Atlanta —- $70 million —- than any other U.S. city.

El Chapo

Joaquin Guzman, 51, is the most wanted druglord in Mexico. Guzman is 5-foot-6, earning him the nickname El Chapo, or Shorty. The head of the Sinaloa cartel, for whom the U.S. has posted a $5 million reward, made the Forbes billionaires list this year at No. 701. He has proven to be the most elusive and perhaps the most mythologized of cartel chieftains. Tales of sightings abound, including a story of armed men walking into a restaurant and demanding diners’ cellphones. Then El Chapo strides in, shakes hands all around, orders a steak and picks up everybody’s check.

Extreme violence

American citizen George N. Harrison, 38 when he died, opened a pizza-delivery business in Tijuana in 2007. Harrison prospered, largely because of the low costs of operating in Mexico. Early last month, three armed men kidnapped him from the pizzeria. Mexican authorities suggested Harrison was involved in the drug business, though his family denies that. His abductors wrung two ransom payments from Harrison’s family. Then they beheaded and dismembered him.

Who’s responsible?

“How can you explain a drug market so large in the U.S. —- the largest in the world —- without the corruption of certain U.S. authorities?”

—- Mexican President FELIPE CALDERON in an angry response to American officials’ assertions that Mexico has lost control over parts of its territory to the drug cartels

“Clearly what we’ve been doing has not worked. Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border … causes the deaths of police, of soldiers and civilians.”

—- Secretary of State HILLARY CLINTON on her visit to Mexico last week, striking a conciliatory tone

Advertising for help

The cartels are so brazen that they publicly advertise for recruits, USA Today reported in 2008. A 10-foot banner on a bridge in Nuevo Laredo coaxed soldiers to join the Zetas, the Gulf cartel’s hit squad: “We offer you a good salary, food and attention for your family. Don’t suffer hunger and abuse any more.” A Gulf cartel banner in Tampico declared: “We offer benefits, life insurance, a house for your family and children. Stop living in the slums and riding the bus. A new car or truck, your choice.”

Sources for this report: Congressional Research Service, Los Angeles Times, Federation of American Scientists (fas.org) The Associated Press, Reuters News Service, AJC files.