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Baker Institute Policy Report Published by the James A ISSN 1941-6466 BAKER INSTITUTE POLICY REPORT PUBLISHED BY THE JAMES A. BAKER III INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY OF RICE UNIVERSITY NUMBER 55 JANUARY 2013 CARTELS, CORRUPTION, AND CARNAGE IN THE CALDERÓN ERA Few problems regarding the U.S.-Mexico border The Growth of the Drug Cartels offer more challenge than those pertaining to illicit drugs.1 Trafficking in marijuana, cocaine, heroin, In 1914, the U.S. Congress passed the Harrison methamphetamines, and other psychoactive Narcotics Tax Act, the country’s first major effort substances involves tens of billions of dollars, to regulate the production, importation, and intricate networks of criminals in both countries, distribution of opiate drugs such as heroin, opium, and cooperative arrangements with government and laudanum. Federal, state, and local laws agents, from local law enforcement to high levels against marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs soon of both the U.S. and Mexican governments. followed, often accompanied by harsh penalties On the U.S. side, a key factor is an ineradicable for their violation. Mexico, a major producer demand for these drugs, combined with a of marijuana and a significant source of opium, longstanding legal policy of prohibiting their use. enacted similar laws, thus criminalizing what This combination drives the retail prices of the had long been legal behavior. The passage of such drugs to levels far beyond the cost of production, laws did little to affect the desire for the drugs in generating enormous profits for criminals and question, so Mexican farmers and entrepreneurs, those who abet their activities on both sides of the now operating as outlaws, developed ways of border. smuggling their contraband products across For decades, a symbiotic relationship the border to the United States. Although that between the political establishment and criminal task was fairly easy in the early years, the risks organizations in Mexico served as a check on incurred in getting an illegal product from field violence and threats to insecurity. In recent years, to customer drove prices upward and produced that balance has been upset, as criminal factions substantial profits for those along the supply have raised the level of violence against each other and delivery chain. The lure of lucre attracted in their struggle over control of the drug trade a variety of criminal gangs to their enterprise. and against government forces attempting to Eventually, consolidation occurred and a powerful stem that violence and establish a more legitimate Guadalajara-based crime figure, Miguel Ángel democratic order. Félix Gallardo, managed to gain control over most The United States has ramped up its antidrug of the cross-border drug business. forces along the border and has sent hundreds In September 1969, President Richard Nixon of millions of dollars to Mexico to help bolster formally declared a War on Drugs, aimed at efforts to control and perhaps defeat the marijuana, heroin (from Asia as well as Mexico), increasingly violent drug cartels.2 In addition, cocaine (from South America), and newly popular the two countries are working, with mutual drugs such as LSD. The key components of that apprehensions, to increase collaboration among war, now waged for more than 40 years, have their several antidrug agencies. The outcome been eradication, interdiction, and incarceration. remains in doubt and no panaceas are in sight. Despite the eradication of millions of marijuana, coca, and opium plants, the seizure of hundreds of tons of contraband, and the incarceration of 1 hundreds of thousands of offenders, accomplished South Texas, including the valuable entry port at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, the at Nuevo Laredo, was first headed by Juan successes of the War on Drugs have been few and Nepomuceno Guerra, who had risen to wealth and impermanent. Demand varies over time (though power by smuggling whiskey into Texas during remaining suprisingly stable over decades), Prohibition. He was succeeded by several men, but the supply is always sufficient to meet it. the most notorious of whom was Osiel Cárdenas Difficulties in bringing a drug to market may Guillen. raise the price, but that can also increase profits, In the late 1990s, Cárdenas persuaded a assuring a ready supply of volunteers willing to group of elite Mexican army commandos (many take the risks. of whom had received training that included Apparent success in one arena produces counternarcotics tactics from American Special devastation in another. In the early 1980s, for Forces instructors at Fort Bragg, North Carolina) to example, U.S. operations aimed at thwarting desert in search of a more rewarding life of crime. the smuggling of cocaine from Colombia via Known as Los Zetas and later enlarged by new Florida and the Caribbean by airplanes and recruits, they became notorious for their extreme “go-fast” boats proved sufficiently effective that brutality and brazen ways, but also for operations the Colombians turned to Félix Gallardo and the that reflect strategic planning, technological extensive organization under his control. Mexico sophistication, and long-term aspirations. soon became the primary transshipment route The Sinaloa cartel, ensconced in the for an estimated 90 percent of the cocaine that southwestern region that still produces most of reached the United States, and the riches that the marijuana and opium grown in Mexico and, as accrued to that partnership grew to unimagined of December 2012, the most powerful of the cartels, levels. Under Félix Gallardo's oversight, the is headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” (“Shorty”) Colombian-Mexican coalition operated rather Guzmán, one of the world’s richest and most- smoothly, in spite of stepped-up efforts by U.S. wanted criminals. For decades, the gang included agents at major transit spots along the border a subset led by four Beltrán Leyva brothers so and U.S. pressure on the Mexican government to powerful that it was often considered a separate increase its own antidrug efforts. organization and eventually broke away in bitter In 1989, prodded by the U.S. Drug conflict. Enforcement Administration (DEA), which The Juárez cartel, headquartered in El Paso’s furnished the Mexican government with sister city, was originally led by another powerful intelligence about his activities and whereabouts, Sinaloan, Amado Carrillo Fuentes. After he died Mexican Federal Judicial Police arrested Félix in 1997 during plastic surgery intended to alter his Gallardo in his home. For a time, he was able appearance to foil authorities, the leadership fell to to oversee his operation by mobile phone from his brother, Vincent Carrillo Fuentes. Most of the prison, but as key men in his organization began murderous violence that wracked Ciudad Juárez to jockey for the top position, he brokered an in recent years stemmed from the efforts of the arrangement by which the emerging rivals Juárez group to repel the Sinaloa cartel's attempts divided up the major trade routes and associated to gain control of valuable cross–border smuggling territories, known as the “plazas,” among routes and, more recently, the drug traffic in themselves, thus giving birth to the four major Juárez itself. cartels—Gulf, Sinaloa, Juárez, and Tijuana—that Félix Gallardo ceded control of northwest dominated the Mexican drug trade for more Mexico to his seven nephews and four nieces of than two decades. In recent years, inter-gang the Arellano-Félix family, based in Tijuana, with rivalry, internal division, and the rise of new direct access to the rich California market. Once organizations have contributed to violence that enormously powerful and violent, the Tijuana has reached dramatic proportions. cartel was featured in the 2000 movie “Traffic.” The Gulf cartel, directed from Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, and operating in the states along the Gulf of Mexico and under 2 The Role of Corruption with cocaine to Mexican-owned grocery stores in California.5 In recent years, huge quantities It is crucial to recognize that these illegal have slipped into the United States via under- operations, including a share of the violence, border tunnels, some crude, some stretching occurred with the knowledge, permission, more than 150 yards and equipped with lights, blessing, and even encouragement of the Mexican ventilation, flooring, and other signs of skilled political establishment, from local police and engineering.6 But by far the most common method mayors to the highest levels of the ruling party, of transshipment is by motor vehicle—cars, vans, which for 70 years after its birth in 1929 was the buses, trains, and, predominantly, trucks specially Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). Like outfitted for the task with ingenious secret panels other institutions in Mexican society, the gangs and other measures to disguise the nature of their operated in a patron-client or “elite-exploitative” cargo. U.S. and Mexican antidrug forces developed relationship.3 In return for being allowed to carry new methods of detection and increased the on their business without significant interference number of inspectors at the border, but the (or with overt assistance) from law enforcement North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) personnel, the gang leaders were expected to pay effectively guaranteed that such measures would what amounted to a franchise fee or tax on their have limited impact. According to U.S. Bureau of earnings. The officials in question might simply Transportation Statistics, nearly 4.9
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