drug trafficking and violence essay

Drug, Crime and Violence Descriptive Essay

There are several ways through which crime is related to illegal drugs. For example, distribution, manufacturing and possession of outlawed drugs are criminal offenses in the United States and many other parts of the world. Some of the drugs that have been noted to be potentially harmful include amphetamine, morphine, heroin and cocaine. These drugs are frequently abused and also have serious negative effects towards the normal functioning of the human body and mind (MacCoun, Kilmer and Reuter 70).

There are gangs, organized criminals and drug cartels that carry out the production and trafficking of these drugs to designated locations. It is imperative to mention that sexual assaults and robbery with violence are some of the drug-related crimes common in modern society. This essay offers a brief discussion of how the abuse of illegal drugs is related to both crime and violence.

Violent crime is an act whereby one person threatens or uses force on another person with the aim of obtaining something forcefully. It may entail murder, robbery, rape or assault (Jacobs 135). There are five types of crimes that are violent according to United States Department of Justice.

These include murder, rape or sexual assault, robbery as well as simple and aggravated assault. However, weapons and threats may not necessary be involved in a violent crime (Goldstein 79). This interpretation of violent crime is misleading people because it should entail physical injury.

Assault is a form of crime that occurs when an individual threatens or uses force knowingly on another person. Individuals who abuse drugs are highly likely to engage in assault crime because they are not psychologically stable. Rape is another type of violent crime that involves forcible sexual acts against an unwilling partner. Drug abusers also engage in robbery crime. The latter involves the use of dangerous weapons by the perpetrators. There are several cases of murder that have been related to perpetrators who are drug addicts.

It is prudent to mention that drug and violence have been noted to be closely related to each other according to some of the latest crime statistics. Hence, it is necessary for the law enforcing agencies to address the drug menace issue before handling actual cases of crime and violence on the ground.

Individual perpetrators who are under the influence of hard drugs such as cocaine, bhang and heroin, are often victims of illegal acquisition and ownership of weapons. These dangerous weapons are then used to commit acts of crime since they need monetary resources to sustain their lives with drugs.

In any case, these drugs are damn expensive and addictive. Therefore, victims of drug abuse are emotionally compelled to satisfy their addictive biological systems using any available means (Moore par.2). It is not possible to separate crime and drugs.

There is also a direct relationship between poverty and crime alongside the use of illegal drugs. Jacobs (134) notes that most poor people find solace in abusing drugs before even turning into crime. Perhaps, poverty can be linked to drug abuse and the emergence of criminal gangs that peddle and traffic dangerous drugs.

Goldstein (96) notes that the increase of violence in the contemporary American society is due to rampant use and excessive abuse of drugs. This implies that the use of drugs, poverty and crime are part and parcel of one significant challenge facing the society today. Therefore, anti drugs abuse and poverty reduction campaigns should be reinforced in order to minimize the rising rate of crime.

Works Cited

Goldstein, Paul. “The Drugs/Violence Nexus: A Tripartite Conceptual Framework,” In James Inciardi and Karen McElrath, The American Drug Scene (6 th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.

Jacobs, Bruce. “Order Beyond the Law,” In Robbing Drug Dealers: Violence Beyond the Law . New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 2000. Print.

MacCoun Robert, Beau Kilmer and Peter Reuter. Research on Drugs-Crime Linkages: The Next Generation in National Institute of Justice, Toward a Drugs and Crime Research Agenda for the 21st Century . Washington D.C.: National Institute of Justice, 2003. Print.

Moore, Solomon. Trying to Break Cycle of Prison at Street Level . 2007. Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 26). Drug, Crime and Violence. https://ivypanda.com/essays/drug-crime-and-violence/

"Drug, Crime and Violence." IvyPanda , 26 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/drug-crime-and-violence/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Drug, Crime and Violence'. 26 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Drug, Crime and Violence." February 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/drug-crime-and-violence/.

1. IvyPanda . "Drug, Crime and Violence." February 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/drug-crime-and-violence/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Drug, Crime and Violence." February 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/drug-crime-and-violence/.

• Heroin Legalization in Switzerland
• Breaking the Chains of Cocaine Addiction
• Robbery and Its Theoretical Explanation
• Where have all Criminals Gone
• Crimes in the United States
• Risk Factors Present in Offender Risk Assessments
• The Psychology of Serial Killers
• Police Minority Killings

"> img('logo-tagline', [ 'class'=>'full', 'alt'=>'Words Without Borders Logo' ]); ?> -->

• Get Started
• About WWB Campus
• Translationship: Examining the Creative Process Between Authors & Translators
• Ottaway Award
• In the News
• Submissions

Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Violence and Drug-Trafficking in Mexico

In Mexico, people will pay up to $70,000 dollars for a license to hunt and kill a bighorn sheep. Killing a man is much cheaper—about $2,000, according to the rates charged by hitmen in Ciudad Juárez, the most dangerous city in the world.

And yet, on occasions, death comes free. On August 24, 2010, in Tamaulipas, seventy-two migrants were murdered before they could achieve the golden American dream. The workers, who had no passports, came from Brazil, Central America, and various parts of Mexico. They were intercepted by a group of hired killers, who tried to recruit them as drug-traffickers, offering them easy money and food, as well as that most important commodity in these lawless deserts: protection. After their difficult journey, the migrants were quite happy to undertake any of the illegal jobs on offer in the United States, but they were unwilling to get involved in organized crime. For a few minutes, they “negotiated” with the AK-47s of those trying to recruit them, but they would meet the same fate as certain mayors who have dared to reject similar offers from the drug-traffickers. In that no-man’s land where snakes and impunity from the law are the rule, saying “No” is an affront. The migrant workers were duly gunned down.

This incident came to light because of the testimony of a survivor (whose name has been carelessly bandied about by the Mexican and international press, putting both his life and the lives of his family at risk).

Néstor García Canclini, author of Culturas híbridas [Hybrid Cultures], said to me a few days ago: “The worst aspect of the whole affair is that it’s hardly the first time this kind of thing has happened. In the last six months, ten thousand illegal migrants have been kidnapped. After all, they’re the perfect victims: defenseless people with no identity papers looking for illegal work. The kidnappers get paid $400, payable via Western Union.” These are insignificant amounts of money compared with the sums involved in trafficking drugs, guns, and women, but they reveal the scale of social decay and the lack of protection that characterizes much of the area.

Amado Carrillo was known as “The Lord of the Heavens”—not because he was particularly religious, but because of the regularity with which his cocaine-laden light aircraft took off—and in the 1990s, he proposed paying off the country’s foreign debt in exchange for the government allowing him to continue his activities unimpeded. Drug-traffickers with a social agenda are a thing of the past. They are now openly violent and their violence affects everyone.

Death has long been a dominant feature of Mexican culture, from the popular celebrations held in cemeteries on the Day of the Dead to the artist José Guadalupe Posada’s engravings of skeletons and skulls. The Aztec underworld (Mictlán) is the remote anteroom of works by modern-day poets, for example Xavier Villaurrutia’s Nostalgia de la muerte [ Nostalgia for Death ] and José Gorostiza’s Muerte sin fin [ Endless Death ].

Today, death is not just the inspiration behind rituals, poetry and philosophy. At the corner of Avenida Patriotismo and Río Mixcoac, one of the busiest crossroads in Mexico City, there is a bridge where people often hang advertisements and protest banners. Last week, I saw a yellow sign advertising a newly fashionable profession: “thanatology,” the study of corpses and the manner of their death having become an urgent need.

To paraphrase the protagonist of Mario Vargas Llosa’s Conversation in The Cathedral , we might ask: “Just when did Mexico get so screwed up?” Violence has been on the increase for decades, but the speed of that increase began to escalate about four years ago. In December 2006, after a much-disputed election, Felipe Calderón announced “a war on drug-trafficking.” He had been in power for only two weeks, hardly enough time to plan a battle of that magnitude.

Four years on, the death toll is frightening: between 23,000 and 32,000 dead, many of them civilians. True, there have been significant seizures and arrests (like the recent capture of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias La Barbie ), but justice moves far more slowly than crime: each month, the police confiscate 200 guns, but in that same month another 2,000 arrive from the United States.

The crucial political aspect of the “war on drug-trafficking” is that it lacks consensus. Without the backing of a solid social alliance, the “war” isn’t seen as State business. Nor is it seen as an initiative on the part of the Partido Acción Nacional, which has governed the country for ten years, but as a personal initiative on the part of President Calderón. The controversial elections of 2006 divided the country, and he, as winner, was merely trying to divert attention away from the controversy. However, the social cost of that diversion has been enormous.

Many say: “It’ll end in three years’ time anyway, when the PRI [Partido Revolucionario Institucional] come back into power,” because they are convinced that we are embroiled not in a national struggle but in a presidential one. This belief is based more on resignation than on hope. The party that governed the country for seventy-one years is seen as the anti-hero we need to restore order. A piece of graffiti sums this up: “We’ve had enough of incompetence, bring back corruption!”

If all wars are measured by the advances and retreats at the battle front, the war in which Mexico is engaged in its bicentenary year comes down firmly on the debit side. As Diego Enrique Osorno, the author of El cártel de Sinaloa [The Sinaloa Cartel], quite rightly says, the main effect of the war has been to push up the price of arms and drugs, and there has been no fall in the consumption and trafficking of drugs. Any obstacles placed in the path of the intermediaries have worked in their favor.

Over the decades, drug-trafficking has created a subculture, a kind of parallel normality. Nowadays, it’s possible to give birth to your child in a hospital owned by drug-traffickers or narcos , baptize him in a church owned by narcos , enroll him in a school owned by narcos , bring him up in a condominium owned by narcos , hold his wedding reception in a function room owned by narcos , get him a job in a business run by narcos and hold a wake for him in a funeral parlor owned by narcos .

This phenomenon began in Sinaloa, the birthplace of the main narco bosses (among them, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, the second richest man in Mexico after Carlos Slim), but it has spread throughout the country, with the exception of those cities considered to be the safest (Mérida, Puebla, Torreón), where the members of organized crime gangs choose to live rather than “work.”

In a country where it never snows, the narcos have commissioned such architectural fantasies as Tudor-style ranch-houses. You only have to see these mansions adorned with satellite dishes to know what their owners sell. In Mexico City, one particular shop, El Triunfo, offers shamelessly kitsch ornaments for sale. If someone buys three tin giraffes, each three metres tall, then you know at once what business they’re engaged in. We know which seafood restaurants are frequented by members of the cartels and the flame-haired beauties who accompany them; indeed, the chain of restaurants called Los Arcos has been rechristened Los Narcos. Martín Amaral, a journalist from Culiacán, wrote an eloquent article about this: “A young hired assassin washes his car.” Clothes, cars, and dollars all betray those living a life of crime.

Drug-trafficking has prospered in broad daylight, creating traditions and accounting for 10% of the money in circulation. Having grown accustomed to the presence of tourists (those “subtle invaders” as Jean-Paul Sartre called them), for years, we saw narcos as a form of extreme tourism. They were people who weren’t like us, but who left a tip on our table, people who were somehow different , who wore ostrich-skin boots, gold chains and strange tattoos, and who led a questionable lifestyle, but one, fortunately, that had nothing to do with ours.

“The Compassionate Assassin” and other musical successes

Mexican tragedies happen twice: once in reality and again in song. Music has contributed to normalizing dishonorable behavior, transforming criminals into emulators of Robin Hood. Many recordings are dictated and sponsored by the criminal bosses themselves (they are said to have paid as much as $40,000 for a “narco-ballad”). Oddly enough, the depressing melodies, primitive lyrics and dreary accordion accompaniment have found a wide audience, who are apparently prepared to be persuaded that the sordid is chic.

The effect is similar to that of stories romanticizing prostitution. In her book Esclavos del poder [Slaves of Power], Lydia Cacho describes how in a Mexican brothel, the movie Pretty Woman (starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere) is used as a form of brainwashing. After they have been kidnapped and stripped of any documentation, the women are shown the movie in which Gere appears as a Prince Charming offering love in the world of prostitution. Believing that there is an alternative, although not to their life of subordination, helps the women to accept their lot.

These “narco-ballads” have given a dubious artistic pedigree to those who kill for a living. It is no mere chance that several performers have met a similar fate to that of the characters they sing about. On the night of June 26, 2010, Sergio Vega, known as Shaka , was murdered on Route 15 in the north of the country. True to form, he was driving along, still in his pajamas, in a red Cadillac. He was apparently heading for a concert he was due to give the next day. He left behind him seventeen orphaned children. He had been receiving death threats for years, which is why he had adopted a Zulu nickname ( Shaka means “he who knows no fear”). One of his successes was “The Compassionate Assassin,” which alludes to the trafficking of drugs: “I was a smuggler by trade,/well, if you want to make money that’s the only way/I’ve smuggled tons of grass across the border in my day.” He goes on to say: “To avenge my brothers/I became a killer.”

The number of musicians who have been killed suggests a very murky relationship between crime and narco-ballads. In August 2006, the singer and composer of the group Explosión Norteña (who used to sing about the exploits of the Atellano Félix cartel) was badly wounded. One of their records had been recorded at a concert held in a discotheque in Tijuana, and, in a pause between songs, the singers can be heard exchanging greetings and banter with some of the narco celebrities in the audience.

Celebrating a criminal gang is a highly dangerous thing to do. While singers may have no direct contact with dirty money, they can be seen as propagandists for an enemy army. In a struggle in which decapitations have the symbolic function of both humiliating and diminishing the power of rivals, silencing a musician means erasing the enemy’s history.

In July 2010, in Zacatecas, I met up with Élmer Mendoza, a novelist who lives in Culiacán, a bastion of drug-trafficking. With regard to the attacks made on journalists, he said, with a degree of irony: “It’s not the baddies you have to watch, it’s the goodies.” The author of Balas de plata [ Silver Bullets ] was referring to the fact that while the major criminals tend to commit their crimes on the known drug routes, for anyone not involved in that world the most dangerous place is actually the area where the money gets laundered, where crime tries to take on a more legitimate guise in the form of entertainment, in hotels, discotheques, brothels and bars. A newspaper article or a narco-ballad can cause more ructions there than in the deserts where the enemies are the Army or the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). The narco -turned-concert hall owner is more of a danger to civil society because he’s prepared to defend his reputation with bullets.

No Northern Mexican group has had more impact than Los Tigres del Norte, who received a Latin Grammy nomination for their album El jefe de jefes [ The boss of bosses ]. For years, Los Tigres were notable for giving a voice to migrant workers and to Mexicans in exile. However, they made a real blunder when they decided to glorify El jefe de jefes , Arturo Beltrán Leyva, the head of a gang of drug-traffickers who used to send messages accompanied by the body parts of mutilated victims. This song in which the capo is portrayed as a benevolent, protective tree has met with surprising success in Mexico, the United States, and Spain.

Other musicians have been less fortunate. In November 2006, the singer Valentín Elizalde—nicknamed El Gallo de Oro [The Golden Rooster]—was gunned down in Tamaulipas, where, after singing “A mis enemigos” [“To my enemies”], he found himself on the receiving end of sixty-seven AK-47 bullets. In January 2007, Javier Morales Gómez, a member of Los Implacables del Norte, was shot six times while he was talking on his cellphone in a square in Michoacán. In December 2007, Zayda Peña, La Dama del Sentimiento , the vocalist with Zayda y Los Culpables, was wounded in a hotel in Matamoros and finished off by her attackers in the operating room of the hospital she was taken to. In December 2007, Sergio Gómez, vocalist with the group K-Paz, was murdered in Michoacán, after being horribly tortured. In December 2009, Ramón Ayala, El Rey del Acordeón , was arrested in Cuernavaca, while he was performing at a party held by the Beltrán Leyva gang.

In a way, any music that treats murderous attacks and escapes from justice as valiant exploits is guilty of normalizing crime. That’s why it’s so important to strip the narco-ballad of its romantic aura.

Best of enemies

Thirty years ago, Carlos Monsiváis gave a lecture on the detective novel with the incisive title: “You, who have never been murdered.” Nowadays, such a title would strike a much grimmer note: we, the living, are victims by omission.

We no longer live at a safe distance from violence. Every Mexican has a story to tell. On November 26, 2008, I attended an editorial lunch for journalists from Reforma , the newspaper I write for. Our editor, Alejandro Junco, told us that he was leaving the country. He had been threatened by a drug cartel and had decided to move to Texas. He has lived there ever since. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán wrote that the first thing a journalist should know is who owns the newspaper he’s working for; the second thing he should know is where the owner lives. When your boss has to go into exile to safeguard his life, that makes you realize just how precarious your own life is.

About a year ago, I tried to make an appointment to see an acupuncturist who had not treated me for a while. When no one answered the phone, I went to the clinic itself, where they told me his story. He had been kidnapped in order to treat a wounded drug-trafficker. He did a really splendid job, and his kidnappers told him: “Our orders were to kill you, but just to show you how grateful we are, we won’t lay a finger on you if you agree to leave the country.” The acupuncturist now lives in Austin, Texas.

On May 22, 2010, I went to Monterrey for the first night of my play Muerte parcial [ Partial Death ]. After the performance, we decided to have supper at a restaurant in Calzada Madero. We found the place locked. We were just about to give up, when the doorman appeared and told us we could come in. The restaurant was completely deserted. A heavy door closed behind us. The windows were all blocked off. The staff explained that bursts of machine-gun fire had become commonplace there. The street was full of bars and table-dancing joints, and the drug-trafficking mafias marked with bullet holes the places where their competitors sold their drugs. We dined in utter seclusion.

I am writing this on August 31, 2010. Yesterday, a female relative received the following e-mail message from Tampico: “Don’t go alone to the supermarket because they’re kidnapping people.” Going shopping in that town has become a high-risk undertaking.

Violence is invading our lives to the point where that parallel normality is beginning to be our normality. Meanwhile, President Calderón is celebrating the bicentenary in grand style. A few weeks ago he had the bones of heroes paraded down the streets in mobile sarcophagi. At a time when there are narco -graves everywhere, could there be anything more absurd than using a public display of skeletons as a means of arousing national pride?

Richard Sennett warns that in the current economic climate, uncertainty is rife, despite there being no actual “looming historical disaster.” It’s normal now to change jobs and give up the security of a routine in order to follow the capricious activities of markets where accidents are more common than long-term plans. The individual has no stability and no direct relationship with his bosses; he works in increasingly diffuse networks and groups. The result is a “corrosion of character,” a loss of values and of any sense of belonging.

“Flexible capitalism,” as Sennett calls it, is preparing for a still vaguer scenario: black economies, offshore investments for laundering money, and piracy. It provides for another scenario too: drug-trafficking. Globalization links businesses together and destroys individuality.

A cultural variant of this topic has yet to be studied in depth. Seven million young people in Mexico are neither in education nor employment. They are known as Ninis . Their only chance of finding employment is in organized crime, not just in economic terms but as a way of integrating into society. The narcos offer support and shared values. It would be hard to find a better way of combining the local and the global in the new “flexible capitalism.”

Putting an end to the problem will require a multi-pronged approach: legalizing certain drugs; closing down the narcos ’ financial networks; identifying collusion with various branches of government; improving military intelligence; extraditing the capos ; and, most importantly of all, persuading the United States—as the main consumer of drugs and main seller of arms—to accept responsibility for their role in all this.

However, the crucial factor is education. Creating alternatives for young people will take longer and prove more costly than patrolling the entire country, but it’s the only real way we can hope to rebuild the social fabric.

About once every century, Mexico becomes embroiled in a war. In 1810, it was the War of Independence; in 1910, the Revolution. In 2010, we are witnessing a battle between a government adrift in uncharted waters and criminals intent on going unpunished. All we know about the postwar period is that neither party will have any role to play in it.

August 31, 2010

“¡Qué manera de perder!”: Violencia y narcotráfico en México

En México, el permiso para matar un borrego cimarrón se subasta en unos 70 mil dólares. Matar a un hombre es más barato: dos mil dólares, según la tarifa de los sicarios de Ciudad Juárez, la ciudad más peligrosa del mundo.

Sin embargo, en ocasiones la muerte es gratuita. El 24 de agosto de 2010, 72 migrantes fueron asesinados en Tamaulipas, antes de alcanzar el dorado sueño americano. Los trabajadores sin pasaportes venían de Brasil, Centroamérica y diversas partes de México. Un comando de sicarios los interceptó y trató de reclutarlos para el narcotráfico. Les ofrecieron dinero rápido, comida y, lo más importante en esos desiertos sin ley, protección. Después de viajar en condiciones oprobiosas, los migrantes estaban dispuestos a desempeñar todos los trabajos ilegales que ofrece Estados Unidos, pero no a ingresar al crimen organizado. Durante unos minutos “negociaron” ante las ametralladoras AK-47 de quienes pretendían contratarlos. Su suerte sería la misma que la de los alcaldes que se han atrevidos a rechazar las ofertas del narcotráfico. En esas tierras dominadas por las víboras y la impunidad, decir “no” es una afrenta. Los trabajadores fueron acribillados.

Esto se supo por el testimonio de un sobreviviente (cuyo nombre ha sido mencionado con enorme descuido por la prensa mexicana e internacional, poniendo en riesgo su vida y la de sus familiares).

“Lo más grave es que ya había cifras de que eso podía suceder”, me dijo hace unos días Néstor García Canclini, autor de Culturas híbridas: “En los últimos seis meses ha habido diez mil secuestros de indocumentados. Son víctimas perfectas: gente indefensa, que busca trabajo ilegal y no tiene papeles. Los secuestran por 400 dólares, pagaderos a través de Western Union”. Esas cantidades son insignificantes, comparadas con las cifras que mueven el tráfico de drogas, armas y mujeres, pero revelan el deterioro social y la falta de protección que caracteriza a buena parte del territorio.

En los años noventa, Amado Carrillo, conocido como El Señor de los Cielos, no por su religiosidad, sino por la puntualidad con que despegaban sus avionetas cargadas de coca, propuso pagar la deuda externa a cambio de que el gobierno lo dejara operar. Los narcos con proyecto social son cosa del pasado. Su violencia se impone sin disimulo y afecta a todos por igual.

La muerte ha dominado buena parte de la cultura mexicana, de los rituales populares que se celebran en los cementerios el 2 de noviembre a los grabados de esqueletos y calaveras del dibujante José Guadalupe Posada. El inframundo azteca (Mictlán) es la remota antesala de obras decisivas de nuestra poesía moderna, como Nostalgia de la muerte de Xavier Villaurrutia y Muerte sin fin de José Gorostiza.

Hoy el aniquilamiento no solo es motivo de rito, evocación lírica o reflexión filosófica. En Avenida Patriotismo y Río Mixcoac, uno de los cruceros más transitados de Ciudad de México, hay un puente en el que se suelen colocar anuncios o mantas de protesta. La semana pasada encontré ahí un letrero amarillo. Promovía una profesión de moda: “Tanatología”. El estudio de los cadáveres y las formas de morir se ha vuelto urgente.

Parafraseando al protagonista de Conversación en La Catedral podríamos preguntar: “¿En qué momento se jodió México?”. La escalada de violencia comenzó hace décadas, pero se aceleró cuatro años atrás. En diciembre de 2006, luego de unas muy discutidas elecciones, Felipe Calderón anunció la “guerra contra el narcotráfico”. Llevaba 14 días en el poder, tiempo escaso para planear una contienda de esa magnitud.

Cuatro años más tarde, el saldo es desolador: entre 23 y 32 mil muertos, muchos de ellos civiles. Es cierto que ha habido decomisos y detenciones importantes (como la reciente captura de Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias La Barbie), pero la justicia opera con menos velocidad que el delito (cada mes se incautan 200 armas y otras 2000 llegan de Estados Unidos).

El aspecto político decisivo en la “guerra contra el narcotráfico” es que carece de consenso. Sin una alianza social que la respalde, no se percibe como un asunto de Estado. Tampoco es vista como un empeño del Partido Acción Nacional, que gobierna el país desde hace diez años, sino como una iniciativa personal del presidente Calderón. Las cuestionadas elecciones de 2006 dividieron al país y el ganador quiso que cambiáramos de conversación. El costo social por mudar de tema ha sido inmenso.

“Todo se acabará en tres años, cuando regrese el PRI”, dice mucha gente, convencida de que no estamos ante una lucha nacional sino presidencial. Este convencimiento se funda menos en la esperanza que en la resignación. El partido que gobernó el país durante 71 años es visto como un antihéroe necesario para poner orden. Un graffiti resume el tema: “¡Que se vayan los ineptos y que vuelvan los corruptos!”.

Si toda guerra se mide por los avances y repliegues en el frente de batalla, la que México libra en su bicentenario no arroja saldos positivos. De acuerdo con Diego Enrique Osorno, autor de El cártel de Sinaloa, el principal efecto de la contienda ha consistido en subir el precio de las armas y las drogas. El consumo y el tráfico no han disminuido. Los obstáculos han servido para favorecer a los intermediarios.

Durante décadas, el narcotráfico fue creando una subcultura, es decir, una normalidad paralela. Hoy en día, es posible tener un hijo en un hospital de narcos, bautizarlo en una iglesia de narcos, inscribirlo en una escuela de narcos, criarlo en un condominio de narcos, casarlo en un salón de fiestas de narcos, incorporarlo a un negocio de narcos y velarlo en una funeraria de narcos.

El fenómeno comenzó en Sinaloa, cuna de los principales capos (entre ellos, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán, segundo hombre más rico de México, después de Carlos Slim), pero se ha extendido a todo el territorio, al grado de que las ciudades que se consideran más seguras (Mérida, Puebla, Torreón) son las que el crimen organizado utiliza para vivir y no para “trabajar”.

En un país sin nieve, el narco ha patrocinado delirios arquitectónicos estilo Tudor ranchero. Basta ver esas mansiones coronadas por antenas parabólicas para saber qué venden sus inquilinos. En Ciudad de México, la tienda El Triunfo ofrece objetos de decoración que responden a un descarado sentido el kitsch. Si alguien compra tres jirafas de hojalata, cada una de tres metros de altura, sabemos a qué se dedica. Conocemos los restaurantes donde los miembros de los cárteles comen mariscos (la cadena Los Arcos ha sido rebautizada como Los Narcos) y las mujeres de pelo flamígero que los acompañan. Martín Amaral, periodista de Culiacán, escribió un elocuente retrato de costumbres: “Joven sicario lava su carro”. La ropa, los vehículos y los dólares delatan a quienes viven en estado de delito.

El narcotráfico ha prosperado a la luz de día, creando tradiciones y apropiándose del 10% del dinero circulante. Acostumbrados a los turistas (“invasores sutiles”, los llamó Jean-Paul Sartre), durante años vimos el narco al modo de un turismo extremo. Gente que no era como nosotros pero dejaba propina en nuestras mesas. Gente distinta, con botas de piel de avestruz, cadenas de oro y tatuajes específicos, que llevaba una vida cuestionable pero venturosamente ajena.

“Asesino compasivo” y otros éxitos musicales

Las tragedias mexicanas suceden dos veces: primero en la realidad, luego en la canción. La música han contribuido a normalizar el oprobio, transformando a los criminales en émulos de Robin Hood. Numerosas grabaciones son dictadas y patrocinadas por los propios capos (se dice que llegan a pagar 40 mil dólares por un narcocorrido). Curiosamente, las deprimentes melodías, las letras primitivas y los anémicos acordeones han contado con un público amplio, dispuesto a descubrir que la sordidez es chic.

El efecto ha sido similar al de las historias que romantizan la prostitución. En su libro Esclavas del poder Lydia Cacho cuenta que en un burdel mexicano la película Preety Woman (con Julia Roberts y Richard Gere) se usa como obra de superación personal. Después de ser secuestradas y privadas de sus documentos, las mujeres ven la cinta en la que Gere aparece como un Príncipe Azul que brinda amor dentro de la prostitución. Saber que hay una alternativa preferible, sin eliminar la subordinación, ayuda a las mujeres a aceptar su condena.

Los narcocorridos han otorgado dudoso pedigrí artístico al oficio de vivir matando. No es casual que varios intérpretes hayan acabado como sus personajes. En la noche del 26 de junio de 2010, Sergio Vega, el Shaka, fue asesinado en la carretera 15, al norte del país. Fiel a su estilo, conducía en pijama un Cadillac rojo. Aparentemente se dirigía a un concierto que tendría al día siguiente. Dejó 17 huérfanos. Llevaba años recibiendo amenazas; por eso había adoptado el sobrenombre de un guerrero zulu (Shaka significa “el que no tiene miedo”). Uno de sus éxitos era “Asesino compasivo”, que alude al tráfico de drogas: “Me dediqué al contrabando/ sólo así se hace dinero/ he cruzado toneladas/ de hierba hasta el extranjero”. Poco más adelante informa: “Para vengar a mis hermanos/ me convertí en asesino”.

El número de músicos muertos sugiere una turbia connivencia entre el crimen y el narcocorrido. En agosto de 2006, fue herido el cantante y compositor del grupo Explosión Norteña, que solía cantar las gestas del cártel de los Arellano Félix. Uno de sus discos registra un concierto en una discoteca de Tijuana. En una pausa, los cantantes saludan e interpelan a celebridades del narco entre el público.

Celebrar a un grupo delictivo es oficio peligroso. Aunque no tengan contacto directo con el dinero sucio, los cantantes pueden ser vistos como propagandistas de otro ejército. En una lucha donde las decapitaciones cumplen la función simbólica de humillar y reducir el poder de los rivales, silenciar a un músico significa borrar la historia enemiga.

En julio coincidí en Zacatecas con Élmer Mendoza, novelista que vive en Culiacán, bastión del narcotráfico. A propósito de los ataques a periodistas comentó con ironía: “Hay que cuidarse de los buenos, no de los malos”. El autor de Balas de plata se refería a lo siguiente: los más enjundiosos criminales se dedican a hacer fechorías en los caminos de la droga; para la gente que no pertenece a ese entorno, la zona más peligrosa es la del lavado de dinero, donde el delito pretende legitimarse y transformase en entretenimiento a través de hoteles, discotecas, prostíbulos, bares. Ahí, un reportaje o un narcocorrido pueden sentar peor que en los desiertos donde los rivales son el Ejército o la DEA. El narco reconvertido en dueño de una sala de conciertos es más peligroso para la sociedad civil porque está dispuesto a preservar su reputación a balazos.

Ningún grupo norteño ha tenido la trascendencia de Los Tigres del Norte, nominados al Grammy Latino por El jefe de jefes. Durante años, los Tigres destacaron por darle voz a los migrantes y articular el relato de los mexicanos en el exilio. Sin embargo, cometieron el error de glorificar al Jefe de jefes, Arturo Beltrán Leyva, narcotraficantes que dejaba mensajes con trozos de víctimas mutiladas. En forma sorprendente, la canción donde el capo aparece como un árbol benévolo que protege del sol ha tenido éxito en México, Estados Unidos y España.

Menos afortunada ha sido la ruta de otros músicos. En noviembre de 2006, el cantante Valentín Elizalde fue acribillado en Tamaulipas (después de cantar “A mis enemigos”, El Gallo de Oro recibió 67 balas de Ak-47). En enero de 2007, Javier Morales Gómez, integrante de Los Implacables del Norte, recibió seis balazos mientras hablaba por teléfono en una plaza de Michoacán. En diciembre de 2007, Zayda Peña, La Dama del Sentimiento, vocalista de Zayda y Los Culpables, fue herida en un hotel de Matamoros y rematada en el quirófano del hospital donde era intervenida. En diciembre de 2007 Sergio Gómez, vocalista del grupo K-Paz, fue asesinado en Michoacán, luego de sufrir atroces torturas. En diciembre de 2009, Ramón Ayala, El Rey del Acordeón, fue detenido en Cuernavaca mientras actuaba en una fiesta de los Beltrán Leyva.

En cierta forma, el delito se asimila a la costumbre con la música que transforma asaltos y fugas en una saga de valientes pericipecias. De ahí la importancia de despojar al narcocorrido de su aura romántica.

Enemigos íntimos

Hace unos treinta años, Carlos Monsiváis impartió una conferencia sobre la novela negra con un titulo mordaz: “Usted, que nunca ha sido asesinado”. Actualmente ese lema sería tétrico. Los vivos somos víctimas omitidas.

La distancia con la violencia se ha roto. Cualquier mexicano tiene anécdotas al respecto. El 26 de noviembre de 2008 asistí al almuerzo de editorialistas de Reforma, periódico en el que escribo. Nuestro director, Alejandro Junco, nos comunicó su decisión de abandonar el país. Había sido amenazado por un cártel y debía mudarse a Texas. Desde entonces vive ahí. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán escribió que lo primero que debe saber un periodistas es quién es el dueño de su periódico. Lo segundo es saber dónde vive. Cuando tu jefe se tiene que exiliar para proteger su integridad, queda claro cuáles son los límites de la tuya.

Hace cosa de un año quise consultar a un acupunturista al que llevaba tiempo sin ver. Como nadie me respondió en sus teléfonos, acudí al centro de acupuntura del que él formó parte. Ahí me contaron su historia. El médico había sido secuestrado para curar a un narcotraficante herido. Hizo un espléndido trabajo; entonces, los hombres que lo habían llevado a ver a su jefe le dijeron: “Teníamos órdenes de matarlo pero estamos muy agradecidos. Si se va del país, no le haremos nada”. El acupunturista vive en Austin, Texas.

El 22 de mayo fui a Monterrey al estreno de mi obra de teatro Muerte parcial. Terminada la función, quisimos cenar a un restaurante en Calzada Madero. La puerta estaba cerrada. Ya nos íbamos cuando el portero nos informó que podían recibirnos. Entramos a un sitio desierto. Un pesado portón se cerró a nuestras espaldas. Las ventanas habían sido tapiadas. Nos explicaron que las ráfagas de ametralladoras se habían vuelto frecuentes. En esa avenida abundan los bares y los negocios de table dance. Las mafias del narcomenudeo señalan con disparos los puntos en los que trafica la competencia. Cenamos en condiciones rigurosamente enclaustradas.

Escribo estas líneas en 31 de agosto. Ayer, una pariente recibió el siguiente correo electrónico desde Tampico: “No vayas sola al supermercado porque están secuestrando”. Hacer la compra en esa ciudad del golfo se ha vuelto asunto de alto riesgo.

La violencia invade nuestras vidas, a tal grado que la normalidad paralela comienza a ser la nuestra. Mientras tanto, el presidente Calderón celebra el bicentenario en forma ditirámbica. Hace unas semanas hizo que los huesos de los héroes desfilaran por el país en sarcófagos rodantes. En un momento en que se encuentran narcofosas por todas partes, ¿hay algo más absurdo que se exhiban osamentas para exaltar el orgullo nacional?

Richard Sennett advierte que en la economía contemporánea la incertidumbre existe “sin la amenaza de un desastre histórico”. Es normal cambiar de trabajo y sacrificar la seguridad de la rutina para seguir la caprichosa actividad de los mercados donde los accidentes son más comunes que los planes a largo plazo. El individuo pierde estabilidad y relación directa con sus jefes, trabaja en redes y grupos progresivamente difusos. El resultado es “la corrosión del carácter”, la pérdida de valores y sentido de pertenencia.

El “capitalismo flexible”, como lo llama Sennett, prepara un escenario aún más vago: las economías de sombra, las inversiones offshore que lavan dinero, la piratería. Esto prepara otro escenario: el narcotráfico. La globalización articula negocios y vulnera identidades.

No se ha estudiado a fondo una variable cultural del tema. En México hay 7 millones de jóvenes que no estudian ni trabajan. Son conocidos como Ninis. Este sector no tiene otro horizonte que el crimen organizado, no sólo en términos económicos sino como forma de integración social. El narco ofrece arraigo y códigos compartidos. Es difícil encontrar mejor forma de combinar lo local y lo global en el “capitalismo flexible”.

Acabar con el problema exigirá de una estrategia múltiple: legalizar selectivamente las drogas, intervenir las redes de financiación del narco, detectar la complicidad en los distintos mandos del gobierno, mejorar la estrategia de inteligencia militar, extraditar a los capos y, sobre todo, que Estados Unidos asuma su responsabilidad como principal consumidor de estupefacientes y principal vendedor de armas.

Pero el factor fundamental es educativo. Crear opciones para los jóvenes es más tardado y costoso que patrullar el país, pero es la única forma digna de reconstruir el tejido social.

Cada cien años, México se somete a una guerra. En 1810 la causa fue la Independencia; en 1910, la Revolución. En 2010 asistimos a una batalla entre un gobierno sin brújula y criminales que buscan preservar su impunidad. Lo único que sabemos de la posguerra es que ahí no habrá sitio para ninguno de los bandos combatientes.

Cuco Sánchez anticipó la situación en la canción ranchera: “¡Qué manera de perder!”

Juan Villoro

Juan Villoro (b. 1956) has been a professor of literature…

Margaret Jull Costa

Margaret Jull Costa has been a literary translator…

Holding Pattern

Close, but no cigar, thank goodness they’re not here.

Drugs, Violence and Latin America

Global Psychotropy and Culture

• © 2021
• Joseph Patteson 0

Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Augustana University, Sioux Falls, USA

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Bridges the studies of culture and narco-violence and critical work that focuses on intoxication

Contributes to the emerging field of the study of narco-narratives

Dialogues with wider considerations of drugs and intoxication, such as neuroscience, psychology, culture, and politics

1227 Accesses

3 Altmetric

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (8 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

Joseph Patteson

A Dialectics of Intoxication

Loaded and exploded: countercultural travel and its colonial shadow, from flower power to les fleurs du mal : la onda literaria, high crimes: élmer mendoza’s “zurdo” mendieta series and the psychotropic economy, disturbing innocence: defamiliarizing narco -violence through child protagonists in fiesta en la madriguera and prayers for the stolen, escape velocity: narcossism, contagion, and consumption in julián herbert, back matter.

• Violence and culture
• Culture and intoxication
• Drugs and violence
• Hermann Herlinghaus
• Oswaldo Zavala
• Narco-narratives
• Drug traffic in Mexico
• Culture and narco-violence
• Narco-violence
• psychotropy
• onda literaria

About this book

“Joseph Patteson has produced a perceptive cognitive and affective mapping of drugs in contemporary Latin American literature.  His groundbreaking approach to the subject of intoxication opens an unexplored comparative route between North and South, cutting across habit forming disciplinary and generic boundaries that insist on keeping psychotropics, aesthetic experimentation, and drug wars apart.” (Julio Ramos, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

About the author, bibliographic information.

Book Title : Drugs, Violence and Latin America

Book Subtitle : Global Psychotropy and Culture

Authors : Joseph Patteson

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68924-7

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan Cham

eBook Packages : Literature, Cultural and Media Studies , Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-030-68923-0 Published: 27 November 2021

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-68926-1 Published: 28 November 2022

eBook ISBN : 978-3-030-68924-7 Published: 01 December 2021

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : X, 249

Topics : Latin American Culture , Global/International Culture , Latin American/Caribbean Literature , Criminology and Criminal Justice, general

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

MENU DOJ Strategic Plan

• A Message from the Attorney General
• A Message from the Deputy Attorney General
• A Message From the Associate Attorney General
• Mission, Values, and Organization
• DOJ Strategic Plan at a Glance
• Strategic Goal 1: Uphold the Rule of Law
• Objective 2.1: Protect National Security
• Objective 2.2: Counter Foreign and Domestic Terrorism
• Objective 2.3: Combat Violent Crime and Gun Violence
• Objective 2.4: Enhance Cybersecurity and Fight Cybercrime

Objective 2.5: Combat Drug Trafficking and Prevent Overdose Deaths

• Objective 2.6: Protect Vulnerable Communities
• Strategic Goal 3: Protect Civil Rights
• Strategic Goal 4: Ensure Economic Opportunity and Fairness for All
• Strategic Goal 5: Administer Just Court and Correctional Systems
• Learning Agenda
• Strategic Plan - Multilingual Versions

Drug trafficking and substance abuse continue to take a significant toll on the American public.  In the twelve months between September 2020 and September 2021, more than 104,000 Americans died due to drug overdose.  The overwhelming majority of these deaths involved opioids.  The Department will address this harm in several ways.  The Department will combat transnational drug trafficking organizations.  These organizations are operating a $500 billion industry that fuels corruption, violence, and terrorism around the globe.

In addition, the Department will address the evolving nature of the illicit drug threat, on both the dark and clear webs.  While the dark web remains a threat, social media and e-commerce platforms on the clear web have emerged as new marketplaces to buy and sell counterfeit pills, opioids, and other drugs, as well as dangerous precursor chemicals and the equipment used to manufacture pills.  Many of the counterfeit pills sold online, which look exactly like actual pharmaceuticals, are marketed to kids, teens, and young adults, and are often mixed with synthetic fentanyl – the leading driver of the overdose epidemic.  Dismantling illicit online drug marketplaces and holding responsible corporations – including responsible executives – who enable these illicit drug marketplaces, are critical to preventing overdoses and stemming the flow of dangerous drugs into our communities.

The Justice Department will also continue to detect, limit, and deter fraud and illegal prescription, distribution, and diversion offenses that result in patient harm.  Finally, the Department will address the needs of individuals involved with the justice system who have substance use and mental health disorders to promote long-term recovery.

Strategy 1: Disrupt and Dismantle Drug Trafficking Organizations The Department will use all available resources to combat drug trafficking in the United States.  We will simultaneously target the trafficking organizations, their financial infrastructure, and their distribution networks.  We will share information across components and in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies.  We will employ enhanced intelligence analysis and scientific research to target, investigate, and prosecute traffickers participating in significant transnational, national, and regional drug trafficking organizations.  And we will target international sources of supply, money launderers, international and domestic transportation organizations, and regional and local distribution networks.

Strategy 2: Reduce Deaths and Addiction Driven by Drug Crime As part of our effort to address the opioid epidemic, we will focus our attention on the diversion of pharmaceutical controlled substances to illegitimate consumers.  The Department will continue to employ advanced data analytics to identify and investigate suspicious billing and prescription patterns.  We will also prosecute medical professionals and corporations – including responsible executives – involved in the illegal prescription, diversion, and distribution of opioids.  Finally, we will continue to evaluate drug prescription quotas and investigate and prosecute fraud and kickback schemes in the substance use treatment industry.

Strategy 3: Expand Access to Evidence-Based Prevention and Treatment In conjunction with other agencies, the Department will work to ensure that individuals with substance use disorders get the treatment and ongoing support they need.  The Department will support the expansion of evidence-based, opioid-use disorder treatment options, including for incarcerated individuals and those reentering the community.  For the public at large, the Department will work with other agencies to reform regulations to increase access to medication-assisted treatment and assist states and localities in implementing such programs.  The Department will also work with state, local, and Tribal partners to increase access to recovery support services and continuity of care across public safety and public health systems.  In addition, the Department will aggressively enforce the civil rights laws on behalf of people with substance use and mental health disorders. 

More broadly, the Department will also promote evidence-based crisis response deflection, diversion, and alternatives to incarceration, and will support education and training about substance use disorders for public safety professionals and others across the justice system.  To stop the cycle of substance use before it starts, we will invest in prevention efforts, particularly for youth, and combat the stigma associated with substance use disorders. 

Key Performance Indicators:

• Percent of disruptions or dismantlements of drug trafficking organizations focused on the highest priority targets
• Amount of diversion, nationally, of opioids and stimulants
• Percent of relevant-funded grantee programs that provide medication-assisted-treatment, which includes medication plus counseling, as part of their substance use disorder services

Contributing DOJ Components:  CIV, CRM, CRT, USAO, OCDETF, DEA, FBI, COPS, OJP, JMD 

Home — Essay Samples — Law, Crime & Punishment — Drug Trafficking — Drug Trafficking and US Politics

Drug Trafficking and Us Politics

• Categories: Drug Trafficking

About this sample

Words: 613 |

Published: Mar 25, 2024

Words: 613 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, historical context: the rise of drug trafficking, the role of drug cartels, the impact on politics: policy formation and implementation, government response: balancing interests.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof. Kifaru

Verified writer

• Expert in: Law, Crime & Punishment

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

4 pages / 1928 words

3 pages / 1286 words

3 pages / 1529 words

3 pages / 1528 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Drug Trafficking

Amado Carrillo Fuentes, also known as "The Lord of the Skies," was a Mexican drug lord who rose to power in the 1990s. He was known for his extensive drug trafficking network, which transported cocaine from Colombia to the [...]

Examining the rise and fall of notorious drug traffickers Pablo Escobar and El Chapo provides invaluable insights into the complex world of drug empires. Their stories demonstrate the interplay between ambition, violence, [...]

During the 1980’s, Colombia was flooded with corruption and cronyism mostly headed by Narco mafias who with their drug trafficking money got involved in the country’s political and social systems. As a result, Colombians found [...]

What is drug trafficking? Drug Trafficking is an illegal drug trade on the black market and is prohibited by the laws of the U.S. This process of foreign business includes the illegal use of drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, [...]

Introduction to Pablo Escobar and his legendary status as an outlaw Brief overview of his rise to power and influence Description of Colombia's geography and historical context Escobar's childhood and [...]

The period between 1600 and 1860 was the height of the slaves, guns and drugs trafficking. They were trafficked by the British from one place to another. Slaves were trafficked initially by the Portuguese until the British [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Trafficking in the Sahel: Cracking down on illicit drugs

Facebook Twitter Print Email

Cocaine, cannabis and opioids are getting easier to buy as criminal networks and armed groups capitalise on the fragile Sahel region’s “natural stopover point” to Europe on trafficking routes from South America, but authorities with help from the UN are taking down criminal networks and making a record number of seizures of illicit drugs.

In this feature, part of a  series exploring trafficking in the Sahel, UN News focuses on the illicit drug trade.

According to a  new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC ), drug trafficking in the Sahel continues to hinder security, economic development and the rule of law while jeopardising public health.

“Drug trafficking is well-established in the Sahel region – with detrimental consequences both locally and globally,” said Amado Philip de Andres, who heads the agency’s West and Central Africa regional office.

“Increased drug flows to West Africa and the Sahel undermine peace and stability in the region,” he said. “This is not only a security issue as armed groups are deriving revenue to finance their operations, it is also a public health issue as criminal groups tap into population growth to expand illicit drug markets.”

Large-scale trafficking

In some Sahelian countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – cannabis resin remains the internationally trafficked drug most commonly seized, followed by cocaine and pharmaceutical opioids.

Indeed, seizures of cocaine skyrocketed in the Sahel in 2022, from an average of 13 kg per year seized between 2015 and 2020 to 1,466 kg in 2022. UNODC assessments said this suggests the presence of large-scale cocaine trafficking through the region.

Although annual estimates were not available for 2023, by mid-year, 2.3 tons of cocaine had already been seized in Mauritania, according to the agency.

The region’s geographical location makes it a “natural stopover point” for the increasing amount of cocaine produced in South America en route to Europe, which has seen a similar rise in demand for the drug, the new report found.

‘Vicious cycle’ links trafficking and instability

The drug economy and instability in the Sahel are linked through a “vicious cycle”, the report noted, in which the weak rule of law is facilitating the expansion of the drug economy. That can, in turn, provide financial resources for maintaining or expanding conflicts, which then continue to weaken the rule of law.

The new report found that drug trafficking continues to provide financial resources to armed groups in the region, including Plateforme des mouvements du 14 juin 2014 d’Alger (Plateforme) in Algeria and Coordination des Mouvements de l’Azawad (CMA) in Mali, enabling them to sustain their involvement in conflict, notably through the purchase of weapons.

Meanwhile, traffickers are using money-laundering to disguise their illicit proceeds in a growing number of sectors, from gold to real estate. That makes financial transactions more difficult to track while giving traffickers greater economic leverage and “a veneer of legitimacy”, the report found.

Corruption enables traffickers

Corruption and money laundering are “major enablers” of drug trafficking, according to the report.

Recent seizures, arrests, and detentions in the Sahel region reveal how drug trafficking is facilitated by a wide range of individuals, which can include members of the political elite, community leaders and heads of armed groups.

Traffickers have used their income to penetrate different layers of the State, allowing them to effectively avoid prosecution, according to UNODC.

The report also highlighted overwhelming evidence of the continued involvement of armed groups in drug trafficking in the region, and found that terrorist organisation affiliates are likely to benefit indirectly through exacting zakat , a form of wealth tax, from traffickers and taxing convoys that cross areas under their control.

Terrorist groups and organised crime

Combatting terrorist groups operating in the Sahel was in the spotlight at the recent High-Level African Counter-Terrorism Meeting, held in Abuja, Nigeria, in late April. Among concerns raised by Heads of State across the region were the increasing links between terrorism and organised crime.

Speaking at the meeting, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed  described the situation in Africa, particularly in the Sahel, as dire, noting that the region now accounts for almost half of all deaths from terrorism globally.

“A major factor that has fuelled the rise in insurgency in the Sahel is organised crime, particularly the proliferation and smuggling of firearms across our porous borders,” she said. “The availability of weapons empowers terrorist groups, often better equipped with the latest technology.”

Da’esh, Al-Qaida heading south

At the gathering, UN counter-terrorism chief Vladimir Voronkov warned that Da’esh, Al-Qaida and their affiliates have made some significant gains in the Sahel and are moving southward to the Gulf of Guinea.

“We recognise that no single actor can resolve today’s threats to peace and security alone,” he  said . “Instead, we need multiple actors working together, with solutions grounded in strong national ownership and supported by funding partners.”

A “step change” in commitments to address those complex challenges came with the launch of the UN Joint Appeal for Counter-Terrorism in Africa, he said, bringing together 16 UN entities in support of 10 new multipartner initiatives across the continent to tackle such critical areas as border management and countering terrorism travel on the continent and the nexus between terrorism and organised crime.

Wake-up call

Meanwhile, local and regional actors continue to join forces to combat the illegal drug trade in the Sahel, according to UNODC.

The agency’s new report should serve as a “wake-up call”, said Leonardo Santos Simão, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel.

“States in the Sahel region – along with the international community – must take urgent, coordinated and comprehensive action to dismantle drug trafficking networks and give the people in these countries the future they deserve,” he said.

• trafficking in the sahel
• illegal drugs

Advertisement

Supported by

A Country Awash in Violence Backs Its Leader’s Hard-Line Stance

Voters in Ecuador gave their new president, Daniel Noboa, who deployed the military to fight gangs in January, even more powers.

• Share full article

By Genevieve Glatsky

Ecuadoreans voted on Sunday to give their new president more powers to combat the country’s plague of drug-related gang violence, officials said, supporting his hard-line stance on security and offering an early glimpse of how he might fare in his bid for re-election next year.

President Daniel Noboa, the 36-year-old heir to a banana empire, took office in November after an election season focused on the violence , which has surged to levels not seen in decades. In January, he declared an “internal armed conflict ” and ordered the military to “neutralize” the country’s gangs. The move allowed soldiers to patrol the streets and Ecuador’s prisons, many of which have come under gang control .

In a referendum on Sunday, Ecuadoreans voted to enshrine the increased military presence into law and to lengthen prison sentences for certain offenses linked to organized crime, among other security measures. With about 20 percent of the votes counted on Sunday night, Ecuador’s electoral authority declared that the trend toward approval of the security measures was “irreversible,” though voters rejected other proposals on the ballot.

Mr. Noboa claimed victory on social media. “I apologize for jumping the gun on a triumph that I cannot help but celebrate,” he wrote on X .

A flood of violence from international criminal groups and local gangs has turned Ecuador, a country of 17 million, into a key player in the global drug trade. Tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans have fled to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Experts saw the results of the voting Sunday as an indicator of how strongly the public supported Mr. Noboa’s stance on crime. “What is clear is that the people are saying ‘yes’ to the security model,” said an Ecuadorean political analyst, Caroline Ávila. She said the voters also had “high expectations” that the crime problem “will be solved.”

Mr. Noboa, who is expected to seek a second term in February, has high approval ratings , though they have slipped lately. He became president after his predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, facing impeachment proceedings over embezzlement accusations, called for early elections; Mr. Noboa is in office until May 2025, the remainder of Mr. Lasso’s term.

Some human rights groups have criticized Mr. Noboa’s anticrime tactics as going too far, saying they have led to abuses in prisons and in the streets. Still, most Ecuadoreans seem willing to accept Mr. Noboa’s strategy if they think it makes them safer, analysts said.

“Noboa is now one of the most popular presidents in the region,” said Glaeldys González, who researches Ecuador for the International Crisis Group. “He is taking advantage of those levels of popularity that he currently has to catapult himself to the presidential elections.”

He deployed the military against the gangs in response to a turning point in Ecuador’s long-running security crisis : Gangs attacked the large coastal city of Guayaquil after the authorities moved to take charge of Ecuador’s prisons.

Mr. Noboa’s deployment of the military was followed by a decline in violence and a precarious sense of safety, but the stability did not last. Over the Easter holiday this month, there were 137 murders in Ecuador, and kidnappings and extortion have been increasing .

Two weeks ago, Mr. Noboa took the extraordinary step of arresting an Ecuadorean politician who had taken refuge at the Mexican Embassy in Quito, in what experts called a violation of an international treaty on the sanctity of diplomatic posts. The move, which drew condemnation across the region, sent a message in line with Mr. Noboa’s heavy-handed approach to violence and graft.

Mr. Noboa said he had sent police officers into the embassy to arrest Jorge Glas , a former vice president who had been convicted of corruption, because Mexico had abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission. Mr. Noboa said Mr. Glas was not entitled to protection because he was a convicted criminal.

Taken together, the raid and the deployment of the military were meant to show that Mr. Noboa is tough on crime and impunity, political analysts say. Though polls show that Mr. Noboa’s approval rating has fallen in recent months, it remains high, at 67 percent.

Voter turnout on Sunday was 72 percent, according to the country’s electoral authority. Analysts considered that low, in a country where voting is mandatory and turnout usually exceeds 80 percent.

Just as voters were heading to the polls, they received another reminder of the surge in violence, as the authorities announced that the head of a prison in Manabí, a coastal province that has become a hub for transnational crime, had been killed.

Some proposals from Mr. Noboa’s government that were unrelated to security were voted down on Sunday. Ecuadoreans voted against one that would have legalized hourly employment contracts, which are currently prohibited. Labor unions say employers could use them to undermine workers’ rights and essentially pay lower salaries than the law requires. A proposal that would have allowed international arbitration of commercial disputes was also voted down.

But analysts said the overall result yielded a robust mandate for Mr. Noboa. Ms. González said it would “help the government argue that it needs more time in power to continue with these changes and these reforms in its general fight against organized crime.”

The results of the referendum are binding, and the national assembly has 60 days to pass them into law.

Some analysts said the referendum results had more to do with Mr. Noboa’s popularity than with whether the security measures were likely to be effective.

“We do not vote for the question; rather, we vote for who asked the question,” said Fernando Carrión, who studies violence and drug trafficking at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, a regional research and analysis group.

He added that measures like increasing prison sentences were likely to exacerbate the problems of overcrowding and violence in prisons.

Despite the tumultuous few weeks that preceded the voting, some voters said they were undeterred.

“I am going to vote ‘yes’ in this referendum because I am convinced that it is the only way for Ecuador to have a change, and we can all have a better future,” said Susana Chejín, 62, a resident of the southern city of Loja.

“He is making good changes for the country, to fight crime and drug trafficking,” she said of Mr. Noboa.

Others said they thought the questions on the referendum were not enough to address the country’s insecurity.

“We are still in the vicious circle of focusing on the symptoms and not on the causes,” said Juan Diego Del Pozo, 31, a photographer in Quito. “No question aims to solve structural problems, such as inequality. My vote will be a resounding ‘no’ on every question.”

Thalíe Ponce contributed reporting from Guayaquil, Ecuador, and José María León Cabrera from Quito, Ecuador.

11 charged with racketeering after murders, drugs and firearms trafficking linked to gang

Eleven South Bay men have been accused of racketeering conspiracy involving a series of murders, shootings, and drug and gun distribution linked to the Nortenos street gang, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.   

An indictment unsealed Thursday alleges the men took part in a series of crimes to "promote the aims" of the Salinas Acosta Plaza Nortenos, affiliated with the prison gang Nuestra Familia, prosecutors said.   

"The allegations in the indictment, if proven, describe a group that has a wanton disregard for life and an extreme penchant for violence," U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey said in a press release. "The dozens of crimes outlined in the complaint describe a vicious gang that, for example, uses beatings as a hazing for membership and death as a penalty for trying to leave the group."   

The men are accused of different crimes to financially benefit the gang and prove their loyalty through acts of violence, including eight murders during the last five years, numerous attempted murders, and the firebombing of an apartment.   

But all are solely charged with one count of racketeering, which is used to prosecute organized crime and allows prosecutors to charge offenses as related.   

A conviction on the charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. Nine of the defendants have pleaded not guilty, while the other two are yet to be arraigned, according to court records. 

A pretrial hearing for the nine is scheduled for June 11.   

The 11 defendants, whose ages range from 19 to 38 years old, are being charged with crimes that are alleged to be connected because they were committed to benefit an ongoing criminal enterprise under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO.   

The murder allegations include one that occurred in July 2014 and seven more that occurred between December 2019 and December 2023.   

"The murder victims include people who defendants perceived were associated with rival gangs, transient men, and men perceived to have dropped out of the SAP Nortenos," prosecutors said.   

Some of the defendants were minors when their alleged crimes occurred.   

Prosecutors said the investigation was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security and the Salinas Police Department.

• Getting Results.
• Newsletters

‘Violence and drug trafficking go hand:’ Seminole County sheriff, feds hold briefing on deadly carjacking

Body believed to be florida woman found after carjacking.

SANFORD, Fla. – Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma and federal law enforcement officials held a news conference on Monday detailing how the agencies have worked together to investigate the deadly carjacking that took place earlier this month near Winter Springs.

Lemma and Roger Handberg, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, discussed the state and federal charges the suspects are facing.

“I feel what we witnessed out there with that carjacking, what we witnessed with the murderer are probably symptoms of a larger problem that’s going on that extend well beyond the scope of the 18th Judicial Circuit and the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office,” Lemma said. “We have made the determination to move this case of federally.”

[RELATED: WHO’S WHO? The figures in the brazen Winter Springs carjacking case | TIMELINE: What we know about the carjacking ]

Roger Handberg, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, described the deadly carjacking as a targeted act, and said the crime has led to a targeted local, state, and federal law enforcement investigation.

“We are not limiting our investigation to the carjacking into the murder. Our investigation has been and will continue to be thorough, methodical, comprehensive, meticulous and unrelenting,” Handberg said while standing next to officials from the FBI, DEA, Homeland Security and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

The brazen armed carjacking, which happened in broad daylight on April 11, was captured on video by a motorist at the intersection of East Lake Drive and Tuskawilla Road.

The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said 31-year-old Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas, of Homestead, was stopped at a traffic light in her Dodge Durango when a masked man carrying a 10mm automatic handgun got out of a green Acura and entered her SUV, apparently forcing her to drive off at gunpoint.

A body believed to be Aguasvivas was found less than two hours later in Osceola County, Lemma said, who added that the body has not been positively identified.

Two persons of interest have been arrested in connection with the carjacking and face federal charges.

Kevin Ocasio Justiniano, 28, who goes by the street name “Kevo,” was arrested last week. Previously, Jordanish Torres-Garcia was arrested and said he was paid to “deliver the victim to someone else,” according to a federal affidavit obtained by News 6.

At this time, Ocasio Justiniano is being held without bond on federal drug and gun charges unrelated to the carjacking. He was arrested in Puerto Rico and is expected to be extradited to Central Florida to face charges in the Middle District of Florida.

Torres-Garcia faces federal charges for carjacking resulting in death and is being held without bond. Handberg said if convicted, Torres-Garcia faces a maximum penalty of life in prison or death.

Giovany Crespo Hernandez, who officials believe is the last person to speak with Aguasvivas, is being held without bond on state drug charges. He was arrested on April 22 on fentanyl possession charges days after Lemma announced in a news conference that authorities were searching for him.

In addition, Monicsabel Romero-Soto, who officials said is Crespo Hernandez’s girlfriend, faces federal charges related to accepting delivery of three kilos of cocaine through the U.S. Postal Service after being arrested in Osceola County.

“If we find evidence of a federal violation in the course of our investigation, we’re going to pursue it, such as what we’re doing in the federal case that has been brought against Romero-Soto,” Handberg said.

The case has also taken several twists and turns, including the arrest of an Orange County sheriff’s deputy , the slaying of a tow truck driver in Taft and the fact that Aguasvivas’ family is no longer cooperating with the investigation.

“One reason why we are taking this approach is because of what we have seen in so many other federal prosecutions, which is that violence and drug trafficking go hand in hand,” Handberg said. “The three drug cases that have been charged as part of this investigation in federal and state court, firearms were present in two of them, including a machine gun. Simply put, drug trafficking is dangerous”

Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.

RELATED STORIES

Florida woman missing after brazen carjacking near winter springs believed dead, timeline: here’s what we know so far about the brazen carjacking near winter springs, orange county deputy arrested in connection with brazen carjacking bonds out of jail, ‘she took care of us:’ father remembers daughter believed slain after brazen carjacking.

Recommended Videos

Yost: 6 indicted in human trafficking, drug ring in Columbus

S ix members of a human trafficking and narcotics ring in Columbus are facing dozens of charges following an investigation, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost  announced Tuesday.

The Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force received tips in the spring and began an investigation, which revealed an operation out of the Linden area.

While conducting a search warrant, the task force found suspected narcotics and five firearms.

Yost’s office says the enterprise was led by Timotheus Graham, who used violence to coerce victims.

A Franklin County grand jury indicted the six members on April 24.

Graham was indicted on 26 felony counts including:

• One count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity
• Three counts of trafficking in persons
• Three counts of compelling prostitution
• Three counts of promoting prostitution
• Two counts of trafficking in a fentanyl-related compound
• Two counts of possession of a fentanyl-related compound
• Two counts of trafficking in cocaine
• Two counts of possession of cocaine
• One count of aggravated trafficking in drugs
• One count of aggravated possession of drugs
• One count of money laundering
• Five counts of having weapons under disability

Roxy Porter, 35, was indicted on seven felony counts:

• Engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity
• Trafficking in a fentanyl-related compound
• Possession of a fentanyl-related compound
• Trafficking in cocaine
• Possession of cocaine
• Having weapons under disability
• Money laundering

Denna Mundy, 30, was indicted on eight felony counts:

• Aggravated trafficking in drugs
• Aggravated possession of drugs

Jessica Lyles, 33, was indicted on four felony counts:

• Compelling prostitution
• Promoting prostitution

Sandra Carroll, 59, was indicted on three felony counts:

• Two counts of permitting drug abuse

Mynika Winters, 30, was indicted on two felony counts:

• Permitting drug use

Graham, Carroll, Lyles and Winters are in custody. Porter and Mundy remain at large, according to Yost’s office.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Porter or Mundy is asked to call the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) at 855-BCI-OHIO (855-224-6336).  

Local News: Recent Coverage ⬇️

One year after the stroke: Managing Editor of Crux looks back

After brutal slaying of police officers, chilean bishops stress insecurity.

A man offers his condolences to a Chilean police officer after the brutal slayings of three officers on April 27, 2024. (Credit: Esteban Felix/AP.)

SÃO PAULO, Brazil – In the wake of the brutal slaying of three police officers in Chile, an act that shocked the conscience of the South American nation, the country’s Catholic bishops stressed the themes of violence and public fear in an April 30 meeting with Chilean President Gabriel Boric.

Archbishop René Rebolledo of La Serena, who heads the epsicopal conference, said the encounter began with a mention of the tragic attack and the general insecurity felt by many Chileans.

The murders occurred in the early hours of Apr. 27, on a rural road, as a police car with three carabineros headed to a house to verify that a local resident had complied with precautionary measures decreed by authorities.

Their armored car stopped at some point, and the three men exited in circumstances which are still unclear. They were shot dead and put in the back of their truck, and the criminals who shot them then set their corpses on fire.

The atrociousness of the crime shocked many in Chile, a typically peaceful country where violence has been experiencing unprecedented growth over the past few years. While Chilean violence rates are still lower than those of its neighbors, the number of crimes such as kidnappings and murders have been rapidly increasing, along with drug trafficking.

The tally of homicides in Chile, for instance, rose from 845 in 2018 to 1,322 in 2022.

Boric’s administration has been taking measures to combat violence, raising the budget for security by 5.7 percent in 2024 and passing several laws to increase the penalties for felonies connected to organized crime. Despite that, a survey recently showed that 90 percent of  people believe the government’s actions haven’t stemmed the tide.

The entrance of criminal groups from other South American nations – especially from Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela – is believed to be one of the factors of change in the security scenario in Chile. At the same time, international drug trafficking has been growing all over Latin America, and Chile is no exception.

In the southern part of Chile, threats to security are combined with a decades-old conflict between Indigenous Mapuche groups and the Chilean state over land and autonomy. Some of such movements have been resorting to violent actions, including arson. At times, Catholic churches are targeted and set on fire because they’re seen as landmarks of colonialism.

Over the years, some of those entities also began to take part in crimes like wood theft and drug trafficking, increasing the overall violence in the region.

The killing of the carabineros has been seen by analysts as a turning point in Chile’s security history, having attained an unprecedented degree of violence.

Bishop Juan Ignacio González of São Bernardo, who took part in the meeting with President Boric, said that the encounter began with the subject of the three caribineros’ deaths, given the enormous commotion it caused among the Chilean people.

“We talked about the criminality that has been provoking fear in the population. Our country wasn’t used to that kind of violence,” González told Crux .

He said that violence and immigration are somehow connected, something that can lead to an increasing xenophobia in Chile.

“There are Colombian and Venezuelan criminal groups operating here now. Some of them are involved in serious occurrences,” he added.

When it comes to drug trafficking, Chile used to be a consumer, but over the past few years it became a relevant spot on the map of drug circulation in South America, González described.

“The church always talks about building peace. But the current crisis has deep and complex roots. The police lost its authority in Chile years ago, for several reasons. It’s something difficult to recover now. We’ve been supporting them in that process,” he said.

González said that other themes were discussed with Boric, such as rules that make it difficult for immigrants to get a job and throw them into criminality. The government agreed to review the norms and to make it easier for foreign Catholic missionaries to get into Chile.

Violence, however, remains the dominant concern for many Chileans.

“People have been exposed to violence for a long time. Now, there has been a wave of violent crimes that didn’t use to be normal here. The violence in this particular case is not usual,” Jesuit Father Jorge Costadoat, a professor at the Catholic University of Chile, told Crux .

He said that no previous administration worked so hard to prevent crime as the Boric government, but organized crime is growing all over Latin America.

“That’s a regional phenomenon, something that is especially visible in countries like Ecuador,” he added.

The Chilean Church has played a role in running centers that welcome drug addicts, as well as Catholic activists have been accompanying inmates in prisons and helping them when they leave the penal system.

“But the drug issue is very hard to deal with and to eradicate,” he said.

According to Sister Nelly Leon, who has been working with Santiago inmates for 25 years, “organized crime has changed the landscape when it comes to felonies.”

“Ten years ago, crimes were not so violent like that one. Cruelty and violence are everywhere now,” Leon told Crux .

She said that it’s more difficult now to deal with crime, given that the situation is more complex and involves international gangs.

“The solution is not something like deploying the military to patrol the streets, a recurring idea among some social groups. We need more intelligence and technology in order to detect and detain the criminals,” she said.

In her opinion, it’s noteworthy that so many criminal activities have been happening in the southern part of Chile and the police still haven’t been able to detain the groups in charge of them.

“I think there are many more interests behind such crimes in the south. The people in charge are not only a few Indigenous groups,” she said.

For the cost of a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you can help keep the lights on at Crux.

Tuesdays on

Crux . Anytime . Anywhere .

Today’s top stories delivered straight into your inbox.

Lawyer for scandal-plagued group denies harassment of peasant farmers

• Elise Ann Allen

Jesuits in Bolivia deny ‘systematically covering up’ clerical abuse

• Eduardo Campos Lima

Peru farmers meet Lima archbishop amid dispute with Catholic group

Colombian bishops call day of prayer as part of ‘silent service’ for peace

• Charles Collins

Australian bishops approve new Aboriginal liturgy

Florida lawsuit claims Biden administration regulations ‘fundamentally redefine the practice of medicine’

• John Lavenburg

Jesuit Refugee Service looks at years of abuse at UK detention centers

For second time in a month, weapons detected at a papal event

Catholics in South Sudan voice ‘frustration, shock’ for missing priest and driver

• Ngala Killian Chimtom

March for Life takes place in Ireland amid ‘soaring’ abortion rates