Mexican Drug Trafficking Essay

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Background

Drug trafficking is the most lucrative and well-known criminal enterprise in the world of crime. The definition of drug trafficking is a global illegal business trade that involves the production, distribution, and sale of substances that are forbidden by law. Despite several attempts by U.S. law enforcement and border authorities, the problem of drugs entering the United States from Mexico through the Southwest border is not new, but it is dangerous, and it continues every day. An analysis of drug trafficking at the Southwest border found that Mexican TCOs continue to dominate the U.S. drug market and remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the United States; no other group is currently positioned to challenge them. The …show more content…

The data also demonstrates that these TCOs retain and increase their power by holding smuggling routes along the Southwest border, which are highly profitable, and by forming economic partnerships with other criminal organizations. These criminal groups have trafficked heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and, increasingly, the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Mexico and the United States share a nearly 2,000-mile border, and the two countries have historically had significant trading, cultural, and demographic links. The stability of Mexico is vital to the United States, and the form and level of violence in Mexico has been of particular concern to the United States Congress. Mexico's horrific drug-trafficking-related violence has been marked by beheadings, public …show more content…

Traffickers use a variety of strategies to avoid being detected at the border by U.S. law enforcement. They include smuggling drugs into the United States through underground tunnels, concealing them in vehicles or marine vessels, or flying them over border barriers using drones or other aircraft. Local organizations and street gangs control retail distribution in cities across the nation after Mexican drug traffickers smuggle wholesale shipments of drugs into the country. Recent Mexican administrations have predominantly used security personnel to combat cartels, which frequently leads to increased violence. Although marijuana continues to be the most often used illicit drug, authorities are growing more concerned about the U.S. opioid epidemic. The most recent data demonstrate a high rate of heroin use in the United States, as well as rising overdose deaths linked to heroin and other opioids. At the same time, there has been an increase in the availability of heroin, which has been fueled by a number of factors, including an upsurge in the production and trafficking of heroin by Mexican criminal

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