Home | Columns | Media Watch | Reports | Links | About Us | Contact

MEXIDATA . INFO
Column 050310 Brewer

Monday, May 3, 2010

Mexico as Part of Narco-terrorists Ideology of Greed

By Jerry Brewer

As a death toll continues to mount significantly from escalating

violence and mayhem, yet criminal proceeds soar beyond
those of traditional industries, does a nation consider stopping
the fight and nationalizing it?

If so, the laws and strategies originally in place designed to

destroy it cease being recognized as anything other than crime
at all. As a culture matures to the presence of a formidable
organized criminal influence of great power and wealth, the
external threat appears more ominous than the internal threat.

What eventually occurs both internally and externally is the

exploitative nature of the illicit contraband. This exploitation
becomes graphically visible in the safety of the streets, and in
the readiness or abilities of police, government and the courts
to respond in a timely and effective manner. Too, the culture
faces a myriad of moral challenges, manifested in the behavior
of youth, honesty in government, and the price paid for their
homes.

Armies and their weaponry have destabilized nations

throughout history. However, an enemy that flies no flag but
ruthlessly mounts transnational assault for massive profits with
superior firepower that easily matches or even surpasses
military capabilities is a global threat to mankind.

In the case of Mexico drug trafficking organizations (DTOs)

supply the demand for illegal narcotics, plus they are involved
in other related criminal activities.

The awesome endeavor of meeting the demands and

challenges that confront DTOs to continue to reap the billions
of U.S. dollars in revenue from supply, is a continuing
revolving door of risk. Bulk profits must flow unimpeded back
to the trafficking organizations. This currency must find its way
via much more complex and twisted routes and venues than
the commodity itself.

Facilitators of this process must be paid along all channels,

from growers/producers, transporters, the warehousing, and
even police and government officials. Logistics must be
constantly updated and strengthened, new smuggling routes
strategized, and rivals eliminated. The final dollars reach the
top of the DTO’s organized criminal hierarchy as the final stop,
and in most instances this money will need to be laundered in
actual or seemingly legitimate business/industry. Some of it
may even be invested in communities.

The narco dollar never really comes to rest. The criminal

interdiction and successful policing of the narcotics trade
therefore must follow the dollars among people to the
organizational hierarchy of leadership/management. That
route is always the direction to the source of final destination,
minus the intentional turns and curves of inherent deception,
personal security, and even electronic assistance. This much
like a terrorist/assassin who knows that it is easy to attack their
personal target once their place of residence and place of
employment is known and they remain predictable between
the two locations.

Let’s face it realistically and factually, most narcotics

interdiction is directed at commodity. It appears to be about
seizure because that has value — it is visible and has impact
for the media, and it is exciting to see bulks of seized drugs.

The fact is that narcotics can’t be controlled at the borders. If

you took all of the drugs in the world and placed them in a
single location, you would have nothing but a huge mound of
eventual decay. You can’t put it in jail or question it about its
handlers. The problem is with people and it leads to the top of
the pyramid of conspirators.

Conspiracy is believed to be as old as the beginning of

mankind. The first conspirators were believed to simply be a
man, a woman, and a reptile; the first item of contraband was
the apple. The arrest and conviction superseded the need to
warehouse or exploit the fruit.

When strategizing against commodity you see the obvious

route and link that leads from grower/manufacturer to the
consumer. Therefore, production at its source must be an
integral part of the enforcement-based strategy, as well as the
abilities to reduce demand. All in between that equation is the
hell or purgatory that results in murder with impunity, torture,
and the blood-stained illicit product for sale.

What steps must continue to induce source-country foreign

governments to stop producing, and halt/curtail drug product?
Diplomacy must not fail. Diplomatic, military, and intelligence
strategies play key strategic roles in this theater of operations.

There remains an ever-growing push for quantity and quality of

product that culminates in yet greater wealth and power for
some at the expense of many. Pessimism in this light is well-
founded. The only limitations appear to be the limitations on
their own ingenuity.

——————————
Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International
Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in
Northern, Virginia. His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.
jbrewer@cjiausa.org