The US-Mexico Border Flow of Illicit Drugs - Essay Example

341649 The US-Mexico Border Flow of Illicit Drugs 0 Introduction 10 Background Study The U.S-Mexico border which is 2,000-miles has been presenting several challenges to the fight against illicit drugs getting into the United States market. The border has 43 legal crossing points while the rest is composed of several miles of open land, mainly desert, several rugged mountains as well as other physical impediments to surveillance. This makes it easier for the traffickers of the illicit drugs to get them into the US market. Since the 1970s, the US has tried to provide assistance through collaboration with the Mexican authorities for counter-narcotics activities and programs which help in curbing this illegal business. The major aim of this cooperation has been to create disruption for illicit drugs market in order to make the situation more difficulty for the illegal traffickers to manufacture and traffic the drugs to the US. The US has been providing the Mexican authorities with some projects and programs such as interdiction of shipment of cocaine which comes from South America, stemming the manufacture and carrying of opium poppy and marijuana. In addition to this it has come up with a program of controlling precursor chemicals employed in methamphetamine production (Los Angeles Times). Mexico, over the years, had decided to curb the problem with no support from the US. This sensitivity of national sovereignty created difficulties for the two nations to establish good coordination for the counter narcotics operations. Later in early 1990s there was some improved cooperation while in 1998, the two countries concluded this by signing the Bi-national drug Control Strategy. They have kept on cooperating to curb the flow of drugs across the border despite the challenges experienced (Luis). 1.20 Problem Statement Despite the fact that the two countries have been putting so much effort to fight the flow of drugs from or through Mexico to United States of America through the US-Mexico border, thousands of tons of illegal drugs have still been flowing from Mexico into the USA every year. There have been fewer cases of reported seizures of this illicit business in the border over the past years. 1.30 Justification Several challenges that the counter-narcotics face have prevented it from achieving its goals. One of the major problems is good cooperation and co-ordination between the two country's authorities. Creating this link would help to over come some of the barriers created in this war. This research seeks to find out some of the major challenges posses which prevent the authorities from attaining a zero tolerance to trafficking of drugs across the border and the solutions to them. 1.40 Hypothesis Being aware of the challenges and problems faced in the war against the flow of drugs across the border would help in understanding how to overcome them and eventually winning the fight against this vice. 1.50 Objectives 1. To find out whether the illegal drug have still been flowing to US across the border without being seized. 2. To find out the reasons why this drugs are flown in without being noticed by the counter-narcotics and the authorities 3. To suggest what the authorities of the two countries should do to improve the situation. 2.0 Literature Review There have been several efforts made by both authorities to cease the flow of illicit drugs. In 2000, the Mexican Authorities reported that the average amount of cocaine coming into Mexico which intention of transshipment into the United States of America has been estimated to be about 290 metric tons. The amount reported to have been seized in the US-Mexico Border is about 36 metric tons that year. The amount of quality marijuana as well as heroin manufactured in Mexico the same year is estimated to be about 9,400 metric tons per year for marijuana and about 19 metric tons for heroine. Reported seizures for marijuana is said to be about 2,900 metric tons for a year while for heroine, it is estimated to be less than 1 metric per year since year 2000 (Spencer and Joby). In the year 2005 despite the fact that the amount of methamphetamine produced in Mexico is not well illustrated, some relevant sources within the border indicates that the seizures along the borer have gone up right from about 500 kilograms in 2000 to almost 2,800 kilograms. This amount is said to have short up to 2,700 kilograms in 2006. But as par the US officials, this amount is more than the actual amount shown as having been produced in Mexico thus indicating a sharp rise in supply (Nuevo). Report by Stop the Drug War indicate that corruption has over the years persisted in the Mexican Authorities thus giving major challenge to the government's effort to contain production of drugs and their trafficking into the nearby United States of America. In addition, the Mexican drug trafficking organizations run with some impunity within the Mexico-US border as well as in some other parts of Mexico. This has led to the expansion of the illegal business to almost all parts of the United States of America( Marosi). The US, since year 2000 has been putting tireless efforts in trial to assist Mexico to strengthen its ability to curb this illegal business of drug production as well as trafficking. US efforts include training of thousands of Mexican law enforcement agencies as well as taking control over the chemicals employed in manufacture of methamphetamine. But there has also been much calling of the cooperation with the Mexican authorities over these matters. Since 2005, there has been general agreement between the two countries pertaining the permission of the US law enforcement agencies to inspect Mexican-flagged vessels thought to be traffickers of these illicit drugs along the high seas as well as establishing an aerial program for monitoring the US border which was suspended after the two countries could not agree on some particular personnel status matters. In addition to these, there has been problem regarding the state-provided Vietnam-era choppers which have proved to be quit expensive as well as being hard to maintain in addition to being unavailable for running. A surveillance program supported by the state was dropped because of insufficient financial resources as well as altered priorities (Marosi). In 2006, some counter narcotics agencies including ONDCP and other US agencies, in responding to a mandate of the congress established some strategies to assist in curbing or reducing the flow of the illicit drugs getting into the US from Mexico. The agencies prepared an implementation strategy but up to date it is still being looked into before tackling particular initiatives undertaken recently by Mexico. Most of the proposals made to curb this situation have called for the corporation of Mexico but there is also the need for the Mexican authorities to speed up their review for fast enactment of this program. 3.0 Research methodology 3.10 Data Collection The information for this research was obtained from secondary materials such as reports, articles and journals established about the fight against drugs in the US-Mexico border. Different data was obtained fro these references and analyzed and the relevant report prepared. I was able to obtain the following information pertaining this illegal business. 3.20Results and Analysis There is a lot of threat posed by the Mexican drug production and trafficking from Mexico to the US since year 2000. The United States National Drug control Strategy is given the mandate of reducing the illegal drug abuse in the United States of America. Its major priority has been to try to spoil the market place of the illegal rugs. Most of the cocaine meant for the United States of America comes from Mexico. The US on the other hand has provided the Mexican authorities with over $397 million to assist them in efforts to cub the situation. The National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has tried to disrupt the flow of the illicit drug from Mexico into the US through cooperating with the Mexican authorities to create substantial disruption of the illicit drugs into the United States of America (Jeffrey). The United States interagency counter narcotics society is composed of the central intelligence Agency's crime and Narcotics center, Defense department, Office of Intelligence Agency's counter narcotics trafficking, the joint staff of the defense department as well as the counter narcotics deputy assistance secretary of Defense. Other offices include that of the department of justice drug enforcement administration, the federal Bureau of Investigation, the section of the narcotic and dangerous drug section, the organized crime and drug enforcement task force (U.S Drug Enforcement Administration). According to Hanson, in effort to establish good cooperation with the Mexican authorities, the US counter narcotics agencies led by ONDCP traveled to Mexico to review several estimates of illegal production of drugs and the relevant seizures as well as disruptions made by the interagency counter narcotics society. It has also been found that some about three quarters of the drugs from south America to the United States of America were made to go through Mexico and then into the States via the US-Mexico border in the year 2000. In the year 2006, this estimates shot up to about 90 per cent. An estimate of about 220 metric tons of cocaine reached Mexico in 2000 while in 2006; an estimated 300 metric tons arrived in the same town for transportation into the United States via the Border (Howard). One of the major problems encountered in fighting the war on drug trafficking in Mexico been corruption within the law enforcement agencies. Despite the fact that the country has initiated several strategies to curb corruption such as reshuffling the police force and carrying out serious research and necessary investigations, corruption is still conspicuous within the authorities thus creating a major challenge for the government to stage a major fight with organized gangs who protect the traffickers as well as trial to curb the trafficking of the illicit drugs via the US-Mexico border (GAO). To some extend, the United States of America has helped Mexico to produce some positive despite the fact that it has not fully implemented some of its goals to drop the rate of drugs flow from or through the Mexico border into its market. Some of these include the following: The United States have corroborated with the Mexican Authorities to extradite the traffickers of the illegal drugs. Some 63 drug traffickers were handed over by the Mexican Authorities to the United States o America Authorities in early 2006 while in mid 2006; some more 68 criminals including some of the major traffickers were transferred to the States (Ellingwood). The US technical support has assisted the Mexican authorities to carry out more open and transparent system of drug trafficking criminals trials. This has helped to strengthen the rule of law in the country as well as its control over the importation and marketing of drugs and chemicals that are employed in manufacture of methamphetamine. Both the United States of America and the Mexican authorities have established a strong cooperation to counter laundering of money in Mexico despite the fact that the country is lacking the proper legal system to create aggressive seizure of the assets of the involved traffickers of illicit drugs within the country and across the border. The US through its infrastructural support as well as training has assisted the Mexican Law enforcement agencies in interdicting illegal drugs in the country (Ellingwood). Despite the Effort by the United States to assist the Mexican authorities to curb the situation and strengthen the Mexican counter narcotics, there has been some posed challenges due to improper cooperation as well as coordination between the two countries; Despite the fact that the Mexican Navy has responded on the information provided by the U.S relating to maritime vessels suspected of ferrying illegal drugs, It has some limitations in its capacity to respond on several vessels since it is unable to go beyond 200 nautical miles from the shore if it is not granted permission. The United States in several cases is not in a position to take action before the evidence is damaged or the vessel carrying the illegal drugs is destroyed since the current demand that Mexican authorities allow boarding on a case-by-case basis takes quite time to be implemented. Since the US and Mexico could not reach an agreement on particular personnel status matters regarding the aerial surveillance program along the two country's' border, the program was put on hold. This made the U.S law enforcement agencies report some indications of rise in trafficking of the illicit drugs. Further more, a helicopter border surveillance program had no requirements of the office of the attorney general, it was stopped after its delivery of the 12 out f the possible 28 choppers provided. Some years back, in 1998, some helicopters given to the Mexican army by the US army failed due to poor maintenance eventually were returned to the (US Drug war chronicle). 4.0 Conclusion Most of the illicit drugs used in the United States comes through Mexico or is produced there. Although there have been several efforts by both the United States of America and Mexican authorities to curb this situation, there is still a high number of these drugs which flows through the border into the US market. The rate of flow of these illicit drugs has been going up over the years since the year 2000. The US through its counter narcotics agencies has tried to a bigger percentage to help Mexico to curb the entire situation or reduce the flow of these drugs (Conan). Despite the fact the United States did not achieve some of its goal of cutting the drugs flow from Mexico via the border into its market, its assistance has produced some favorable results. Despite the fact that the Mexican authorities are trying to fight the production and trafficking of illicit drugs from or through the country, there are still several challenges facing the fight against illicit drugs production and trafficking in the country (BBC News). Corruption within the Mexican law enforcement agencies as emerged as one of the major challenges facing the authority's efforts. Corporation between the US counter narcotics agencies and the Mexican has helped the fight against the production and trafficking of the illegal drugs but there still are several hiccups as far as the two countries corporation is concerned. There are some differences between the two countries which need to be resolved to enhance good cooperation hence improve on the war along the border (Bartletti ). 5.0 Recommendations The major challenge for the Mexican authorities to win this war would be first to fight corruption within its law enforcement agencies. There is also need for proper cooperation as well as coordination between the two countries (New York Times Company). There is a major need for ONDCP in conjunction with the United States counter narcotics community to make proper coordination with the Mexican authorities before laying out any other strategy in order to assist any relevant cooperation between the Mexican authorities and the relevant initiatives which would need its assistance. The interagency society should be fully engaged in all operations with the Mexican counterparts (Baker Institute Policy Report). There is need for the United States to achieve its goal of reducing the rate of flow of the illegal drugs through or from Mexico. Work Cited Baker institute Policy Report. 2009. Developing the US-Mexico Border Region for a Prosperous and Secure relationship, December 2, 2009, accessed on December 2, 2009 < http://academia-research.com/files/instr/341649_Border_Devel_Plan2009.pdf > Bartletti, Don. Narcocorridos. July 30, 2008, accessed on December 2, 2009. BBC News. Q&A: Mexico's drug-fuelled violence, 24 June 2009, accessed on December 2, 2009. New York Times Company. Mexican Drug Trafficking. Nov 28 2009, accessed on December 2, 2009 Spencer, Hsu and Joby, Warrick. Stepping up Response to Mexican Drug Violence March 25, 2009, accessed on December 2, 2009. Stop the Drug War. Feature: A Perfect Storm on the US-Mexican Border as Drug and Immigration and Terror Wars Converge April 28, 2006, accessed on December 2, 2009 U.S Drug Enforcement Administration. Drug Trafficking in the United States, Aug. 21, 2009 , accessed on December 2, 2009 Read More