Teenage Drug Smugglers and the Mexican Cartels - Research Paper Example

Teenage Drug Smugglers and the Mexican Cartels Introduction Drug cartels and drug traffickers have over the years been establishing their scopes of operation and have managed to reach out and spread their boundaries across country borders. By doing so, such cartels have ended up implicating the agencies in charge of law enforcement as well as resulting in more political, economic and human losses despite the efforts from the governments and other authorities to fight against cartels. The most affected region is the U.S-Mexico border which has been noted to be adapting a new trend in drug smuggling. The recent past has witnessed more and more teenagers being involved in the smuggling trade with more still at risk of being recruited by the Mexican cartels. Statistics from the federal agencies have it that an alarming number of teenagers involved in smuggling have been arrested in areas such as San Ysidro this year as they try to make their way to U.S. Different cartels now involve teenagers in drug smuggling, recruiting them from both United States and Mexico at the age as young as 12 years and are being used as drug mules. The cartels target kids outside arcades, schools and malls with the most notorious region being Poway, South Bay and Mountain Empire. Social media such as Facebook have also been identified as some of the other areas where teenagers are easily enticed into drug smuggling. During smuggling, a teen can carry approximately six kilos of drugs and they mostly hide them under their clothes. This is normally for a minimum amount of money of about $300, yet the smuggling process is so risky and incomparable to such payments. Teens are the ones mostly targeted by the cartels as they cannot get into serious trouble with the authorities since they are minors. The authorities have come out strongly dismissing this belief as being misleading, as teens have been arrested with drugs such as hard narcotics with more than 200 teens under the age of 18 have been arrested this year while smuggling drugs across the Mexican border. Marijuana has been identified as the main drug being trafficked using teenagers. The cartels have now shifted and are recruiting more teenage girls than boys. This change of choice has been associated with the dressing of the girls who are normally in tight tops and skinny jeans. The teens hide the drugs under their clothes in such away that untrained individuals would not suspect anything. Due to the harsh measures against the smuggling of drugs especially across border countries, most of the cartels have settled on using teenagers to smuggle drugs. This has led to political, economic and human tolls in different societies where this smuggling is active. The human, economic and political costs of this drug trade that has been rendered illegal have resulted in different challenges to the agencies in charge of law enforcement now that the fight has shifted from being just national to being international, yet the war on drugs within nations has not yet been won. This paper is seeks to discuss the politics, human and economic dissension related to the manner in which laid down laws fight the operations of the Mexican cartels, especially their latest trend of recruiting Mexican as well as American children into drug smuggling. Economics, Politics, and Human Dissension with Law Enforcement Agencies The numbers associated with the killings related to drug smuggling in different Mexican border towns are approximated to be over 10,000. This is an alarming number to both the authorities and the cartels (Lyman, 2011). As the agents consider this number as to mean increased cases of smuggling, the cartels take this as a challenge to come up with better ways of evading the law. The law enforcement agencies have come up with more sophisticated methods to deal with drug smuggling while the cartels have settled for teenagers to be mules of the trade. The two “rivalry” groups have impacted the economy, human and political aspects in different ways. The proximity of US has been an issue of concern to the agencies; most of the streets in the United States have been turned into prime estate forming markets for drugs. Such streets have consequently turned around to be battle grounds, a good example being between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels and mostly involving teenagers as they are the ones on the ground (Abadinsky, 2010). In such war areas, the institutions in charge of maintaining order and law have been considered as being unwilling or not strong enough to perform their duties. Following agencies’ failures, most of those involved in this illegal trade end up getting away unpunished. This is closely associated with corruption involving police force members being implicated in drug smuggling and other organized crimes. The consequence is an impunity climate where the cartels intimidate and extort citizens, harass them and violently eliminate those who go against their rule or become a threat. Though Mexico has been identified as being the most notorious nation when it comes to the trade in drugs, the issue has turned international and its effects are being felt by all countries involved cutting across the transit countries, growers and to the consumers. The mostly affected country is the United States. Several government officials such as the police chiefs and mayors have been convicted of being involved with the drug cartels from Mexico. The most common case is the arrest that took place in Columbus, involving a police chief and the mayor of Columbus. The two were charged with trafficking 400 guns in association with the Mexican drug cartels (Schmalleger, 2011). Several drug cartels have also come out strongly, trying to infiltrate the agencies responsible for law enforcement, who try to interfere with narcotics being shipped into Mexico. Statistics have it that approximately 150 customs from US together with Border Protection agents have been found guilty of several offences related to corruption with more than 800 charges still pending. The drug cartels have managed to gain influence as well as power in both Mexico and United States and this can clearly depict their sway in other regions with weaker local institutions and few opportunities. The cartels have gone to the extent of having the farmers abandon their land to pave the way for palm-oil plantation that are mostly used in the smuggling of cocaine (Beith, 2010). The police in most areas have remained bystanders opting not to interfere with the intimidation from the cartels. This has led to the increase in cocaine trade as the farming of other crops has been negatively affected. The cartels enjoy impunity and power relation as the official authorities are faced with corruption and are incapable in the duties. This affects the local society and economy as the locals resolve to desperate means to adjust to the situation at hand. In most cases, most locals resort to joining the cartels now that they are the ones who run the town and they get away with almost everything. The existing policies enacted to deal with drug smuggling have proved to be ineffective, calling for the need for change. The involvement of the military in the war on drugs resulted in a colossal disaster leading to an increased social disintegration. Mexico is now being regarded as a failed state. The enormous surge of drugs has been associated closely with the interference of free trade policies that have been behind the economic growth. A massive migration of citizens was experienced from the regions where individuals were pushed away as they could not compete with the agricultural products that were subsidized, coming from the United States (Lee 2012). Most of the factories and plants in Mexico were also affected with a good number being boarded up and shifted to China, yet most of the young men depended on such factories and plants as their main source of income. The situation left young men with no option but to join drug cartels being the only available means of upward mobility and sources of income. The implication of this is that the once existing free trade had a disastrous effect on the national economy and resulted in vast recruit pull for drug smuggling. The $1.4 billion aid that was given to the Calderon administration aiming to intensify its military operation made the situation in the country even worse (Vulliamy, 2010). The citizens came out in large numbers demanding for security, jobs and social programs as the government responded with state repression, checkpoints and crackdowns. Drug smuggling in Mexico and across its borders has turned out to be a source of deeper social issues, grinding poverty, widespread corruption in politics, soaring unemployment and the public losing its confidence in the government. The same situation is in the US: its policies on drugs have not changed for the past forty years. They are all out to look for those involved, arrest them and have them behind bars. This has left many people to develop the notion that the war on drugs only entails control and not doing away with it. The policies have to take into consideration those who are at stake: the ground men who are in most cases left to bear the burden, and the kingfish who are normally politically connected and remain untouchable with agents in the intelligence agencies, the banks, the government and the military (Grillo, 2012). As the policies fight hard to wipe out the grounds men, the main players continue to get stronger. If the trend continues like this, most, if not all, of the streets, drug corridors as well as the borders will be controlled by the cartels. When the violence dies down in the streets, governments proclaim themselves as the victors, yet the flow of drugs across borders continues. The criminalization and outlawing of drugs following the war against drugs has resulted in price surge. The cartels have got to the point that they trade in anything and have their way without limitations. They have the ability to acquire any weapons they require from the free firearm market across the border. Measures to Be Put in Place Following the great impact of drug smuggling on different human, social, political and economic aspects of the society, the authorities and communities have come up with different solutions, trying to curb this menace. In the past, the main strategy has been the elimination of kingpins behind the drug cartels. This was normally done with the hope that such efforts will check on the violence. However, the way in which the smuggling process has been arranged leaves the main players behind the violence to be the junior leaders who take part in the power struggle that involves violence fighting for the spoils left behind by the former leaders. The younger generations are the ones mainly involved in the fights with most of them getting killed or ending up in prison. The government dealt with the limiting capacity issue through involving the armed forces in the war on drugs, and this included the Special Forces in an effort to combat the cartels. This step, however, has been considered as being a step backward in relation to the relation between the civil and the military. Even the introduction of the armed forces did not help so much as they were also involved in corruption which was an initial problem the country was facing with its authorities. The cartels have managed to corrupt both middle and high military ranked officials as well as to gain access to the army weapons (White, 2011). This added up to the reality that the cartels went as far as buying off politicians, thus influencing the election results to ensure that the leaders in position were friendlier to their operations. Most of the political contenders, who seemed to be against the cartels operations, are normally attacked, forced to step down or murdered. The military is known for dealing with security implications that are deeply rooted and related to social, political and economic underpinnings. This implies that the military was out to deal with most active participants in drug smuggling, yet the individuals whom they came across were mere providers. The humanity risk associated with the military intervention is that most of the gang members are below the age of 20 years and they will be made the cannon fodder in the war, yet they have just been used as pawns (De Cordoda, 2009). Such gang members are easily replaced as more are being killed, but this does not in any away help in controlling the trade. There are traditional social and economic issues that have been facing the drug smuggling practices for so many years to the extent that they are impossible to deal with. One of such issues is corruption associated with limited opportunities and poor governance. Contrary to this backdrop, the trade in drugs offers a patronage system as well as a lucrative market resulting in spoils which are the main reasons behind the war and rivalry (Walter, 2010). The money involved in drug smuggling doubles the countries’ budget indicating how much is at stake in this trade. Some politicians have also come up with suggestions that the trade be legalized so that the gang powers are undercut in association with the huge profits, denying them the market control (Grayson, 2010). As the municipal together with the federal authorities and agents fight over what they believe to be right or wrong according to the law, both adults and teenagers continue selling buying and consuming drugs (Gibler, 2011). To help in controlling the upcoming trend of using teenagers as the ground men, agents have come up with special programs meant to reach out to schools to warn the teenagers on the dangers associated with drug smuggling. Such programs also include the parents who are warned to always be aware and alert of their children’s financial position. Conclusion The Mexico-U.S border has been identified to be the most notorious when it comes to drugs smuggling across nations. The region has experienced a new trend with the teenagers being used as the main traffickers now that they are minors and the law seems to be lenient on them. This has resulted in more teenagers being recruited with even more of them standing at a risk of being recruited. The trade in drugs has resulted in several political, social and economic effects in the society where this trade takes place, and this has been strongly associated with the failures of the agents in charge with law enforcement. The war on drugs has resulted in more social issues, corruption among politicians and other government officials, increased poverty and unemployment. The laws and principles that have been put in place, as well as the strategies used by the authorities in dealing with the trade have proved to be outdated and inappropriate. This has led to the drug cartels to have their way expanding the trade to any market destination they wish to. The large sums of money and the political involvement are the main factors behind the way the trade has managed to evade the arms of the law in so many years. References Abadinsky, H. (2010). Organized crime (9thEd.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Beith, M. (2010). The last narco. New York: Grove Press. De Cordoda, J. (2009). Latin American Panel calls U. S. drug war a failure. The Wall Street Journal. Gibler, J. (2011). To die in Mexico: Dispatches from the inside the drug war. City Lights Books ( p. 190). Grayson, G. (2010). Mexico: Narco-violence and a failed state? (p. 4). Transaction Publishers. Grillo, L. (2012). El Narco: The bloody rise of Mexican drug cartels. New Jersey: Bloomsbury Publishing . Lee, R. (2012). The Mexican drug war (2006–present). The History Guy. Retrieved 18 Nov 2012. Lyman, M. D. (2011). Drugs in society: Causes, concepts and control (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Anderson Publishing. Schmalleger, F. (2011). Criminology today: An interactive introduction. Upper Saddle River. Vulliamy, E. (2010). Amexica: War along the borderline. New York: Bodley Head Walter, S. (2010). Sense and nonsense about crime, drugs and communities (pp. 313–314). Cengage Learning. White, J. (2011). Terrorism & homeland security (pp. 98–100). Cengage Learning. Read More