Introduction
Drug trafficking is a worldwide concern, especially in the United States. Statistics show that 38,000 deaths in America every year are due to drug abuse (Benson., 2011). Latin America is the leading supplier of illicit drugs in the world. It is actively involved in the drug cultivation, production, and marketing. Some of the drug crops produced in Latin include opium poppy which is used to make the opiates and coca bush used in the production of cocaine. The coca bush is mainly cultivated in the Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia. Colombia and Mexico grow opium poppy. Seelke et al., (2010) documents that most of these drugs are smuggled to Venezuela and United States where consumption remains high. The term "narco-terrorism" was developed by President Belaunde Terry in 1983 when a Peruvian police were attacked with people who used tactics that resembled those used by terrorists.
Connection between drug trafficking and threat to national security
Drug trafficking is a vice that poses threats to national security of a country. Terrorism and drug trafficking most of the time is considered to be different, but there is a connection between drug trafficking and terrorism. A lot of similarities exist between drug trafficking and terrorist attacks. The terrorist groups and drug cartel use advanced technology in their communication so to avoid arrest. Further, they are both involved in criminal activities such as killing and human smuggling. Also, they evade paying taxes and hide their source of income by using money laundering methods. The goal of both the drug traffickers and terrorists is to commit violence and crime and also they are prone to infiltration. The terrorists always work with the drug traffickers to achieve their objectives. However, drug cartels aim is to make profits. A discrepancy occurs when terrorist are ready to sacrifice their lives in the process of causing violent acts to people to get their message herd (Hatelius.,2008).
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Drug trafficking has lead to increase in violent acts such as terrorism in the United States soil making it a top priority in the concerns of U.S foreign policy. The September 2011 terrorist attack forced the United States to intensify its anti-drug policy as it suspected it to be a case of narco-terrorism. Some of the illegal drugs produced and transported from Latin America include Marijuana, Cocaine, methamphetamine, and opiates. Drug trafficking generates a lot of money to the terrorist groups which enable them to accomplish their inhuman acts. Terrorists have the capacity to corrupt government officials in countries where the drugs originate and where there is a market. Hence slip through unnoticed within the security apparatus. The Latin America drug trafficking organizations (DTO) are usually from Mexico and Colombia. These DTOs operate in West Africa, Europe among other regions. The greatest threat to the security of the United States according to the U.S Department of Justice is the Mexican drug trafficking cartels (Seelke et al.,2010). The most common criminal DTOs of Mexican origin that extend their operations in the United States include Familia and Los Zetas (De Amicis.,2010).
Reports indicate that high prevalence of crime rates in the Latin America and Caribbean regions. Some of the violent acts reported to be on the rise in these regions by UNODC includes homicides, assaults, kidnapping. Although socio-economical factors play a role in these crimes, however, drug trafficking is the major contributor to crime and violence that has witnessed in these regions in the recent past.
Most of the crimes in Latin America occur in the regions where drug production is carried out such as Colombia and the transit routes such as Mexico. The crimes in the DTO is to a large extent instigated by corruption, drug traffickers wanting to control some transit routes. Violence is a key feature in most of the DTOs. Violence is not a new concept in the United States but, drug-related violence is of a higher threshold (Beittel.,2011). Mexico has witnessed a lot of drug-related violence which has affected the military, journalist, and Americans (Seelke et al.,2010). The American government has been concerned with the rise in violence in Mexico has it can extend to America (Seelke et al.,2010). The crime in Mexico has moved from acute to chronic stages. The drug trafficking organizations are committing brutal acts on the Mexicans an also the Americans. In 2010, the DTOs killed a lot of the public servants of Mexican origin 12 mayors. They have also attacked people using the car bombs. Many people now believe that the DTO has transformed into terrorists. Others think that the DTOs are crime groups that are using the techniques used by the terrorists. The attack an killing of three people who have links with the US Consulate based in Mexico made the U.S has to start getting concerned about its security as insecurity in form of narco-terrorism rose in adjacent neighbor, Mexico. The drug rehabilitation centers have also been under attack and teenagers attending parties have been killed. The DTO also kills anyone who refuses to help them in transporting the drugs across the borders. One such DTO is the Los Zeta which smuggles human beings and uses them to traffic drugs (Beittel.,2011).
In the last twenty years, U.S Federal law enforcement has dealt with the increased number of organized crimes. The perpetrators of criminal acts have changed the way they carry out their operations. The problem has further been worsened by globalization that has lead to the adoption of advanced technology in both the legal an illegal business operation. The criminals use information technology in most of their activities. This has enabled the drug cartels in either Mexico or Colombia to transport their drugs without being noticed as their presence is not needed. For instance, the FBI group known as Black Eagle identified an Albania based drug cartel who were planning to secretly ship 100 kilograms of heroin into the United States through Turkey to Albania by hiding the drugs in a container containing furniture whose destination was the United States. The cartel was also involved in other criminal activities such as stealing retail goods, illegal gambling an stealing and selling of pharmaceutical drugs (Blelopera & Finklea.,2012).
The fight against organized crime including drug trafficking has been in the realm of the U.S law enforcement after the terrorist attack that occurred in the U.S on September 11, 2001.
Assess the ability of the U.S agencies and foreign partners to address coordinating counternarcotics operations by comparing the counternarcotics efforts and their impact on the United States of two different countries
The United States in conjunction with other organization has been fighting the trafficking of illicit drugs for over ten years. The anti-drug policy was initiated in the Unite States in the mid 1970s by the then president Nixon (Youngers & Rosin.,2005). According to President Nixon, drug abuse was "public enemy number one in the United States." The United States is motivated to fight illicit drugs in Latin America and the Caribbean because it interferes with its interest in these regions. The US also advanced its anti-drugs policy to Afghanistan because of its link with Taliban. The United States anti-illicit drugs programs were started by the United States in 1970 and has since consumed over billions of dollars. The programs aim to prevent the entry to the United States of the illicit drugs from Latin America. The programs are mainly major in halting some of the illegal drugs or reducing the supply of the illegal narcotics such as eliminating some crops like the coca plants. The fight has faced challenges such as the traffickers coming up with new production techniques and also anti-detection methods which derails the fight (Seelke et al., 2010).
The United States and Mexico
The United States and Mexico have worked together on the fight against drug abuse as a way of removing the security threat that is posed by drug trafficking. Mexico is the major supplier of Cocaine, Heroin, Marijuana, and Methamphetamine to the United States. This is favored by the fact that Mexico borders the United States and thus acts as an entry route to U.S. Various drug cartels operate in Mexico including Gulf cartel. Sinaloa, Juarez, La Familia Michoacana, Los Zetas and Juarez Cartel. These cartels control the drug entry into the United States from Mexico. The DFAS interferes with the supply of the illicit drugs by paralyzing financial operations of the DTOs. Further, the cartels are arrested and face charges in the United States. For instance, in 2007 the leader of Gulf Cartel was arrested and tried in the United States under the command of President Calderon (Benson.,2011).
The US and Mexican governments initiated the Merida initiative as a strategy of dealing with the drug trafficking menace to secure the lives of their citizens by protecting their borders. The intentions of the two governments were to deal with the drug cartels involved in shipping illicit narcotics to the United States, illegal weapons and involved in money laundering activities. The halting of the money laundering and unlawful weapons are essential components of the strategy as they will go a long way in securing the AU.S –Mexico border (NDC., 2011).
The US government launched the Project Coronado to wipe out the criminal group known as La Familia. They were able to disrupt a lot of operations of La Familia such as the cash flow between the borders of Mexico and the United States the trafficking of drugs, and supply of weapons (De Amicis., 2010). The fight against Drug trafficking between Mexico and U.S also involves empowering the communities living along drug shipment routes so that they become resistant to the corruption propagate by drug peddlers. Further, the U.S government is also supporting the judicial system of Mexico in being able to carry out the legal reforms that will assist in the fight against illicit drugs (NDC., 2011). The two countries also share the intelligence report on illegal drug trafficking to help in dealing with any security threat promptly.
The United States and Afghanistan
The drug trade is a major contributor to the economy of Afghanistan. The terrorist attack that occurred in the United States in September of 2011 made it intensify its anti-drug policy. The United Nations Office on drugs and crime report Afghanistan is the biggest supplier of opium to the United States. Afghanistan is a major producer of poppy with an estimate 193000 hectares of land used for the growth of poppy used in the production of the opiate (Jelsma.,2006). Despite the decrease in the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan in 2012 which was linked to unfavorable weather conditions and pests there is a growing concern on the rise of opium abuse in Europe (NDC., 2013).
The United State is concerned with the increased abuse of opium because it is likely to increase terrorist attacks. The U.S is concerned about the Taliban, an insurgent terrorist group whose terrorist activities are funded by trafficking of drugs. This situation is aggravated by the report by Narcotics Control Strategy Report (NCSTR) that opines that majority of the opium farms in Afghanistan are owned by Taliban (INCSR., 2008). The U.S has always used by law enforcement in dealing with the drug cartels and the terrorist groups. However, the U.S needs to involve other strategies to fight against poppy cultivation and opiate production in Afghanistan. President Nixon in his anti-drug policy came up with crop eradication program that targeting eliminating the cultivation of opium in Turkey. However, the strategy was not a success as other opium producing regions such as Asia took advantage of the scarcity of opium to skyrocket their prices hence, an increase their production of opium (Jelsma, 2006).
The fight against narco-terrorism still has a long way for it to be realized. The problem is not being able to provide an alternative source of income to those countries which heavily rely on the cultivation of the crops such as poppy and coca plant used to produce illicit drugs. The poppy cultivation is the backbone of the Afghanistan economy and mainly produced by the low-income families. Further, drug trafficking is a lucrative business, and the U.S would require improving its strategy to overcome the fight.
References
Benson, R.G. (2011). “Is Merida antiquated? Part Two: Updating US Policy to Counter Threats of Insurgency an Narco-Terrorism”.
Beittel,playJ.S. (2011). Mexico's drug trafficking organizations: Source an scope of the rising violence
Bjelopera,J.P & Finklea,K.M. (2012). Organized crime: An evolving challenge for U.S Law enforcement
De Amicis.,A.(2010) Los Zetas an La Familia Michoacana Drug Traficking Organisations (DTO). (Masters Dissertation)
Hartelius, J. (2008). Narcoterrorism
Jelsma, M., T., Kramer, and C. Rivier. (2006). Losing Ground: Drug Control and War in Afghanistan. TNI Briefing Series No.2006/5, Transnational Institute, Amsterdam.
Office of National Drug Control Policy (2011). National Southwest border counternarcotics strategy.
NDC (2013).
Seekel, C.R., Wyler, L.S., Beittel, J.S. (2010). Latin America and the Caribbean: Illicit drug trafficking andthese crimesUS. Counterdrug programs
Youngers, C.,& Rosin, E. (Eds.). (2005). Drug and democracy in Latin America: The impact of US policy. Lynner Rienner Publishers.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=id=jAzNQGZ0AV4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=drug+and+democracy+in+Lati
United States Department of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, 2008. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR). United States Department of State, Washington, D.C.
