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January 17, 2019

El Chapo trial shows why a wall won't stop drugs from crossing the US-Mexico border

The trial of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera has exposed just how powerful Mexico’s cartels really are.

The trial has now run for two months. On Jan. 15, a Colombian drug trafficker who worked for Guzm谩n鈥檚 Sinaloa Cartel from 2007 to 2013 testified that Guzm谩n paid former Mexican president Enrique Pe帽a Nieto a while he was in power, a charge Pe帽a Nieto鈥� office denies.

It was just the latest allegation of the cartels paying off high-ranking politicians in Mexico, presumably to .

Guzm谩n is charged with 鈥� crimes he allegedly committed over the past quarter-century as head of the Sinaloa cartel, the Western Hemisphere鈥檚 most powerful organized crime syndicate.

With its witness accounts of extreme violence, political corruption, international intrigue and entrepreneurial innovation, Guzm谩n鈥檚 trial is a telenovela-style explainer on why a wall is unlikely to stop the .

The Sinaloa cartel

Founded in Mexico鈥檚 Sinaloa state in the 1990s, the Sinaloa cartel now to some 50 countries, including Argentina, the Philippines and Russia.

Determining the scale of Guzm谩n鈥檚 global empire is difficult, since gangsters usually don鈥檛 keep books and charts of accounts. But his 2016 indictment in the U.S. sought forfeiture of more than in proceeds and illicit profits from decades of narcotics sales in the U.S. and Canada.

The Sinaloa cartel controls perhaps half of Mexico鈥檚 drug market, with . Mexican estimates suggest that each month it two tons of cocaine and 10,000 tons of marijuana 鈥� plus heroin, methamphetamine and other substances.

 

 

The drug business

Illegal drugs are a highly lucrative business.

In 2016, the year El Chapo was , the for a gram of cocaine was approximately $2.30 in Colombia and $12.50 in Mexico. The same gram had a wholesale cost of $28 by the time it got to the United States. In Australia, that same gram of cocaine fetched $176.50 wholesale.

Drug prices rise significantly during transit as intermediaries demand compensation for the they assume in getting the product to consumers.

per gram of cocaine are even higher, reflecting the addition of even more middlemen: $82 in the U.S. in 2016 and $400 in Australia.

This liability markup is one reason why some prominent policy experts and even call for . Keeping drugs illegal is what makes them so profitable for the people who traffick them.

Bribes, violence and threats

Illegality is also what makes the drug business so .

Running an , cartel leaders must both enforce their own business agreements and protect themselves from authorities and competitors.

They do so using a combination of violence, threats and bribes.

At least eight worked under Guzm谩n鈥檚 command in Mexico, according to Mexican government reports, competitors and killing defectors.

Guzm谩n also as many and prison guards to stay in business.

His elaborate disappearances from Mexican high-security prisons are the stuff of legend. In 2015, by riding a motorcycle through a lit, ventilated mile-long tunnel constructed underneath his cell.

American demand

The Sinaloa cartel didn鈥檛 become the world鈥檚 biggest supplier of illicit drugs by coincidence. It has flourished because the United States is the world鈥檚 of illicit drugs.

Mexican cartels serve Americans鈥� 鈥渋nsatiable demand for illegal drugs,鈥� as .

Despite President Donald Trump鈥檚 focus on Mexican drug traffickers, his former chief of staff, that the U.S. is part of the problem.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not even trying,鈥� he told Congress in 2017, calling for more drug-demand reduction programs.

Kelly added that Latin American countries chide American authorities for 鈥渓ecturing [them] about not doing enough to stop the drug flow鈥� while the U.S. does nothing to 鈥渟top the demand.鈥�

Trump鈥檚 wall

Trump鈥檚 continued seems to disregard the economic forces driving the drug trade and diminish Mexican cartels鈥� .

A high-tech border fence constructed in Arizona long before Trump鈥檚 inauguration has proven virtually useless in stopping drugs from crossing into the U.S.: Mexican smugglers just use a to fling over to the American side.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got the best fence money can buy,鈥� former DEA chief Michael Brown to The New York Times in 2012, 鈥渁nd they counter us with a 2,500-year-old technology.鈥�

Then there鈥檚 the other ancient technology perfected by Guzm谩n: .

Officials have discovered about 180 cleverly disguised illicit passages under the U.S.-Mexico border. Many, like the one Guzm谩n used to escape prison, are equipped with electricity, ventilation and elevators.

Trump has admitted that anyone could use 鈥溾�� to climb over his wall, but believes that more border guards and drone technology would prevent infiltration.

Corruption in the US

Corruption is .

Over the past decade some 200 employees and contractors from the Department of Homeland Security have accepted nearly $15 million in bribes to look the other way as drugs were smuggled across the border into the United States, has reported.

Some U.S. officials have also given sensitive law enforcement information to cartels members, according to the Times.

鈥淎lmost no evidence about corrupt American officials has been allowed at [El Chapo鈥檚] trial,鈥� New York Times reporter Alan Feuer .

This article is an updated version of a originally published on Feb. 19, 2017.

, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory,

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

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