Paper Sample on Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations

Introduction

Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the cause of the major crimes that threaten the United States government. They get involved in various forms of crimes, including human trafficking, oil theft, car hijacking, among others, in collaboration with the street gangs. Their supply chain is hard to track because it connects several street gangs of different states. They produce illegal drugs, which include cocaine, heroin, marijuana, opioids, and many others (Sullivan& Bunker, 2002). The gangs and the Mexican cartels share a lot in common in terms of lifestyle. Most of them have tattoed bodies, ownership of illegal firearms, and abuse drugs that impair their judgment.

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Street Gang Members

The street gang members continue with their irrelevant fights for the control of territory through their skin colors, tattoos for their environment adaptability and survival. One of their aspect of survival and adaptability is making money through the involvement of crimes such as drug trafficking and other forms of dirty inhuman acts. This is even more successful because they make alliances and connect with other organizations like the Mexican cartels. The street gangs survive through the mutualism form of connection or interdependence with the Mexican cartels. Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (MDTOs) in alliance with the American gang, is an initiative taken by these two organizations to dominate control over the illegal drug sale in the street level in the United States cities.

The U.S gang’s cooperation with the Mexican cartels helps in facilitating the smuggling of drugs to the United States in every conceivable way. The U.S gangs who operate along the southwest border were the first gangs to make a relationship with the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations. Knowledge of criminal activities going on in the borders helped the gangs in the southwest border establish a good connection with the MDTOs. The connection between the U.S. gangs involved a series of activities right from the smuggling of drugs into the streets and the return of big payments to the cartels.

Starting from the gangs along the southwest border, they would buy drugs from the traffickers strictly for sale at the strict level. Then they would help the traffickers by giving protection for shipments of drugs into the U.S. The gangs also had a responsibility of providing logistic support of the shipped drugs once they are inside the country and protecting the warehouses. Apart from warehouse protection of the shipped drugs, the gangs also protect shipment of goods to Mexico like bulk money back to the cartels in Mexico as well as motor vehicles and even the illegal weapons like guns. Furthermore, when the MDTOs conducted the operations like tracking down the traffickers who owed them some money, the gangs would still connect with them to enter the trafficker’s territory.

The cooperation, loyalty, and discipline the gangs showed to the Mexican cartels made them good partners, and they connected a lot in their business affairs. Any Mexican information cartels needed, they would always rely on the gangs. This loyalty of the gangs to the Mexican cartels made it hard for the United States law enforcement force to carry out their duties in curbing the serious crimes and investigating the major roots of the several illegal businesses and crimes. An assessment done by the National Drug Intelligence center in 2010 on drug trafficking by gangs estimated the wholesale price of cocaine, which was reduced by a third hence increasing their profits by more than 30 percent (SCHMIDT, 2012). This enabled gangs to monopolize their market at the street level.

Act of Government

The act of government designating the MS-13 gang as a transnational criminal organization has a positive impact on tracking down or gives hope of shutting the gang down because the government can now target it more aggressively. This empowers officials and other disciplines responsible for tacking the gang handle in with pressure and seriousness. The step taken by the government also helps the law enforcement body to easily target and shut down the gang’s financial operations, which is believed to be the strong point of the gang. The government identified these guys specifically because they violently engage in drug trafficking, sex, and human trafficking trades. Why now? Over the last three decades, it has developed into a violent criminal force. The gang has evolved from its initial state, being a primary criminal element in Central American immigrant communities, to a big regional recognized organized crime network involved in several illegal markets (LaFranchi, 2012).

I think the Outlaw Motorcycles Gang has not been identified as a transnational criminal organization like the MS-13 because their background is not fully understood and the crimes they are involved in. They have not been seen evolving like the MS-13 gang.

Addressing Transnational Crime

Addressing transnational crime is a big problem for the relevant bodies responsible for the law enforcement. Curbing the crimes identified as transnational criminal organizations needs a good planned scheme and resource input to facilitate the process. The process of investigation needs devoting and involvement of the citizens in doing the investigation. Citizens, most of the time, have a lot of information which, when invested in well, may bear results. The process being voluntary lacks motivation factor does not allow aggressiveness because the act carries a lot of risks like being threatened or even killed if any information is leaked out about the gangs. Reward system to any information or cooperation would make the process easy and fruit-bearing. Fighting transnational crime requires the use of all methods as long as the goal is achieved. A rewarding system would definitely motivate anybody with relevant information to come out and speak out. The problem should be addressed with a lot of aggressiveness and proper resource input.

Conclusion

Transnational fight against gangsters requires the cooperation of different bodies in shutting down the gangster operation. From the movie “mission impossible,” I think the head of British intelligence was trying to say that the problem is within us. There are no foreign people of supernatural powers that facilitate the crimes, but instead, they are within us. People only care about their common interests. This means that evaluation and investigations should start from within and all possible mechanisms must be well defined before thinking of other diversifications. Those who are likely to betray us are our closest friends or who we love, and that is where the biasness comes from in the fight against transnational ganger fight. The head of British Intelligence in mission impossible five is right from his sentiments and word of thought. From the movie, the fight against criminality is demonstrated by skilled moves and amazing investigations and sacrifices. Various bodies should be involved in fighting transnational gangsters. Success is demonstrated in the amount of input geared to ensuring criminal acts are put to an end.

References

LaFranchi H, (2012). MS-13 gang labeled transnational criminal group, a first for U.S. street gang. https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2012/1012/MS-13-gang-labeled-transnational-criminal-group-a-first-for-US-street-gang

SCHMIDT M ,(2012). U.S. Gang Alignment with Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations.
https://ctc.usma.edu/u-s-gang-alignment-with-mexican-drug-trafficking-organizations/

Sullivan, J. P., & Bunker, R. J. (2002). Drug cartels, street gangs, and warlords. Small Wars and Insurgencies, 13(2), 40-53.