Monday, May 3, 2010

Mexico as Part of Narco-terrorists Ideology of Greed

By Jerry Brewer

As a death toll continues to mount significantly from escalating violence and mayhem, yet criminal proceeds soar beyond those of traditional industries, does a nation consider stopping the fight and nationalizing it?

If so, the laws and strategies originally in place designed to destroy it cease being recognized as anything other than crime at all.  As a culture matures to the presence of a formidable organized criminal influence of great power and wealth, the external threat appears more ominous than the internal threat.

What eventually occurs both internally and externally is the exploitative nature of the illicit contraband.  This exploitation becomes graphically visible in the safety of the streets, and in the readiness or abilities of police, government and the courts to respond in a timely and effective manner.  Too, the culture faces a myriad of moral challenges, manifested in the behavior of youth, honesty in government, and the price paid for their homes.

Armies and their weaponry have destabilized nations throughout history.  However, an enemy that flies no flag but ruthlessly mounts transnational assault for massive profits with superior firepower that easily matches or even surpasses military capabilities is a global threat to mankind.

In the case of Mexico drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) supply the demand for illegal narcotics, plus they are involved in other related criminal activities.

The awesome endeavor of meeting the demands and challenges that confront DTOs to continue to reap the billions of U.S. dollars in revenue from supply, is a continuing revolving door of risk.  Bulk profits must flow unimpeded back to the trafficking organizations.  This currency must find its way via much more complex and twisted routes and venues than the commodity itself.

Facilitators of this process must be paid along all channels, from growers/producers, transporters, the warehousing, and even police and government officials.  Logistics must be constantly updated and strengthened, new smuggling routes strategized, and rivals eliminated.  The final dollars reach the top of the DTO’s organized criminal hierarchy as the final stop, and in most instances this money will need to be laundered in actual or seemingly legitimate business/industry.  Some of it may even be invested in communities.

The narco dollar never really comes to rest.  The criminal interdiction and successful policing of the narcotics trade therefore must follow the dollars among people to the organizational hierarchy of leadership/management.  That route is always the direction to the source of final destination, minus the intentional turns and curves of inherent deception, personal security, and even electronic assistance.  This much like a terrorist/assassin who knows that it is easy to attack their personal target once their place of residence and place of employment is known and they remain predictable between the two locations.

Let’s face it realistically and factually, most narcotics interdiction is directed at commodity.  It appears to be about seizure because that has value — it is visible and has impact for the media, and it is exciting to see bulks of seized drugs.

The fact is that narcotics can’t be controlled at the borders.  If you took all of the drugs in the world and placed them in a single location, you would have nothing but a huge mound of eventual decay.  You can’t put it in jail or question it about its handlers.  The problem is with people and it leads to the top of the pyramid of conspirators.

Conspiracy is believed to be as old as the beginning of mankind.  The first conspirators were believed to simply be a man, a woman, and a reptile; the first item of contraband was the apple.  The arrest and conviction superseded the need to warehouse or exploit the fruit.

When strategizing against commodity you see the obvious route and link that leads from grower/manufacturer to the consumer.  Therefore, production at its source must be an integral part of the enforcement-based strategy, as well as the abilities to reduce demand.  All in between that equation is the hell or purgatory that results in murder with impunity, torture, and the blood-stained illicit product for sale. 

What steps must continue to induce source-country foreign governments to stop producing, and halt/curtail drug product?  Diplomacy must not fail.  Diplomatic, military, and intelligence strategies play key strategic roles in this theater of operations. 

There remains an ever-growing push for quantity and quality of product that culminates in yet greater wealth and power for some at the expense of many.  Pessimism in this light is well-founded.  The only limitations appear to be the limitations on their own ingenuity.

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Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Miami, Florida.  His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.