International Law
Mexican Drug War Infiltrates All of US
Posted Nov 17, 2008, 11:08 am CST
By Martha Neil
Hearing about a violent war in Mexico between authorities there and illegal drug traffickers, many Americans probably think it has little or no effect on them. But that isn't true.
"The drug violence that has left about 4,000 people dead this year in Mexico is spreading deep into the United States, leaving a trail of slayings, kidnappings and other crimes in at least 195 cities as far afield as Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Honolulu, according to federal authorities," reports the Los Angeles Times.
Criminal activity here related to drug activity there has now spread to every state except Vermont and West Virginia, the newspaper says. And, although border states in the southwestern U.S. are a hotbed of such activity, they aren't the only ones.
Atlanta is now an important hub for drug trafficking here, and three different Mexican drug cartels—Gulf, Juarez and Tijuana—are reportedly active in 43, 44 and 20 American cities, respectively. They include: Buffalo, N.Y.;Minneapolis; and Anchorage, Alaska.
Drug-related violence has become so commonplace in Mexico that the well-to-do routinely hire bodyguards or even move out of the country to live in safer U.S. border cities, if they have business visas that permit them to do so, reports the New York Times.
“There’s reason for everyone to be fearful,” Guillermo Alonso Meneses, an anthropologist at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana, tells the newspaper. Even in his middle-class community, he can hear gunfire at night, he says. And so, like many of his neighbors, he rarely goes outside at night.
Related ABAJournal.com coverage:
Calif. Prosecutors Seek State Bar Help to Fight Mexican Drug War Spilling into US
Spying in Mexican AG’s Office Could Be Linked to US DEA
Kidnappings for Ransom, Both Real and Fake, Are Increasing
Updated at 3:20 p.m. to add information from New York Times.
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