Analyzing the Rise of Drug Cartels in American Cities

Abstract

Drug cartels enabled by factors such as voracious U.S. drug demand, globalized transportation, cartel warring overseas, and strategic use of local gangs have aggressively infiltrated major American cities. Long-term solutions require coordinated enforcement disruption of supply chains and localized socioeconomic initiatives to alleviate conditions, making cartel employment lucrative.

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to critically examine the growth of Mexican and Colombian drug cartels across major American cities over the past few decades. The objectives are to analyze the key factors that have enabled foreign cartels to infiltrate and embed themselves in urban centers across the United States, assess how they utilize local gangs and insinuate themselves into local distribution networks, evaluate the policies and policing strategies that have been enacted to try to impede their expansion and provide recommendations for improving the effectiveness of anti-cartel efforts. This analysis aims to answer the following core research questions:

1. What conditions have facilitated the encroachment of foreign cartels into American cities to wrest control of local drug distribution networks?
2. How have cartels co-opted local gangs into distribution partnerships and utilized violence to intimidate rivals?
3. Why have current policies focused on enforcement crackdowns largely failed to stem the tide of cartel expansion long-term?
4. What multi-pronged strategies should policymakers implement to curb cartel growth and facilitate the core conditions that make their services enticingly lucrative to inner-city residents?

This study will review recent scholarly literature encompassing these issues to provide a comprehensive analysis of the rise of cartels in American cities and strategies needed to impede further incursion.

Literature Review

A review of scholarly literature finds several interrelated factors that have facilitated the infiltration of foreign drug cartels into American cities. These include the high demand for illegal drugs in the United States, globalization and modern transportation networks that allow international trafficking, and power struggles between cartels in Latin America that have caused them to expand into new markets aggressively. The literature also shows how cartels utilize local gangs for distribution and rely heavily on violence and intimidation to conduct business and expand territory. Anti-cartel policies have primarily focused on law enforcement crackdowns. However, the literature suggests that socioeconomic interventions may also be warranted to curb the allure of cartel employment among impoverished inner-city residents.

Factors that Enable Cartel Growth in American Cities

Research shows that a prominent facilitator of Mexican and Colombian cartel encroachment into American cities has been the highly lucrative illegal drug market in the United States. America’s high rates of cocaine and marijuana consumption provide tremendous financial incentives for cartels to distribute directly to American urban centers (Sluys, 2023). The estimated $64 billion annual market for Mexican drug traffickers in the U.S. continues to dwarf the domestic Mexican market. The profitability of supplying the U.S. drug demand has led cartels to aggressively seize market share through distribution to as many major cities as possible.

Another key enabling factor has been modern air, sea, and land transportation networks that allow the easy flow of illegal drugs into American entry points. Improvements in communication technologies have also allowed cartels to coordinate smuggling operations across vast geographic terrain better. Cell phones, text messaging, GPS navigation devices, and encrypted communications make it easier for cartels to organize distribution logistics over long distances and monitor operations remotely. Cryptocurrencies that allow anonymous financial transactions also facilitate payment systems without detection from law enforcement. These modern technologies provide operational advantages that cartels aggressively utilize.

Power struggles among cartels in Mexico have also incentivized expansion into American cities as a way to gain an advantage over the competition. When the dominant Guadalajara cartel disintegrated in the 1990s from internal strife, it led to violent fracturing into competing Tijuana, Juarez, Gulf, and Sinaloa organizations. This encouraged cartels to ramp up efforts in trafficking cocaine into America as a highly profitable means to fund their warring conflicts for territorial control (Sluys, 2023). The result was increased competition over access points across the border and distribution channels that reached into American cities country-wide. Similar violent conflicts among Colombian traffickers have also produced aggressive efforts to control.

Local Distribution Networks and Violence

Research shows how Mexican and Colombian drug cartels utilize relationships with local American gangs as distribution networks. Gangs provide the local stash houses, enforcers, and street dealers that facilitate bulk shipments from cartels to reach individual users (McCarthy-Jones et al., 2020). Their local familiarity and language/cultural commonalities also help make distribution logistics easier to coordinate.

However, the infiltration of cartel operatives directly into American cities has also increased as they try to control distribution. Cartels often recruit local relatives and trusted associates from their country of origin to set up covert operations in cities known to have a sizable immigrant population. This provides more reliable distribution operatives they trust are loyal to the Mexican or Colombian organizations.

With competing cartels from Mexico and Columbia having infiltrated most major American cities, violent struggles for territory are every day as organizations compete for the most lucrative street distribution real estate. Intimidation and gruesome displays of force are utilized to frighten enemies and demonstrate superior power. Cartel operatives also frequently bribe and threaten law enforcement and government officials to pressure enemies and solidify operational control in areas they seize. They fund local gangs with money and weapons to act as enforcers that defend assets and eliminate opponents (McCarthy-Jones et al., 2020). The resulting violence contributes heavily to inner city homicide rates and the expansion of gang membership among vulnerable low-income youth who see it as an employment opportunity.

Anti-Cartel Policies and Effectiveness

Policies to curb cartel expansion have predominantly utilized law enforcement crackdowns through coordinated federal, state, and local policing efforts. Initiatives such as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) attack distribution networks through undercover operations, electronic surveillance, multi-agency coordinated raids, and prosecution initiatives focused on high-level kingpins (Leo, 2023). The FBI also has dedicated units focused on dismantling emerging cartel operations in cities where they are trying to gain traction. These efforts have successfully infiltrated some operations and jailed American and foreign leaders controlling local distribution.

However, research suggests that enforcement crackdowns alone have had limited long-term effectiveness, curtailing cartel influence for prolonged periods. When kingpins are arrested or operations dismantled, cartels quickly replace them from ample reserves waiting for opportunity. The sheer scale of geographic territory and number of cities make consistent disruption challenging. Critics argue that alleviating socioeconomic conditions that make cartel employment appealing to poor inner-city residents may be the most effective long-term strategy (Chomczyński & Clark, 2022). This means local economic development, youth opportunity programs, addiction rehabilitation, and alternatives to the mass incarceration of low-level dealers. Ultimately, curtailing cartel infiltration may require making their services less appealing to the minority populations most vulnerable to recruitment.

Conclusion and Recommendation

In conclusion, several interrelated factors explain the alarming expansion of foreign drug cartels in American cities. These include America’s lucrative appetite for illegal drugs, advantageously modern transportation networks for traffickers, cartel power struggles overseas, utilization of local gangs as distribution partners, and violence to intimidate rivals and community residents. While policies have focused heavily on enforcement crackdowns, long-term alleviation may require socioeconomic interventions that offer alternative opportunities outside of cartel employment for disadvantaged inner-city youth. With a multi-pronged strategy, stemming the tide of cartel infiltration may still be possible before it metastasizes across the urban landscape.

Recommendations

            Based on the literature, the following recommendations would help impede the expansion of foreign drug cartels in American cities. A multi-pronged strategy is needed to disrupt the supply chains and distribution networks that allow cartels to infiltrate American cities while also reducing demand and making cartel services less enticingly lucrative to marginalized communities. On the supply side, investing in advanced technologies at borders and ports of entry to detect and intercept incoming drug contraband could substantially increase interdiction rates and impede flow into cities.

Expanded use of scanning devices, canine units trained to detect hidden compartments, and automated screening systems that flag suspicious shipments entering could all make smuggling more challenging. However, given cartels’ ability to adapt to enforcement obstacles, simultaneous policy efforts must be pursued to curb appeal among minority residents often targeted for recruitment. Sentencing reforms emphasizing rehabilitation over incarceration for many non-violent, low-level cartel associates could help break destructive cycles of recidivism.

Concurrently, establishing more youth outreach programming in vulnerable neighborhoods that promote educational, vocational, and counseling support provides legal alternatives and hope outside of cartel employment riddled with violence and prison time. Economic redevelopment initiatives also must be expanded, including increased job training programs, small business loans, and tax incentives to revitalize devastated inner city areas with new legitimate industries. Ultimately, collaborative strategies tackling supply and demand have the most significant potential for evicting cartels from urban areas by eliminating their distribution opportunities and diminishing their employment allure. However, implementation requires the commitment of ample resources for neighborhood revitalization.

References

Chomczyński, P. A., & Clark, T. W. (2022). Crime and the Life Course in Another America: Collective Trajectory in Mexican Drug Cartel Dominated Communities. Justice Quarterly, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2022.2029543

Leo. (2023). Asian Organized Crime in the United States: Perception, Institutions, and Policy Responses. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications, 43–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41482-4_3

McCarthy-Jones, A., Doyle, C., & Turner, M. (2020). From hierarchies to networks: The organizational evolution of the international drug trade. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 63, 100436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2020.100436

Sluys, T. (2023). NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS WORKING AGAINST CORRUPTION: HOW TO BUILD A SUSTAINABLE SECURITY POSTURE AT PORTS-OF-ENTRY AND SECURE AMERICA’S SOUTHERN BORDER. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1213640.pdf