Drug Trafficking Violence in Mexico: Implications for the United States
This post was written by CIP Intern Cristina Salas On May 5th, Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa) co-chaired a Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control hearing on "Drug Trafficking Violence in Mexico: Implications for the United States." The main topic of discussion at this hearing was the need to prevent drug trafficking-related violence from penetrating furthermore into the United States. The co-chairs insisted on getting answers about what specific measures have to be taken to make that possible. Although most panelists seemed to focus on what their organizations had already accomplished, they all agreed on the need to broaden efforts and intelligence cooperation between all levels of law enforcement. The caucus heard the testimony of six witnesses involved in federal and local U.S. law enforcement. The first panel included David Johnson (Assistant Secretary Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Department of State) Janice Ayala (Assistant Director, Office of Investigations Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security) Kevin Perkins (Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation) and Anthony Placido (Assistant Administrator and Chief of Intelligence, Drug Enforcement Administration). The second panel consisted of Leonard Miranda (Captain Chula Vista Police Department, Coordinator of the San Diego Regional Cross Border Violence Project) and Don Reay (Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition). Opening Remarks Sen. Feinstein gave an opening statement affirming that the increase of drug trafficking related violence in Mexico is mostly focused on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border. However, recent events have raised red flags on the American side. These include cross-border kidnappings and extortion of the victims' relatives in the United States in which often either the kidnapper or victim had links to drug trafficking organizations. Other incidents of concern are home invasions in Arizona, many of them involving "robbery crews that target drug stash houses to steal and resell the drugs they find inside." Sen. Feinstein referred to the efforts in intelligence cooperation between law enforcement in both countries through the Mérida Initiative, explaining "law enforcement is working to quell such incidents through intelligence sharing between local, state and federal agencies and through support of Mexico's campaign against drug cartels --the Mérida Initiative." Although projects like Gunnrunner and Operation Stonegarden have shown real results in cartel-related arrests and in money and firearms seizures, the United States still shares a great responsibility in the fight against drug trafficking in Mexico, according to Sen. Feinstein. She continued to explain that the reduction of the demand for drugs has to be a priority, as well as stopping the transfer of illicit drug money and weapons from the United States that end up in the cartels' hands. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), who recently attended a briefing in El Paso, Texas, said he was "shocked," particularly about the 23,000 people killed in Mexico since 2006 from drug-related crimes. He acknowledged that violence was not only affecting Mexicans, as the recent murders of U.S. Consulate workers show. He pointed out that the burden of the fight against drug trafficking violence in the United States falls mostly on state and local authorities, and demanded an explanation from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on why technology, like Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAV) and Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) are not made available to fight crime in the border. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) reiterated that El Paso police officers told her that they do not have the technology to deal with the current issues in the border, and also wanted answers about why UAVs were not in the border, since these issues affect the security of Americans as well. First Panel David Johnson said there was legitimacy in the concerns of violence in Mexico expressed by senators and their implications for the United States. In his opinion, "violence in Mexico is consequence of a more insidious crime: greed". Therefore, he suggested that the focus should be on drug trafficking as the source of the violence, since the money generated from this illegal activity is used by cartels to buy weapons. He insisted violence in Mexico would not be reduced without dealing with drug trafficking. Johnson agreed with Sen. Feinstein about the United States' shared responsibility for this problem because its demand for drugs fuels drug trafficking in Mexico. He seemed optimistic about the success of the current efforts and compared them to a cancer that will be beaten, but that has to go through chemotherapy first. Following this remarks, Kevin Perkins explained how the FBI continues to work with all levels of law enforcement to fight these crimes. In particular, he referred to the efforts to fight corruption with a border corruption task force and intelligence and information sharing. The FBI, he added, also fights other financial sources for gangs and cartels, such as kidnapping. Janice Ayala of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) noted that their presence in Mexico is the largest outside of the United States, which has led to a great success in increasing drug seizures. Operation Firewall is an example of that, achieving more than 4,000 seizures and 600 arrests since 2005. Ayala called attention to the alarming fact that 28 gangs in Mexico are classified as "extremely violent." Anthony Placido of the DEA discussed how drug trafficking was recognized as a threat early in President Calderón's term, and recognized his willingness to deal with these problems through the Mérida Initiative. Moreover, he praised Calderón's project "We are all Juárez" created to encourage financial alternatives to drug trafficking in the violent border-town Ciudad Juárez. The DEA, according to Placido, supports Mexico's judicial reforms and law enforcement and correctional officers training. He admits there is no single answer to ending violence in the region and that it could increase before it ends. Q&A period Sen. Feinstein's first questions for the panel were forceful: "What can we do now?" and "What do you need to end this?" However, the only explicit request came from Perkins, specifying that San Diego had requested agents to deal with kidnappings. Sen. Feinstein said she could look into the possibility of finding financial support for the squads in the region to fight kidnapping. Sen. Cornyn then asked the panel to rate, from 1 to 10, if the drug related crimes on the United States' side of the border were being ordered by Mexican mafia leaders held in U.S. prisons. Again, Perkins was the only to respond, giving a rating of "from 7 to 8." He also noted that California had imposed cell phone restrictions in its prison to reduce that. Perkins insisted that it is impossible to deal with drug trafficking if we do not deal with the profits, which is the motivation behind it. However, he complained about the lack of information sharing by ICE, who investigates the financial components of all crimes, which makes it hard to deal with the profits of drug trafficking. Ayala denied this and claimed the information is available. Sen. Cornyn indicated that generalized violence is not cause for granting asylum in the United States, and wondered about the number of Mexicans in the United States who have crossed the border because of violence or are seeking asylum. None of the panelists had numbers or detailed information about that. Next, the Senator asked about what experiences in Colombia could serve as lessons in this situation. The panel told him that part of the success in Colombia has been the rigorous background checks it conducts on all of its officers, similar to the process in the United States. Nevertheless, the panel said that intelligence cooperation has been the main lesson learned from Colombia, and there is hope that the use of judicialized wire intercepts is institutionalized in Mexico. Placido said he sees the same leadership in Calderón as in Uribe, and there has been a change in Mexico's way to deal with these problems. Mexico wants a new kind of officer: educated, with degrees and trained with the help of the United States. Sen. Feinstein pointed out that, according to San Diego police, only 20 to 25% of vessels carrying drugs in through the Pacific are intercepted. The explanation, as the witnesses told her, is that as it continued to get harder to traffic drugs across the border, alternate means had to be found and therefore there has been an increase in maritime transport and tunnels. Sen. Feinstein also showed concern about penetration of the "Aztecas" gang in the United States and the suspected connection it had with the recent killing of the El Paso correctional officer. This could not be confirmed by the panelists. Senator Cornyn expressed concern about these criminal organizations having access to bomb making materials and possible links to terrorism groups. Ayala confirmed that in 2006-2006 there was a seizure of explosive materials that was heading south towards the border. Second Panel Don Reay focused on the success of the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition, that has been referred to as the "Texas Star" or "Texas Model." The Coalition focuses on patrol activities and has achieved a synergy between local, state and county authorities. For Reay, sheriffs are good indicators of how the citizens are feeling when it comes to security, because they answer to their constituents. He then called attention to the opportunists who are not related to drug cartels, but are taking advantage of the chaos to commit crimes. Reay then explained that the border sheriffs took a stand against Mérida Initiative because the institutionalization of corruption in Mexico would prevent the money allocated from being used as planned, and because it did not provide any money to the United States for these same issues. Leonard Miranda spoke about the increase, since 2006, of victims in Chula Vista of crimes in Mexico, which means that relatives are targeted in Mexico and their families in Chula Vista are extorted. In this city, Miranda asserts the merging of task forces on drug trafficking, kidnapping and gang activity has been successful. In his opinion, highly visible presence of law enforcement is important to reduce crimes, but the investigatory component is even more so. According to Miranda, the Chula Vista region has not had grant funding for the HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) office, an effort to fight drug trafficking coordinately between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in critical regions of the U.S., for over ten years. He made a specific request for funding which Sen. Feinstein said she would look into. Sen. Conryn accused the Federal Government of not complying with its responsibility of doing its job with border security, so the question is how to fill the gap. Reay agreed with Sen. Conryn allegation, but explained that once someone has entered the country and they commit a crime, it becomes responsibility of local law enforcement. Therefore, intelligence sharing is crucial. However, Senator Feinstein disagreed with Conryn, saying that the Federal Government has stepped up, but a closer liaison between local and federal law enforcement is needed.