Uh-huh. And Libertarians themselves have never even thought of using drugs.
Typically, large cocaine shipments are transported from Colombia, via commercial shipping, fishing and "Go-fast" boats and off-loaded in Mexico. The cocaine is transported through Mexico, usually by trucks, where it is warehoused in cities like Guadalajara, Tijuana or Juarez, that are operating bases for the major criminal trafficking organizations. The extremely high volume of vehicular traffic over the U.S./Mexico border allows cocaine loads to be driven across the border and taken to major distribution centers within the U.S., such as Los Angeles, New Jersey, Chicago or Phoenix. Surrogates of the major drug lords wait for instructions, often provided over encrypted communications devices-- --phones, faxes, pagers or computers---telling them where to warehouse smaller loads, who to contact for transportation services, and who to return the eventual profits to. Individuals sent to the United States from Mexico and often here illegally, have been shown to have contracted with U.S. trucking establishments to move loads across the country. Once the loads arrive in an area that is close to the eventual terminal point, safehouses are established for workers who watch over the cocaine supplies and arrange for it to be distributed by wholesale dealers within the vicinity. These distributors have traditionally been Colombian nationals or individuals from the Dominican Republic, but recently, DEA has come upon evidence that Mexican trafficking organizations are also directly involved in cocaine distribution in New York City.
We have not only identified the drug lords themselves, but in most cases, the key members of their command and control structure. The combined efforts of the DEA, FBI, DOJ, the U.S. Customs Service and members of state and local police departments have resulted in the seizure of hundreds of tons of drugs, hundreds of millions of dollars in drug proceeds and most importantly, several significant indictments. In fact, some of the leaders of these organizations---Ramon and Benjamin Arellano-Felix, Jesus Amezcua-Contreras, Vicente Carrillo-Fuentes----have become familiar names in every major law enforcement department in the United States. Despite this evidence, along with the notoriety, these traffickers have continued to evade arrest and prosecution.
The primary reason they have been able to avoid arrest and continue their criminal enterprise is their ability to intimidate witnesses and assassinate and corrupt public officials. Clear examples of this point may be cited in recent efforts to apprehend members of the Arellano Felix cartel and the Cardenas Guillen cartel, based in Tijuana and Matamoros, Mexico, respectively. In Tijuana over the past year, Mexican officials, with support from the DEA, have unsuccessfully attempted to apprehend key traffickers working for the Arellano Felix organization. In November 1999, major Gulf cartel drug trafficker Osiel Cardenas Guillen illegally detained and assaulted two U.S. drug enforcement agents in Matamoros, Mexico, across the international border from Brownsville, Texas.
Methamphetamine traffickers, oftentimes associated with major Mexican organized crime groups, obtain the precursor chemicals necessary for methamphetamine production from sources in other countries, such as China and India, as well as from rogue chemical suppliers in the United States. In fact, Mexico-based transnational criminal organizations have become the most significant distributors in the U.S. of methamphetamine and its precursor chemicals. Several bulk ephedrine seizures destined for Mexico have focused attention on the magnitude of ephedrine acquisition by Mexican organized crime groups. Super methamphetamine labs, capable of producing hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine on a weekly basis, are established in Mexico or in California, where the methamphetamine is provided to traffickers to distribute across the United States.
These methamphetamine organizations based in Mexico also have well established, polydrug distribution networks in place throughout our country. The Mexican trafficking organizations have single-handedly created a new booming demand for methamphetamine, moving it in mass quantities eastward across the country-far beyond the traditional West and Southwest markets.
Heroin from Mexico now represents 14% of the heroin seized in the United States by federal authorities, and it is estimated that 43 metric tons of opium gum was produced in 1999 in Mexico. A recent study conducted by the DEA indicates that as much as 29% of the heroin being used in the U.S. is being smuggled in by the Mexico-based organized crime syndicates. Mexican black tar heroin is produced in Mexico, and transported over the border in cars and trucks. Like cocaine and methamphetamine, it is trafficked by associates of the organized criminal groups in Mexico, and provided to dealers and users in the Southwest, Northwest, and Midwest areas of the United States. At one time, it was commonplace for couriers to carry two pounds or so of heroin into the United States; recently, quantities of heroin seized from individuals has increased as is evidenced by larger seizures in a number of towns in Texas. This heroin is extremely potent, and its use has resulted in a significant number of deaths.
Marijuana from Mexico still dominates the illicit U.S. import market although U.S. experts estimate Mexico's marijuana production at 3,700 metric tons (compared with 4,600 in 1998 and 4,800 in 1997). In addition, during 1999, the GOM eradicated some 23,547 hectares of marijuana (down from 24,200 in 1998). Seizures of Mexican marijuana have increased from 102 metric tons in 1991 to 836.3 metric tons in 1999. Marijuana organizations from Mexico are very powerful and violent. In some places, traffickers from Mexico have established growing operations within the United States. In a recent case in Idaho, DEA , working with other federal, state and local law enforcement officials, arrested a group of illegal aliens from Zacatecas, Mexico. A total of 114,000 marijuana plants, weighing almost 20 tons, were seized. This operation represented the largest marijuana seizure ever in the state of Idaho.
It is important to note that although many of the transactions relating to the drug trade take place on U.S. soil, the major organized crime bosses direct each and every detail of their multi-billion dollar business while situated in Mexico. They are responsible not only for the business decisions being made, but ultimately for the devastation that too many American communities have suffered as a result of the influx of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana. These powerful and organized syndicates can frustrate the ability of the Mexican anti-drug police. Their ability to place obstacles such as corruption and unlimited resources in the path of police can oftentimes impede investigations. In the past year, none of the major Mexican trafficking organizations have been dismantled or significantly disrupted by Mexican authorities.