Blog 16

U.S. Involvement in Money Laundering

With the recent flare up in drug cartel activity south of the border, many United States leaders are looking for more efficient ways in which to stop the violence.  American and Mexican officials are often short of money and resources to track these cartels that hold a reign of terror over the citizens of Mexico poorest regions, most infamous of which is Ciudad Juarez.  Intimidation and bulling leaves regular people helpless and police officers dead or corrupt.  However, as with the large-scale crime of the 1950s mob, these cartels are looking for convenient ways in which to hide their profits are relocate money to other regions of the country and Latin America.  They use inconspicuous business like solons and day care centers to funnel large amounts of cash to and fro. 

While American officials, and even former President Bush and current President Obama have pledged American support and supplies to combat these cartels, there are nor enough resources to track money laundering.  Often these illicit activities appear legal.  According the Wall Street Journal, in 2008 over 1, 600 people were killed due to cartel violence in Ciudad Juarez alone.  Numbers double that are estimated for 2009.  I propose that the American officials spend less of their resources on building a vast Great Wall-like fence and garner their resources toward tracking the money, the lifeblood of the gory cartels.  By following the money trail, officials, Mexican and American, will be able to find guilty parties on all levels of involvement, because the money is with the drugs at all levels of production and consumption. 

Although the United States is still suffering severely from the Panic of 2008, investing in anti- cartel operations, will preserve the countries national security and our borders more effectively than any fence could.  The tactics President Calderón has used so far, most of which are similar to the American tactics used in Iraq, have led to sever retaliation against the law enforcement sector.  So, by stealthy tracking money, the security and well being of the everyday citizens will be increasingly safer.