Special Report: America first: the challenge for Mexico (ISSN 17414474)

Drug trafficking from Mexico into the United States has been a major issue between the two countries since the 1970s. It has increasingly been recognised that the cross-border relationship between drugs and organised crime is complex and interrelated. Mexico is a major producer or shipper of a range of drugs including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines. The business is run by powerful criminal cartels. It is estimated that as part of their illegal operations the cartels move between US$19bn and US$30bn a year. Since 2006, stepped-up efforts to combat these cartels using the Mexican armed forces have led to violent clashes in which over 150,000 people have been killed. The US is involved at various different levels. Some argue that Mexican drug supply has arisen almost entirely because of US drugs demand. The US is the world’s largest single consumer market for illicit drugs. US arms traders also provide much of the weaponry used by the Mexican drug cartels. And the Washington government remains deeply concerned over the security implications of the activities of the Mexico-based cartels, and the possibility that their illicit businesses may be used as cover by political or terrorist organisations seeking to attack the United States.