drug cartels

SWJ El Centro Book Review – Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartels

ZFTWARNING — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 21:03:54 +0000

SWJ El Centro Book Review – Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartels

Book Review of Deborah Bonello's "Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America’s Cartels" by SWJ−El Centro Senior Fellow Dr. Nathan P. Jones.

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Ascensión: A Tale of the Mexican Drug War

ZFTWARNING — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 19:49:29 +0000

Ascensión: A Tale of the Mexican Drug War ZFTWARNING Mon, 04/12/2021 - 3:49pm

An excerpt from "Ascensión: A Tale of the Mexican Drug War" by Small Wars Journal-El Centro Fellow Michael L. Burgoyne. This fictional account—or FICINT (Fictional Intelligence)—describes the security situation in Mexico in an accessible manner. Here the situation in Mexico is described through the lens of fiction and intelligence to depict future conflict scenarios grounded in reality.

The Mexican Cartel Conundrum: Policy Reform is More Effective Than Waging War

SWJED — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 12:22:19 +0000

The Mexican Cartel Conundrum: Policy Reform is More Effective Than Waging War SWJED Mon, 08/07/2017 - 8:22am

Cartels are born from greed but they are also byproducts of Mexico’s flawed policies.

Hooked: Mexico’s Violence and U.S. Demand for Drugs

SWJED — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:53:17 +0000

Hooked: Mexico’s Violence and U.S. Demand for Drugs

SWJ El Centro Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown has a new essay out. In “Hooked: Mexico’s Violence and U.S. Demand for Drugs," published by the Brookings Institution’s Order from Chaos blog on May 30^th, 2017, Vanda Felbab-Brown explains that, with a total of 177,000 drug-related murders having taken place within Mexico from 2007 to 2017, Mexico’s conflict is more intense than many civil wars and insurgencies around the world.

In 2016, the drug wars in Mexico claimed between 21,000 and 23,000 lives. That’s back to the peak levels of 2010 to 2012, when up to 23,000 people died each year in drug-related homicides. Between 2007 and 2017, a total of 177,000 people were murdered—but that may actually under-count, since many bodies are hidden in mass graves that may have never been found. Tens of thousands of people have also been internally displaced. In short, Mexico’s conflict is more intense than many civil wars and insurgencies around the world.

When Enrique Peña Nieto became president five years ago, he and the Mexican public sought to put the drug war behind them. Promising to cut down the murder rate by 50 percent in his first six months, he instead focused on Mexico’s badly needed energy, economic, and education reforms. He indeed succeeded at getting important measures passed, though implementation has been a challenge.

Meanwhile, although the drug market initially calmed in his first two years, the wars among Mexico’s criminal groups have been relentless. The violence has returned to areas where progress seemed to have been achieved—such as Tijuana and Cuidad Juárez—but continues to rage ferociously in Guerrero, Michoacán, and Tamaulipas, and spread to new areas, including Mexico’s center and south.

Multiple immediate and structural causes are driving the persistence and intensification of the criminal violence, including particularly cartel fragmentation and turf war on the one hand, and weak rule of law and problematic policy choices on the other…

Read the entire essay.

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Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 20: Mexican Newspaper (El Norte, Juárez) Closes Doors in Response to Cartel Targeting/Violence Against Journalists

SWJED — Tue, 16 May 2017 16:38:25 +0000

Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 20: Mexican Newspaper (El Norte, Juárez) Closes Doors in Response to Cartel Targeting/Violence Against Journalists SWJED Tue, 05/16/2017 - 12:38pm

Attacks on journalist and media outlets are mechanisms of intimidation used to dampen or influence reportage in favor of the criminal enterprise and/or corrupt state organs.

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Mexican Cartel Tactical Note #32: Ultralight Aircraft and Border Drug Smuggling

SWJED — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 08:56:59 +0000

Mexican Cartel Tactical Note #32: Ultralight Aircraft and Border Drug Smuggling SWJED Wed, 04/19/2017 - 4:56am

Although a number of cartels may be utilizing ultralight aircraft, seizure locations and authority reports most often attribute the use of this technology to the Sinaloa Cartel.

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Geographic Constraints of Narco-Tunnels Along the Southwest Border

SWJED — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 13:20:30 +0000

Geographic Constraints of Narco-Tunnels Along the Southwest Border SWJED Fri, 09/30/2016 - 9:20am

This paper discusses how Mexican cartel tunnels have evolved during the last five years while addressing specific uses.

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Man, The State and War Against Drug Cartels: A Typology of Drug-Related Violence in Mexico

SWJED — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 05:18:16 +0000

Man, The State and War Against Drug Cartels: A Typology of Drug-Related Violence in Mexico SWJED Wed, 03/19/2014 - 1:18am

This essay is the first in a series exploring the issue of drug-related violence in Mexico.

In Mexico, Self Defense Groups Battle a Cartel

SWJED — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 09:22:52 +0000

In Mexico, Self Defense Groups Battle a Cartel

In Mexico, Self Defense Groups Battle a Cartel by Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post.

An audacious band of citizen militias battling a brutal drug cartel in the hills of central Mexico is becoming increasingly well-armed and coordinated in an attempt to end years of violence, extortion and humiliation.

What began as a few scattered self-defense groups has spread in recent months to dozens of towns across Michoacan, a volatile state gripped by the cultlike Knights Templar, a drug gang known for taxing locals on everything from cows to tortillas and executing those who do not comply…

Read on.

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Studies in Gangs and Cartels

SWJED — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 17:00:35 +0000

Studies in Gangs and Cartels

Robert J. Bunker and John P. Sullivan

Concerns over the changing nature of gangs and cartels and their relationships to states in the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries has resulted in the emergence of a scholarly body of work focused on their national security threat potentials. This body of work, utilizing the third generation gangs and third phase cartel typologies, represents an alternative to traditional gang and organized crime research and one that is increasingly influencing the US defense community. Rather than being viewed only as misguided youth and opportunistic criminals or, in their mature forms, as criminal organizations with no broader social or political agendas, more evolved gangs and cartels, are instead seen as developing political, mercenary, and state-challenging capacities. This evolutionary process has emerged due to the growing illicit economy and other unintended consequences of globalization.

This important anthology of writings by Robert J. Bunker and John P. Sullivan draws upon a collection of their works from the mid-1990s to the present with the addition of new essays written specifically for this publication. The work will be of great interest to academics and students in the fields of political science and criminal justice and to military, law enforcement, and governmental professionals and policy makers.

Studies in Gangs and Cartels at Amazon

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