Durbin Holds First Senate Meeting on Mexican Drug Cartels

From the Office of U.S. Senator Dick Durbin

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) chaired a hearing today on the ongoing and bloody violence involving Mexican drug cartels. The violence, which took more than 6,000 lives last year, is partly the result of the alarming flow of drugs, guns and bulk cash across the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Violence across our border in Mexico has claimed more than 6,000 lives last year and 1,000 lives since January, but it is not simply a Mexican problem,” Durbin said. “America’s drug addiction, and the dollars and guns that travel across our border, keep the drug cartels in business. Until we take cooperative steps to defeat the cartels, this violence will continue to escalate.”

According to a recent Justice Department report, Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations represent “the greatest organized crime threat to the United States.” Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations are notoriously violent and well armed. These criminal organizations control drug distribution and trafficking in many U.S. cities and have had a severe impact in border states and other parts of the country.

In Illinois, the Justice Department found that three Mexican drug cartels – Federation, Gulf Coast and Juárez – are active in Chicago, East St. Louis and Joliet. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mexican drug cartels supply the vast majority of the cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana distributed in the Chicago area and downstate. Law enforcement officials estimate that $10 to $24 million in drug proceeds are sent from Chicago to America’s Southwest border each month.

A significant obstacle to containing and prosecuting drug cartels and their agents is Mexico’s lack of a fair and effective criminal justice system. Corruption plays a considerable role in law enforcement’s inability to control the violence. The situation has deteriorated to the extent that Mexican President Felipe Calderon was recently forced to deploy the country’s military into areas of the country where law enforcement was no longer able to maintain order.

The problem, however, is not restricted to the Mexican side of the border. Cartels are active in at least 230 U.S. cities – up from roughly 50 in 2006. In Phoenix last year, 366 kidnappings for ransom were reported – far more than any other American city – and nearly all were connected to the Mexican drug trade.

This is partly the result of the America’s insatiable demand for illegal drugs. It is estimated that nearly $10 billion in drug money is shipped from the U..S. back to Mexico each year. These funds enable traffickers to expand operations, bribe law enforcement and purchase weapons.

Weapons are often purchased at U.S. gun shows from unlicensed sellers who are not required to conduct background checks as part of the sale. Cartels also use “straw buyers” – individuals with clean criminal records – to buy weapons for them. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, more than 90% of guns seized in Mexico can be traced to the United States.

Testifying at the hearing were: William Hoover, Assistant Director for Field Operations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Anthony P. Placido, Assistant Administrator and Chief of Intelligence, Drug Enforcement Administration; Kumar Kibble, Deputy Director, Office of Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security; Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General; Denise Eugenia Dresser Guerra, Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and contributing writer to the Los Angeles Times; and Jorge Luis Aguirre, a journalist who fled Ciudad Juárez after receiving death threats and who is in hiding in El Paso, Texas.

Durbin became Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Crime and Drugs Subcommittee last month. Besides the issues surrounding Mexican drug cartels, Durbin plans to focus the Subcommittee’s efforts on issues including federal support for state and local law enforcement, gang violence, racial disparities in the criminal justice system, sentencing reform, and prison reform.

The hearing was held jointly before the Senate Judiciary Crime and Drugs Subcommittee and the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. Senator Dianne Feinstein co-chaired the hearing.