Pubdate: Sun, 09 Jul 2000
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
Fax: (619) 293-1440
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: Robert Caldwell, Insight Editor
Note: Introduction to a 6 part special report on the Arellano Felix Cartel

THE CARTEL: A SPECIAL REPORT

Introduction

Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo describes narcotics trafficking as the 
greatest threat to Mexico' s national security. A report produced by his 
own government warned that increasingly powerful drug cartels threaten 
Mexico' s political stability and, if left unchecked, could render Mexico 
ungovernable.

Something close to that is already happening a mere 20 miles from downtown 
San Diego, just across the border in Tijuana: Two police chiefs 
assassinated by drug traffickers in six years, dozens of prosecutors and 
police investigators killed and a murder rate at least seven times that of 
San Diego.

For the past decade, the Arellano Felix Organization, the most violent drug 
cartel in Mexico, has waged this deadly war against the rule of law. The 
cartel has proved itself stronger than the Mexican government in the 
Tijuana-Mexicali-Ensenada triangle that is the Arellanos' base territory.

Mexican officials estimate that the Tijuana cartel provides at least 15 
percent of the entire U.S. cocaine supply, a share representing 45 tons or 
more of cocaine a year. That' s nearly a ton of cocaine every week shoved 
across our borders by the Arellano organization.

The effects of that are felt not just in San Diego, but across the United 
States.

The federal government reports that nearly 14 million Americans use illegal 
drugs regularly, including more than 300 metric tons of cocaine each year. 
Drug-related illness, death and crime cost the United States about $110 
billion every year. Drug abuse kills some 52,000 Americans a year -- nearly 
the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam war.

This is more than a law enforcement problem. Vital national security 
interests in Mexico and, hence, in the United States are at risk.

This special edition of Insight examines the Arellano Felix Organization, 
the decade-long failure to shut it down, and what its defeat would require.
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