Pubdate: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 Source: El Paso Times (TX) Copyright: 2010 El Paso Times Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/formnewsroom Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829 DRUG KINGPINS: FREEZING THEIR ACCOUNTS WILL HURT THEM The war on drugs is so filled with failure that it's good to get some positive news. The Obama administration on Wednesday designated 54 suspected Mexican drug-cartel lieutenants and enforcers as drug kingpins. This designation allows the feds to freeze their bank accounts and penalize their business partners. Because money greases the wheels of the drug-cartel operations, freezing bank accounts could deprive gang members of the precious commodity of money and thus hamper their efforts and make them less useful in the eyes of other cartel or gang members. This particular action was aimed at the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, a gang of former Gulf Cartel hit men. But the lesson should be clear -- it could happen in other places, to other cartels. Hitting the cartels in their wallets could prove to be a highly effective strategy. Meanwhile, the fear generated by the cartels has never been more obvious than in a quote from an Associated Press article. After a deadly incident in Santa Catarina, a suburb of Monterrey in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, the security chief was quoted as saying, "I don't know anything. I don't know anything. I don't know anything. That's my position." That's the kind of fear generated by the drug cartels, and it's one of their most potent weapons. People -- including law enforcement -- intimidated to that degree aren't likely to cause the cartels much trouble. So it's good to have a weapon like the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act through which the cartels can be attacked at one of their most vulnerable points -- money. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake