The greatest threat to America is finally getting some attention. State legislators in Ohio are urging the U.S. Government to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, which would enhance the powers to be used against them. They’re currently responsible for almost all the opiates now flooding the U.S. and poisoning the population. People take these drugs of their own free will, but the cartels see that a substantial supply is always on hand. Beyond that, the vast amount of money involved in the trade assures the backing of other elements of society that are benefiting. The money, like drugs, circulates widely.
Ohio legislators were prompted by a drug bust a year ago that found huge amounts of heroin, cocaine and fentanyl, along with cash, in hidden compartments of cars in Cleveland and vicinity. These belonged to the prominent Sinaloa cartel, nineteen of whose members were sent to federal prison. That is just one cartel and one U.S. city. There’s ample evidence other cartels are active in many other cities. All the concern over the border obscures the fact that the real dangers occur well beyond it. Every now and then the media allow a U.S. border agent to note more drugs than ever are pouring over. It’s quite possible that the cartels, who determine who crosses the border, are using the immigration scare to divert attention from their more profitable invasion.
Increasingly, cartel bosses are finding a home in affluent U.S. neighborhoods. No housing cost is beyond them. From there they direct the distribution of drugs to gangs in such cities as Chicago, where violent fights over drug routes resemble similar clashes in Mexico. With great fanfare, the Trump Administration has just designated the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization. Which poses the greater danger to America, Iran half a globe away or Mexico next door?
And is there a more terrorized nation than Mexico? With a record 33,341 murders in 2018, more deaths by violence than occurred in such war zones as Afghanistan and Yemen. Contrary to the anodyne media reports, it’s less a nation than a narco state fattened with the payments of American drug consumers, as much as 60 billion dollars a year. More journalists are killed in Mexico than anywhere else on earth, which may explain why Americans have little idea of what’s going on there. As for American journalists, they’re apparently afflicted with borderitis … incapable of seeing beyond, either north or south.
Judicial Watch, a private watchdog of government activities, has been in the forefront of those seeking the terrorist designation for the cartels. It recently issued a white paper citing various cartel actions to support this view, such as more than 400 acts of aggression against Mexican politicians in the 2018 election year, not exactly a testament to democracy or stability. There’s also evidence the cartels are seeking biological and nuclear weapons. Sounds like terrorism and then some.
