Why Building a 'Beautiful Wall' on Mexico's Northern Border Won't Stop the Drug Cartels Roberto Saviano - Newsweek
go to original March 10, 2017

Tunnels, Traffickers and Cartels: Life on the US-Mexico Border (BBC Newsnight)

Despite the wall, the Mexican cartels have long managed to get drugs into the U.S. by a variety of means: catapults, hang gliders, underground tunnels, even submarines. And drugs from Mexico often still enter the United States through official border crossings: With more than half a million people entering from Mexico into the U.S. every day, it’s impossible to check every car, motorcycle, truck and tour bus.

Narcos often attach coke to the underside of vehicles that have permits to cross the border in a special lane; the best couriers are those who don’t even know they’re smuggling. They are even able to hide the odor of cocaine - and fool drug dogs - by adding coffee or cayenne pepper to the outside of the packages. Once the vehicle makes it to the other side of the border, they find ways to retrieve the drugs. As long as the U.S. remains the world’s largest consumer of coke, and as long as Mexico continues to provide it, no wall will ever be able to stop the trade.

So far, the wall hasn’t even stopped the flow of undocumented immigrants who attempt to cross the border, risking their lives in the desert and enriching the human traffickers who are controlled by the cartels. These migrants are crossing in search of honest work, of a better life for their families. Some are even fleeing the violence caused by the drug war. Contrary to Trump’s racist innuendo, they are not cartel members. But the wall has allowed the narcos to exploit some of them: If a migrant doesn’t have the $1,500 to $2,000 required to pay a coyote, he can eliminate his debt by putting cocaine in his bag before crossing the border.

The wall hasn’t stopped laundered cartel money either. A 2012 study by two Colombian economists, Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejía, revealed that 97.4 percent of drug trafficking revenue in Colombia is laundered by American and European banking networks through diverse financial operations.

Read the rest at Newsweek

Related: Trump Effect? Smugglers Raise Price for Sneaking People Across U.S. Border (NBC News)

Related: US Says Illegal Crossings from Mexico Declined 40% from January to February (Reuters)

Related: 'They'll Tunnel Anywhere They Want': Go Inside the Underground Passages Smugglers Burrow Under the US Border (Associated Press)

Related: Immigration from Mexico Could Soon Plummet — Even Without a Border Wall (Voice of San Diego)

Related: Migrants Vow to Cross Trump’s Wall: ‘If Not Over, Then Under’ (Gulf Times)

Related: Border Patrol 'Tunnel Rats' Plug Underground Passages (The Associated Press)

Related: 'Misusing His Power' — There's Displeasure with Trump's New Homeland Security Secretary on Both Sides of the Border (Pulse)

Related: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Whether Mexico Will Pay for Border Wall: 'Uh, No' (Washington Examiner)

Related: The Foolishness of Using a Wall to Stem US Immigration, in One Chart (Quartz)

Related: More People Have Overstayed Their Visas Than Have Illegally Crossed the Border Since 2007 (Identities.Mic)

Related: Donald Trump Immigration Crackdown a Boon for Scam Artists (Agence France-Presse)

Related: 'Imagined Borders' – The Project Highlighting the Futility of Borders with Google Maps (Konbini)

Related: The Trump Administration Reportedly Wants to Fund the Border Wall By Gutting Agencies That Protect Against Terrorism (Business Insider)

Related: Report: US Senator Chuck Schumer Devises Plan to Stop Trump's Wall Effort (Aol.)

Related: White House: Border Wall Cost Could Run $25 Million Per Mile (The Washington Times)

Related: Why Canada Should Care About Organized Crime in Mexico (Huffington Post)

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