US is responsible for dire situation across its border

After the arrest last week of one of Mexico's most ruthless drug lords, "La Barbie", media coverage has highlighted his American-born, football star origins. But the kingpin is the product of America in a more profound way: the country is morally responsible for his career. Indeed, the US is culpable for the rise of all the Mexican drug cartels, whose $39 billion (Dh143.4 billion) criminal enterprise has led to more than 23,000 deaths since 2006, and brought a fledgling democracy to its knees.

To attribute moral responsibility to one nation for another's domestic problems is usually a fraught process, since there are so many causal forces in play. But in this case, the connection is crystal clear. Mexican drug lords exist to feed the US drug market. And they get their guns through the US weapons market. The US gives the bad guys their money by buying their drugs; it sells them the guns that enable their continued existence; and they threaten a nation of more than 100 million people at its border.

Like a game of Whac-a-Mole where the moles are on cocaine, speak Spanish and wield rocket-propelled grenades, the Mexican cartels, in existence for decades, emerged as kingpins when they filled the supply-side gap that opened up when Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels dissolved in the 1990s, along with the cocaine trafficking route through Florida.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Centre, Mexican cartels now dominate the wholesale illegal drug market in the US, both by producing drugs in Mexico and trafficking those grown elsewhere in Latin America. The State Department estimates that 90 per cent of the cocaine entering the US transits through Mexico. The cartels are also the biggest foreign supplier of marijuana to the United States, and a major supplier of methamphetamine and heroin. They distribute wholesale to their outlets in more than 2,500 American cities, leaving retail sales to various American gangs.

Mexico's cartels earn upwards of $39 billion annually in illicit proceeds from the United States, the Justice Department estimates. To put that in context, it's roughly equal to the global annual revenue of Google and Halliburton combined.

What's more, the US helps them launder their money. From 2003 to 2008, Wachovia Corp alone laundered at least $110 million, according to the Justice Department. Wachovia admitted to "serious and systematic" violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and agreed to pay $160 million to resolve the criminal case against them. American Express Bank International and Western Union have also recently agreed to huge settlements with the government for laundering Mexican drug proceeds.

While the cartels pay fewer taxes than their fellow Fortune 100 companies, their security overhead is more expensive. They cross the border for those purposes, too, where the US welcomes them with (open) arms. In Mexico, civilians need approval from the military to purchase firearms and cannot own high-powered pistols or large-calibre rifles. In the US, however, gun dealers can sell multiple military-style rifles to citizens without even reporting the sales.

Easy access to weapons

The cartels hire people without criminal records to buy a handful of weapons at a time, from licensed dealers — there are 6,600 along the border alone — or private individuals at gun shows, and then drive them across the border. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives estimates that 90 per cent of the traced firearms recovered in Mexico originated in the US.

Flush with American money and guns, the cartels have wreaked havoc in Mexico, especially in the northern states along the 3,200-kilometre border.

While it's clear that certain Americans are complicit to the situation south of the border, why does this morally implicate the entire nation and federal government? Surely, no US leader supports illegal drug purchases and weapon sales. The response is that there are huge numbers of US citizens involved, and the government does little to combat the problem. A nation can be responsible for its inaction, too.

If the US takes its moral status seriously, both as a people that supports young democracies and as one that doesn't inflict fatal damage on allies wantonly and glibly, then it needs to prioritise this problem. From a more self-regarding perspective, consider that the chaos in parts of Mexico creates greater incentives for illegal immigration. And narco-states are not friendly neighbours.

As to the guns, there aren't any magic policy bullets, but closing down the gun shops arrayed at the border, possibly though zoning laws, is a good start. The 2nd Amendment doesn't cover Mexican drug lords, gladly. The US should also increase the penalties for smuggling weapons.

As to the money, the US need to think harder and faster about stemming the demand for drugs.

Jacob Bronsther, a law student at New York University and former Fulbright Scholar, writes for ThePublicPhilosopher.com.