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According to part of an on-going report headed by two teams of journalists from El Universal, drug traffickers are corrupting U.S. authorities. In examining the southern U.S. border (from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific) for explanations of the failure in battling drug trafficking, the journalists have cited a major gap in U.S. policy.

Everyday dozens of individuals responsible for directing the movement of cars loaded with drugs from the Mexican side are placed midway between international checkpoints. Professor of the University of Texas at El Paso, Tony Payán, explains that in these areas individuals use only their eyes and intuition in order to cross the seemingly impossible most fortified border in the world. In the area of El Magallanes in the border port Mexicali, one must wait several hours until a larger vehicle is being inspected, and then take their chance while there is distraction.

Payán delineates the U.S. officials’ role in corruption stating, “Equipped with high technology and with hundreds of elements trained to detect illegal shipments, the international checkpoints fail at something as ordinary as corruption.” He further explains that, “The shipments cross randomly through the entry ports, where each time there is more technology, and each time, as a result, there are more corrupt customs houses that let them through. But the U.S. has never accepted that their corruption can be systemic,” he states. “The cannons of money are the same in Mexico as they are in the United States.”

El Universal cites other analysts and police chiefs along the U.S. border in determining that this corruption is what allows the enormous displacement of drugs not only in crossing lines, but across all of the North American territory.

“Here corruption occurs as well, it’s just that the United States is really good at covering these occurrences. In Eagle Pass (Texas) we have had personnel from federal bodies that have been arrested, that they’ve taken to federal court, but the press does not give it much attention, like they do to what happens in Mexico,” says Antonio Castaneda, chief of police in that city.

According to Antonio Payán, Doctor of Sociology, from the University of Texas in El Paso, drug trafficking networks in the U.S. are reaching extraordinary dimensions. They are larger and more complex than those that exist in Mexico, and furthermore, corruption faces a justice system that is highly “bureaucratic and inefficient.” The widespread and profound network of drug traffickers operates in every city and border town. Not only do they store the drugs, but they distribute them throughout their locales. Through each of the processes they carry out the movement and increasing involvement of under age students.

“It bothers me greatly to see 13-year old boys consuming drugs,” states Raúl Salinas, mayor of Laredo, Texas, where consumption is one of the factors that encourages family break-up. According to Salinas, nearly half of marriages in the city end up dissolving. Corruption explains part of the violence that begins to manifest itself on this side of the border. “Corruption is everywhere, you know?” declares police sergeant Chris Valdez from New Mexico.

Valdez’s base is in La Española, a rural area in the north of the state, where there is one of the highest rates of heroine addiction in the U.S.; as a result, deaths from overdoses, prostitution and poverty have taken hold of its inhabitants. “CNN announced that drug use dropped. I don’t know how that can be. That’s not noticeable here. Now there are more people using drugs than when I started to work here in ‘93. I never saw a person of 13 years old injecting themselves, or worse, women who are prostitutes in order to obtain a dose,” he says.

“This is not a war. People keep dying. Everything is ruined.”

SOURCE:

Alvarado, Ignacio and Hernández, Evangelina. “Narcos corrompen autoridades de EU.” El Universal, October 19, 2009

Originally Posted by Noticias

El Universal cites other analysts and police chiefs along the U.S. border in determining that this corruption is what allows the enormous displacement of drugs not only in crossing lines, but across all of the North American territory.

“Here corruption occurs as well, it’s just that the United States is really good at covering these occurrences. In Eagle Pass (Texas) we have had personnel from federal bodies that have been arrested, that they’ve taken to federal court, but the press does not give it much attention, like they do to what happens in Mexico,” says Antonio Castaneda, chief of police in that city.

That is simply just not possible.

I have read several Baja bashers who on other forums/blogs that the only corrupt country is Mexico...