Transnational Drug Bust Shows Power of Cooperation
By Douglas Farah
Today's DOJ announcement of a major, multinational bust of the Gulf Cartel shows that cooperation across agencies and international borders can yield significant results.
With the growing nexus of the drug trade and terrorist activities, it is no longer possible to view the drug trade as separate from the merging organized crime/terrorist pipelines that we are seeing across Latin America and Asia.
The 15-month "Project Reckoning" operation stretched from Mexico to Italy, yielding 175 arrests, the seizure of $60 million and other benefits. It touched sections of the transnational criminal pipeline in Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico, the United States.
There is no question the results are particularly good news for Mexico, where the Calderon government is fighting for its survival and the survival of the Mexican state in the face of renewed drug cartel violence.
It is hard to understand why more such operations are not undertaken. Part of the reason is the lack of sustained focus by previous attorneys general on the issue of transnational crime and its long-term impact on the societies in which it operates, including creating conditions that foster an alliance with terrorist organizations (the FARC in Colombia, the Taliban in Afghanistan/Pakistan, the Tamil Tigers etc.)
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey has gone a long way toward remedying that oversight and neglect, and I hope it continues, regardless of who wins the elections. My full blog is here.