| The Mexican Drug War is an ongoing armed conflict taking place among rival drug cartels fighting each other for regional control, and Mexican government forces seeking to combat drug trafficking. However, the government's principal goal has been to put down the drug-related violence that was raging between different rival drug cartels in Mexico before any military intervention was made.[27] In addition, the Mexican government has claimed that their primary focus is on dismantling the powerful drug cartels, rather than on drug trafficking prevention, which is left to US functionaries. Although Mexican drug cartels, or drug trafficking organizations, have existed for several decades, they have become more powerful since the demise of Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States.[31] Arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States. The US Department of Justice estimates that wholesale earnings from illicit drug sales range from $13.6 billion to $48.4 billion annually. Given its geographic location, Mexico has long been used as a staging and transshipment point for narcotics, illegal immigrants and contraband destined for US markets from Mexico, South America and elsewhere. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Colombia's Pablo Escobar was the ... |
