Drug cartels

While in the past (until the mid-1990s), coca paste and coca base exports from Peru used to be in the hands of the Colombian drug cartels, a significant proportion of the Peruvian cocaine exports is now organized by criminal groups from Mexico and leaves the country by sea. 

September 24 A federal grand jury indicts Ramon Arellano Felix, head of a violent Mexican drug cartel, on charges of drug smuggling. Arellano Felix remains at large and is added to the FBI s 10 Most Wanted List. 

Chepesiuk, Ron. The Bullet or the Bribe Taking Down Colombia s Drug Cartel. Westport, Conn. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003. Describes how perhaps the most sophisticated criminal organization in history, distributor of more than 70 percent of the world s cocaine, was finally dismanded by an unprecedented international effort spearheaded by the United States. 

Kirk, Robin. More Terrible than Death Massacres, Drugs, and America s War in Colombia. New York Public Affairs, 2004. A researcher with Human Rights Watch vividly chronicles the ongoing violence in Colombia between paramilitary forces, guerrillas, and drug cartels. Drawing upon extensive interviews and observations, the author focuses mainly on the situation within Colombia but also points out ways in which U.S. policy has contributed to the violence. 

Thus far, the information presented certainly indicates that the NDCS activities in the supply reduction area have failed and that some of the results have actually been harmful. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that at least some of the activities have been inappropriate. Specifically, crop eradication seems to hurt farmers in poor countries. The use of pofice and military to fight drug cartels has increased violence and instabifity in Latin America. In spite of the bilhons of dollars spent each year to reduce the supply of illegal drugs, neither the price, nor the purity, or availabifity of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, or methamphetamine has been impacted. Why ... 

Supply reduction is an admittedly complex issue because it involves U.S. foreign relations policies, international treaties, the fight against terrorism, drug cartels, money laundering, and protection of our borders with Mexico and Canada. While all of these issues are important, concerns with foreign policy or homeland security must be separated from the focus here, which is the relationship between the... 

It has acquired a jet-set image. Popular in the 1920s Hollywood him circles, it was superseded by amphetamines, and then came back into fashion with hlms like Easy Rider (1969) and glam-rock. Conspicuous consumption spread through yuppies in the Western world. The supply was fueled by South American drug cartels, most notoriously originating in Medellin and Cali in Colombia. Then crack cocaine came into use, as a cheaper form that introduced cocaine among less affluent consumers. 

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