First Swine Flu, Now Drug Violence – Mexico, You’re Being a Bad Neighbor

Is there about to be a drug war up in our country?  CNN seems to think so.  Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel recently authorized his drug people to shoot to kill in order to protect their cargo, both in Mexico and on U.S. soil.

The violence that has spilled over into the U.S. has been restricted to the players in the drug trade — trafficker-on-trafficker, DEA agents say. But law enforcement officials and analysts who spoke with CNN agree that it is only a matter of time before innocent people on the U.S. side get caught in the cartel crossfire.

“It’s coming. I guarantee, it’s coming,” said Michael Sanders, a DEA spokesman in Washington.

6,500 Mexicans were killed last year in drug battles, up sharply from 2,600 in 2007.   

About 90% of America’s cocaine now comes from Mexico; it has replaced Colombia as our main guy.  Still,

marijuana became the cartels’ biggest revenue source for the first time in 2007, bringing in $8.5 billion. Cocaine came in second, at $3.9 billion, and methamphetamine earned $1 billion, a top U.S. drug policymaker told a group of U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials last year.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in 2007 and immediately set out to eviscerate the Mexican drug trade; he’s extradited 190 drug players to the U.S. for trial already.  Yet the violence has obviously increased since his efforts began.  Meanwhile, our leaders on this side of the border have just been sitting around getting high all the time.

Source: CNN.