http://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ptured-but-that-wont-change-anything-20130724
Treviño's capture made international headlines, both because it was the most significant arrest of such a prominent cartel leader in several years, and because it marked the first major drug arrest under the administration of Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico's recently-elected president. Nieto's December 2012 election raised concerns in some circles that collaborative U.S. and Mexican drug war efforts were under threat. President Barack Obama acknowledged those concerns in an interview last week, but saw Treviño's arrest as an encouraging sign: "What it shows," said Obama, "is that the new administration of President Pena Nieto is serious about continuing the efforts to break up these transnational drug operations."
With such a well-known cartel figure now in custody, can we expect to see a drop in the flow of drugs across the U.S.-Mexico borders and a reduction in violence in Mexico? Of course not, says Sean Dunagan, a former DEA agent who tracked Treviño's operations for two years and witnessed the bloodshed he caused firsthand. In the immediate future, Dunagan says Treviño's arrest could actually lead to more killing – and in the long term, it will do nothing to bring U.S. drug warriors closer to their vision of victory.
In 2008, Dunagan – a 10-year veteran of the DEA – was assigned to a post in the U.S. consulate office in Monterrey, Mexico. He was the DEA's lone intelligence analyst in Mexico's third-largest metropolis. Up until that point, Monterrey, one of Mexico's wealthiest cities, had largely escaped the violence that has left some 60,000 people in the country dead over the last seven years. That would soon change.
....
Dunagan, the former DEA intelligence analyst, is convinced that the key to eliminating the violent, criminal organizations that profit from drug prohibition is to remove their primary reason for existing. "The only way to solve the problems caused by having something in the black market is by creating a legal, regulated market," he says, adding that he supports the regulated legalization of all drugs in order to "take the industry out of the hands of people like Miguel Treviño Morales."
In the last decade, the U.S. has spent $20 billion waging a militarized war on drug trafficking organizations in Latin America. In 2012 alone, $2.8 billion was spent on guns, planes and the latest technology in the effort to stop people from selling drugs to each other there. Private contractors, meanwhile, have made a fortune from the drug war: Last year, the State Department held a conference in Melbourne, Florida for private security companies interested in securing up to $10 billion in aviation contracts, the bulk of which will support international counter-narcotics operations.
The illicit international drug trade, meanwhile, continues to generate at least $320 billion each year, according to U.N. estimates – with the U.S. as the planet's top consumer. Until this changes, people like Treviño will always be able to find work. "Drugs are not hard to get in this country," says Dunagan. "Addiction rates are not low. And yet, we have this tremendous apparatus fighting the drug war, that is really having a terrible, terrible impact on Mexico and Guatemala and other countries in Latin America, and in this country . . . . All it does is foster violence and addiction, and wastes a lot of money in the process."
Treviño's capture made international headlines, both because it was the most significant arrest of such a prominent cartel leader in several years, and because it marked the first major drug arrest under the administration of Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico's recently-elected president. Nieto's December 2012 election raised concerns in some circles that collaborative U.S. and Mexican drug war efforts were under threat. President Barack Obama acknowledged those concerns in an interview last week, but saw Treviño's arrest as an encouraging sign: "What it shows," said Obama, "is that the new administration of President Pena Nieto is serious about continuing the efforts to break up these transnational drug operations."
With such a well-known cartel figure now in custody, can we expect to see a drop in the flow of drugs across the U.S.-Mexico borders and a reduction in violence in Mexico? Of course not, says Sean Dunagan, a former DEA agent who tracked Treviño's operations for two years and witnessed the bloodshed he caused firsthand. In the immediate future, Dunagan says Treviño's arrest could actually lead to more killing – and in the long term, it will do nothing to bring U.S. drug warriors closer to their vision of victory.
In 2008, Dunagan – a 10-year veteran of the DEA – was assigned to a post in the U.S. consulate office in Monterrey, Mexico. He was the DEA's lone intelligence analyst in Mexico's third-largest metropolis. Up until that point, Monterrey, one of Mexico's wealthiest cities, had largely escaped the violence that has left some 60,000 people in the country dead over the last seven years. That would soon change.
....
Dunagan, the former DEA intelligence analyst, is convinced that the key to eliminating the violent, criminal organizations that profit from drug prohibition is to remove their primary reason for existing. "The only way to solve the problems caused by having something in the black market is by creating a legal, regulated market," he says, adding that he supports the regulated legalization of all drugs in order to "take the industry out of the hands of people like Miguel Treviño Morales."
In the last decade, the U.S. has spent $20 billion waging a militarized war on drug trafficking organizations in Latin America. In 2012 alone, $2.8 billion was spent on guns, planes and the latest technology in the effort to stop people from selling drugs to each other there. Private contractors, meanwhile, have made a fortune from the drug war: Last year, the State Department held a conference in Melbourne, Florida for private security companies interested in securing up to $10 billion in aviation contracts, the bulk of which will support international counter-narcotics operations.
The illicit international drug trade, meanwhile, continues to generate at least $320 billion each year, according to U.N. estimates – with the U.S. as the planet's top consumer. Until this changes, people like Treviño will always be able to find work. "Drugs are not hard to get in this country," says Dunagan. "Addiction rates are not low. And yet, we have this tremendous apparatus fighting the drug war, that is really having a terrible, terrible impact on Mexico and Guatemala and other countries in Latin America, and in this country . . . . All it does is foster violence and addiction, and wastes a lot of money in the process."
