Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations: Matching Strategy to Threat

Abstract

Abstract : Mexico and the United States share a long social, cultural, political, economic and geographic history. Unfortunately, the two countries also share a significant national security threat, that of drug trafficking organizations (DTO). DTOs are extremely violent organizations that are the largest suppliers of illegal drugs to Americans. The ends, ways and means of DTOs have significant negative implications on both countries. While DTOs often operate in the same manner as terrorist and insurgent groups, the U.S. government identifies DTOs as transnational criminal organizations due to the fact that the DTOs ends are financial as opposed to ideological or political. Using an interagency, or whole of government , strategy, the U.S. government conducts a bilateral campaign aimed at reducing the affects of DTOs. Finally, this approach best incorporates all elements of national power aimed at reducing the demand for illegal drugs and countering the threat from DTOs to one manageable at the lowest levels of government.