No Real Solutions Offered for Cartel Presence

Representatives of the Region II Narcotics Enforcement Task Force have been making the rounds in Northern New Mexico. The presentation to city councils outlines a disturbing problem – Mexican drug cartel operators setting up networks with local gangs and establishing a local franchise.

A meeting with the Aztec City Commission yielded this comment from a council member: It was predicted years ago that this would happen, and now here we are. I hope this will serve as a wake-up call, and I hope that we take this warning very seriously. We've got to get the message across to the public that we cannot hide our heads in the sand.”

No one disputes the problem exists. But there’s another concern. The lack of solutions.

The Region II Task Force was set up in 1999, specifically to address drug smuggling and sales in San Juan County. Now, 11 years later, it doesn’t look like it’s worked. The Task Force representative is requesting more federal resources, pointing out that the cartel involvement is an international problem.

What’s telling though, is the answer when asked what cities in the area could do about it.

"Passing city ordinances such as those preventing illegals from obtaining driver's licenses, as Bloomfield did, can send a message that you're trying to make it harder for these people to operate, but I'm not sure how much that would really help."

So, translated… there isn’t much at all that locals can do without the feds stepping in. It seems to be a picture of outgunned and undermanned. Getting federal help will be difficult in a time of cutbacks. The way this usually works is that the problem gets bad enough to make national news and then action is taken and money freed up. That’s a pessimistic viewpoint, but there are too many ways to smuggle drugs through New Mexico. Our state is too big to patrol in enough detail, so we become a supply route into the rest of the U.S.