At The Border, The Drugs Go North And The Cash Goes South
The international drug trade goes in two directions: Narcotics go north and money goes south. All the drug profits made on the streets of U.S. cities like Chicago and Atlanta and Dallas are funneled down to ports of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border where they're smuggled back into Mexico. In 2012, one federal agency alone, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seized $411 million in cash hidden in vehicles, mostly heading south.
Once the bundles of U.S. banknotes are delivered to the cartel, the money flows in many directions. Growers, warehousers, smugglers, assassins and corrupt police and politicians must be paid. Mostly, the dollars have to be laundered. Dirty money has to somehow be injected into the legal economy.
The prosperous city of Culiacn, on Mexico's northern Pacific coast, is a good place to see how U.S. drug dollars are spent in Mexico. This is home to the Sinaloa Cartel, the most powerful and richest drug cartel in the world. Its leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was arrested last month after 13 years on the run, but few analysts in Mexico believe his capture will cripple the mafia he created.
Dollars Into Pesos
The U.S. State Department reported in 2013 that Mexican drug mafias send to Mexico between $19 and $29 billion a year from proceeds of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines sold in the United States.
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Borderland: Dispatches From The U.S.-Mexico Boundary