Are Mexican Drug Cartels Terrorist Organizations?
Should drug cartels be labeled as terrorist organizations? How are individuals charged with drug crimes affected by recent drug legislation?

July 09, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, has recently introduced legislation in Congress to designate six Mexican drug cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations."

Cartels have used violence to seize political and economic control across parts of northern Mexico, with "spillover crime (resulting) in the abandonment of property and loss of security on the U.S. side of the border," said McCaul, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee's panel on oversight and investigations. He stated that designating the Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations would allow prosecutors to protect the national security interests of both the U.S. and Mexico.

Mexican Ambassador's Response

The bill prompted a response from Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan, who wrote a letter to the Dallas Morning News, replying to their editorial supporting the bill.

Sarukhan said, "If you label these organizations as terrorist, you will have to start calling drug consumers in the U.S. 'financiers of terrorist organizations' and gun dealers 'providers of material support to terrorists.'"

Not Everyone Agrees With the Legislation

Sen. John Cornyn, R-San Antonio, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pointed to the difference between the Mexican drug cartels and terrorist organizations.

"Cartels are in it for one thing -- money," Cornyn said. "To me, we need to be clear about what is happening in Mexico. We have got to be careful about the label because sometimes those labels can create misleading impressions."

Costs of the Drug War

While the drug cartels make vast sums of money, there is little doubt the "war" on drugs costs the U.S. a great deal of money. The U.S. federal government alone spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the war on drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second.

Another price is the number of persons processed through the criminal justice system. While the 2010 numbers are not yet out, the total drug arrests will likely surpass the 1.6 million arrests of 2009. In fact, the number of arrests made for drug violations accounted for 13 percent of the total number of arrests made in 2009, which is more than any other criminal offense.

Federal and State Drug Charges

The controversy surrounding the prosecution of the war on drugs has not lessened the penalties for federal drug crime charges. Federal drug charge punishments range from one year in prison and a $250,000 fine, to life in prison and $75,000,000 for a second trafficking charge involving Heroin, LSD, Methamphetamine and PCP.

Similarly, Texas has severe penalties for drug charges. Many serious illegal drugs in Texas fall under the Penalty Group 1 classification of the Texas Health and Safety Code. Under this classification, conviction of drug possession alone carries serious consequences:
- Possession of less than one gram is generally going to be a state jail felony, carrying a sentence of 180 days to two years and up to a $10,000 fine.
- Possession of one to four grams becomes a felony of the third degree, with a sentence of 2-10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
- Possession of four to 200 grams is a felony of the second degree, with a sentence of two to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
- Possession of 200 grams to 400 grams is a felony of the first degree, with a sentence of five to 99 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
- Over 400 gram is punishable by imprisonment for life, and a fine not to exceed $100,000.

For Marijuana

Under the Texas Health and Safety Code, section 481.121, possession of a usable quantity of marijuana is:
- A Class B misdemeanor if the amount of marijuana possessed is two ounces or less
- A Class A misdemeanor if the amount of marijuana possessed is between two and four ounces
- A state jail felony if the amount of marijuana possessed is between four ounces and five pounds
- A felony of the third degree if the amount of marijuana possessed is between five and fifty pounds
- A felony of the second degree if the amount of marijuana possessed is between 50 and 2,000 pounds
- Punishable by imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life or for a term of not more than 99 years or less than 5 years, and a fine not to exceed $50,000, if the amount of marijuana possessed is more than 2,000 pounds

Has the War on Drugs Failed?

The failure of the war on drugs has been discussed many times. In 2009, the former presidents of Columbia, Venezuela and Mexico wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal declaring it a failure, stating that "Prohibitionist policies based on eradication, interdiction and criminalization of consumption simply haven't worked. Violence and the organized crime associated with the narcotics trade remain critical problems in our countries."

And they foreshadowed the current proposal by Rep. McCaul: "The alarming power of the drug cartels is leading to a criminalization of politics and a politicization of crime."

Dangers of Politicization of Crime

One of the dangers of characterizing criminal organizations as "terrorists" is that it confuses a group of criminals interested in making money with terrorists -- people with ideological goals.

The gangsters in Chicago did not continue with their gangland wars once Prohibition ended. When the insane profits were eliminated (Al Capone earned $105 million in 1927, or $1.3 billion in 2010 dollars), few were interested in dying over who was distributing alcohol in a Chicago neighborhood. They did not have the ideological interests that terrorists have.

Further escalating the violence on the U.S.-Mexican border seems unlikely to produce an acceptable solution. Thirty years of the war on drugs only seems to have made the cartels more powerful.

Taking the experience of Prohibition as a guide, it would seem the most likely road to success would involve undercutting the funding of the drug cartels. Unfortunately, few U.S. politicians have the courage to raise that as an option.

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