Attacking the finances of Mexican cartels, argues Celina Realuyo, would have far more impact than a combat-style strategy. When leadership alone changes, the primary motive for a cartel's enterprise remains: profit. U.S. authorities estimate that U.S. drug users send between $19 and $29 billion annually to Mexican drug cartels. Financial strategies have disrupted terror and crime networks across the world. It's time to turn them to Mexico.
The capture of the Zetas cartel leader, Miguel Angel
Treviño Morales, in mid-July 2013 represents a major coup for Mexico's
President Enrique Peña Nieto's Administration and his campaign pledge to reduce
drug-related violence in Mexico.
Mexican Marines caught the Zeta kingpin on July 15, 2013,
along with a bodyguard and one of his financial operatives, in a vehicle with
eight rifles and $2 million in cash near Nuevo Laredo.
The Zetas were founded by deserters from the Mexican
Special Forces and are considered the most brutal of the Mexican cartels.
They are engaged in diversified criminal activities,
including drug trafficking, human smuggling, extortion and kidnappings. Their
"trademark" is to use highly publicized beheadings and dismemberment
of their victims to terrorize local populations.
The military operation against Treviño is reminiscent of
the "kill/capture decapitation" strategy deployed by former President
Felipe Calderon's Administration. He, too, focused on dismantling cartel
leadership structures.
Under Calderon's mano dura (iron fist)
strategy, the Mexican military was deployed to fight the cartels head on.
Calderon was subsequently blamed for triggering unprecedented levels of
violence with over 65,000 deaths in Mexico in six years.
As we have seen during the war on drugs, decapitation
and mano durastrategies have failed to impact these armed groups
significantly. All that such operations yield is violent succession crises. New
leaders rise quickly to fill the power vacuum.
It is reported that Treviño's brother, Omar, has already
ascended as the new leader of the Zetas. As the saying goes: the more things
change, the more they stay the same.
This truth applies despite President Peña Nieto's promise
to move away from his predecessor's hard power counter-cartel approach and
focus on reducing violence.
While the leadership of the Mexican cartels may change,
what remains constant is the primary motive for their criminal enterprises:
profit. It's all about the money!
Money serves as the lifeblood for any activity, licit or
illicit. U.S. authorities estimate that U.S. drug users send between $19 and
$29 billion annually to Mexican drug cartels.
In recent years, investigative tools like "following
the money trail" have helped security forces around the world better
detect, disrupt and dismantle terrorist and criminal groups, including Al Qaeda
and Hezbollah.
For that reason, the Mexican government should focus more
of its counter-crime efforts on cartel finances. Targeting that trail is the
only true disrupter, since money is the objective, driver and enabler of the
Mexican cartels.
It is said that cartel kingpins fear two things:
extradition to the United States and losing their money. There are promising
signs that the Mexican government has gotten the message. It is now investing
in the financial front against the cartels.
On July 17, 2013, a new, more rigorous anti-money
laundering law went into effect in Mexico. It is aimed at limiting cash
transactions and supervising a broader array of businesses vulnerable to money
laundering.
That same day, the Mexican Attorney General's office
announced the launch of its new Specialized Financial Analysis Unit. The unit
is responsible for detecting and dismantling the financial structures of the
cartels.
These measures will contribute to more comprehensive
Mexican efforts to address the supply and demand sides of these criminal
enterprises.
With the recent arrest of Miguel Angel Treviño and one of
his accountants, the Mexican government has a golden opportunity to bring this
ruthless cartel leader to justice.
But Mexico can also use the arrests to gain greater
insight into the ways the Zetas are generating, moving, storing and
distributing their revenue.
Attacking the finances of Mexican cartels may have far
more impact in degrading these criminal enterprises that are fueled by the
proceeds from their illicit activities than the traditional whack-a-mole strategy.