b'Over 100 immigrants from Central America riding aboard a tractor trailer through Mexico.and exercise power, and that are ingrained generation- mas, were shut down by newly acquired air and sea as-ally within their societies. This level of organized vio- sets of the DEA, and foreign governments were offered lence takes on an evolving array of missions over time rich incentives to cooperate with the American war on the business of murder-for-turf and intimidation of thedrugs. Those in Latin America who refused to go along, masses by the few is always strong in places that lackor worse yet dared to flaunt their associations with political freedom and economic opportunity. So, whenSouth American cocaine producers, were taken down Colombian and Venezuelan drug producers had to dras- by the U.S.with a full military invasion in the case of tically modify supply routes to their biggest market, thePanamanian President Manuel Noriega. Over a period United States via Mexico, the most vulnerable Centralof about a decade, South American smuggling routes be-American countries became the new smuggling corri- gan to end in Mexico, where the product was purchased dorsand those were through El Salvador, Hondurasby the ton and smuggled into the U.S.and especially Guatemala. For the entire 1980s, there was a single Mexican Cocaine from Colombia, the worlds top producerdrug lord who owned the monopoly on smuggling over by far, has not routinely been smuggled directly intothe border into the U.S., and that was Felix Gallardo, the U.S. since the 1980ssmuggler stories like thoseEl Padrino (The Godfather), that was until his arrest depicted in films like Goodfellas and Blow no longerin 1989 for the highly publicized murder of U.S. Drug represented how the business was being conducted byEnforcement Agent Enrique Kiki Camarena in 1985. the 1990s [see Interdiction, Winter 2018-19]. Big bustsFrom prison, Gallardo instructed his attorney to con-all along the east coast of the U.S. in the 80s led tovene a meeting in Acapulco at which his entire smug-big busts of Mafia-affiliated drug gangs in New York,gling empire would be divided up among his deputies, TopDistrict 27 Rep. Michael Cloud (R) visiting a BorderNew Jersey and Illinois. Air and sea routes used throughincluding his nephews and Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, Patrol station in the Rio Grande Valley; MiddleRep. Cloud,the Caribbean, often with stops in Cuba and the Baha- setting up what would become the system of drug car-a staunch supporter of the Trump Administrations immigra- tels in Mexico. Gallardo remains in a Mexican prison to tion policies, pictured in a campaign poster with his wife, athis day, serving out a 37-year sentence for the murder Mexican national, and his three Mexican-American children;of Camarena.BelowRep. Clouds quote to TCBM on his assessment ofFor the following 15 years, the cartels largely re-building a wall along the Rio Grande River, July 2018. spected the territorial boundaries set up by Gallardo, and suppliers from South America worked with some and all of the cartels in getting their product into the United States. In 2006, Mexicos newly elected Presi-dent Felipe Caldern, with the full funding and support of the United States Government, initiated a crackdown on drug cartels that involved the Mexican military. From an enforcement perspective, the campaign was success-Build the Wall!A typical curve in the Rio Grande Riverful in Mexicocartel bosses were arrested, shipments in the Valley illustrates the feasibility of a border wall. were interdicted, and smugglers were busted, and an 26 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFall 2019 TheCoastalBend.com'