NCJ Number
226216
Date Published
February 2009
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article briefly describes the violent drug war among Mexican drug cartels along the border of Mexico and the United States.
Abstract
Phoenix, AZ which sits about 100 miles north of the Mexican border has long acted as a hub for drug trafficking and migrant smuggling into the United States. The State of Arizona acts as the corridor for the majority of both drug trafficking and migrant smuggling according to the Department of Homeland Security. Phoenix now leads the Nation in kidnappings and home invasions. However, these crimes are being committed by one band of drug-associated criminals ripping off a second drug-associated criminal. The violence is occurring between drug cartels and not “ordinary people/citizens.” This article describes how Mexican nationals, most in the United States illegally, from Tijuana on the West Coast and the Mexican Northwestern States of Sonora and Sinaloa and members of powerful drug cartels fueling much of the United States’ drug habits, have been embroiled in a drug war against each other threatening the destabilization of Mexico and flowing into the streets of border cities in the United States such as Phoenix.