Cartels and Corruption
Since the 1970s, there have been numerous campaigns against drugs. However, despite the amount spent on these campaigns, illegal drug use appears to be spreading.
By Roma Blackham, Marketing —
$51 billion, that’s how much the United States spends each year combating the traffic and sale of illegal drugs. This effort isn’t something new. In the 1970s Richard Nixon called this the War on Drugs, and the term has since become part of our everyday vernacular. Since the 1970s, there have been numerous campaigns against drugs. However, despite the amount spent on these campaigns, illegal drug use appears to be spreading.
The Zetas
Latin America is infamous for drug production and trafficking. One of the most notorious drug cartels in Mexico is The Zetas. This crime syndicate has historically worked to infiltrate and corrupt law enforcement within Mexico, and it has recently come to light that they are now working to infiltrate law enforcement in the US.
US Law Enforcement Corruption
Former police officer Noe Juarez has been sentence to 30 years in jail for providing the Zetas drug cartel with guns, body armor, and insider law enforcement information. He was caught on camera selling weapons outside the nightclub where he worked as head of security. Those weapons would later be distributed to a cocaine trafficking ring. Not only did he sell guns and gear, but he also ran license plate numbers for the cartel and shared confidential police tactics and activities.
Preventing Corruption
What is maybe most disturbing about this is that Juarez was a former marine and a former police officer in Houston for 20 years. Someone with that kind of background is not usually thought to be susceptible to this kind of corruption. But sadly Juarez proved that you can’t always judge a person on their past experience. Corruption of this kind is hard to anticipate, but there are preventative measures that can be taken to prevent corruption in the workplace. Using EyeDetect tests, corrupt police officers can be identified, and the spread of corruption stopped. If police officers were routinely required to take EyeDetect tests, corrupt officers could be identified.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
