Drug Trafficking

The average American may think of drug traffickers as those seedy characters who stand on street corners in rough neighborhoods, trading small packets of drugs for hastily handed-off bills. This would be very far from the truth. The truly dangerous drug traffickers have the appearance of prosperous businessmen. They could look Hispanic, Jamaican, Nigerian, European, Asian or American because there are international drug cartels from each group – plus others.

When cocaine exploded into the American culture in the 1980s, enterprising individuals involved in the distribution of this drug had the opportunity to entrench themselves firmly in major cities across the nation. It was only natural that these channels, once established, permitted these fledgling drug cartels to expand their business lines to provide multiple drugs. By the 1990s, South American drug manufacturers were pushing heroin and marijuana across the U.S. border along with their cocaine. Methamphetamine was soon added.

After the new millenium, the manufacturers teamed up with Mexican drug cartels and handed off the responsibility for transporting South American drugs across the U.S. border. This greater efficiency contributed to the expansion of drug use across America. The number of drug users increased, followed by the number of drug-dependent people. More people needed drug rehab, more celebrities began to publicly fall to addiction problems. The vast profits accrued by drug cartels meant that they could invest in more technology, more skilled personnel, more transportation resources. And thus they could successfully evade detection and move more drugs into the U.S. and other affluent areas such as Australia, Europe, and new frontiers such as the new post-U.S.S.R. countries now open for trade and commerce.

There now exists a constant struggle on the part of drug cartels and law enforcement bodies such as the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, each side trying to neutralize the abilities of the opposing group. Drug cartels in Mexico have auto shops that install hidden, hydraulically operated compartments in private cars and trucks, which are then filled with drugs and sent across the border. Customs agents constantly develop new techniques and tools for detecting these shipments.

But with nearly endless resources at their disposal, the cartels continue to develop new ways to get drugs into this and other countries of heavy consumption. In the last several years, retired Boeing 727 airplanes and smaller planes such as Gulfstreams have been purchased by South American cartels so they can move their products into impoverished and corruptible West African countries. From West Africa, it’s a much shorter hop to European consumers.

These same cartels have set up shop in the South American jungles, hiring labor to construct crude submarines capable of nearly undetectable transportation of tons of cocaine at a time. Hundreds of these shipments have been documented. These submarines continue to grow in size until a single sub can transport as much as 6.5 metric tons of cocaine.

The answer is that drug cartels will stop at nothing to expand their channels of distribution in any country qualified to consume their wares.

So How Can one Stop their Advance?

While law enforcement personnel do their best to create a line of defense, squelching business opportunities for drug cartels must include drug rehabilitation programs that really work and drug education that results in young people who choose drug-free lives.

Unfortunately, many drug recovery programs don’t measure their success by the drug-free lives they create. Many addiction treatment programs only monitor their clients as far as their insurance coverage extends, 30 days in many cases.

The Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program is different. The measurement of success for a Narconon addiction treatment program graduate is someone who is completely drug and alcohol free. Narconon staff monitor their graduates for two full years after completion.

Substance abuse and addiction can be successfully fought when effective drug treatment programs and drug prevention programs exist. It’s essential to insist on real results from any drug recovery or education you support.

Contact one of our drug rehabilitation representatives if you need to help someone get off drugs or for more information about the Narconon drug education program.