ARRESTS CAN'T WIN NATION'S DRUG WAR

Mexico has had many revolutions, but the 10-year Revolution of 1910
had the most impact on that country. Under the rule of Gen. Porfirio
Diaz, a small minority controlled the country's wealth and the
majority of Mexicans worked and lived in poverty. The country was
divided into factions, and rebels roamed freely, killing citizens and
government officials who were not aligned with their cause.

During the Revolution of 1910, tens of thousands of Mexicans fled
into the United States to avoid the violence and to find a better
life. The lives of Americans living along the border towns of
Nogales, Naco and Douglas were endangered by the constant violence
that spilled over the border.

In January 1916, Pancho Villa's army killed 16 American engineers at
Santa Ysabel, Mexico. In March of that year, Villa led an attack on
Columbus, N.M., that left 17 Americans dead. President Wilson sent
Gen. John Pershing to the border to stop the violence and capture
Villa, dead or alive. Joining the military team dispatched to secure
the Arizona border was the 1st Arizona Infantry Regiment of the
Arizona National Guard.

Almost 100 years later, not much has changed.

Instead of Pancho Villa and Emilio Zapata, the players are the
Mexican cartels: Sinaloa, Los Zetas, Gulf, Juarez and Tijuana. All
the cartels are drug-trafficking organizations whose members are
engaged in a war against the Mexican government for control of land.
This time, it is not for the people of Mexico but for control of
smuggling routes for drugs, guns and human-trafficking dollars.

Police officers, soldiers, judges, prosecutors and innocent
bystanders are dying by the thousands in this new revolution. Mexican
citizens are once again fleeing across the border for a better life
in the United States. Now, as in 1916, law enforcement and the
National Guard have been sent to the border to stem the tide.

This drug war between the drug cartels and government forces began on
Dec. 11, 2006, when President Felipe Calderon mobilized federal
troops to put an end to the gang violence that had been in full swing
since the late 1980s. During this period, Colombian cocaine
traffickers formed alliances with Mexican marijuana and heroin
traffickers for alternative U.S. distribution routes because of the
intense law-enforcement pressure in Florida.

When the Colombian cartels fell apart after the arrest of the cartel
leaders by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Mexico became
the primary distributor of cocaine into the U.S. and the Mexican drug
lords started to fight for control of the lucrative drug routes.
President Calderon's crackdown on the cartels and government
corruption triggered the carnage we see and read about in Mexico.
This year, more than 4,000 people have been killed as a direct result
of the cartel war with the Mexican government.

Just last week, funeral wreaths were placed at the homes of several
state police officers in Nogales, Sonora. Attached to the wreaths
were handwritten messages that said, "This is a message for the State
Police. If you get in our way we are going to kill you with your
family and all your descendants. (signed) Gulf Cartel."

These are not threats but promises. The Mexican drug cartels are
committed to bringing the Mexican government to its knees by
dismantling the fragile criminal-justice and military components.

Arizona has always experienced border violence, but now, the
spillover from the drug wars is festering and is threatening us. In
the past, drug smugglers and other border traffickers were reluctant
to engage with U.S. law enforcement. Not anymore. As the cartels
continue to grow more powerful in Mexico, they are becoming ever more
violent. It is just a matter of time before the violence reaches
across the border.

Maricopa County has the distinction of being the kidnapping capital
of the country because of the number cases involving illegal aliens
who are held for ransom by human-smuggling groups. Much of the money
obtained from these crimes goes to the cartels to finance drug
purchases. The drophouse-ransom cases, assaults on American peace
officers working along the border and the increase in border bandits
are barometers of things to come.

The solution to this and the related immigration problem is both
complex and simple. I think almost everybody agrees that we must
secure our borders and that every migrant who enters the United
States must do so legally. The more than 300,000 illegal aliens
entering the U.S. annually from our southern border is virtually
impossible to stop. We cannot arrest our way out of this.

There are not enough jail beds, prosecutors, public defenders, judges
and deputy U.S. marshals now to handle the small percentage that are
arrested and prosecuted.

The long-term solution is not in state capitols or Washington, D.C.,
but in Mexico City. Until the Mexican people can prosper at home,
nothing will change.

A high-ranking Mexican police official told me recently that the
thirst for drugs in America and the availability of guns play a major
part in the thousands of deaths in Mexico. A little oversimplified,
but he had a good point.

We need to reduce the consumption of drugs in the U.S. When the
majority of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and meth is sold in the U.S.
and comes here via Mexico, you can understand why the cartels will
stop at nothing to get their drugs here.

Federal, state, and local police agencies need to do a better job of
coordinating and sharing information and intelligence to take out the
cartels and other organized-crime leaders.

We also need to stem the tide of guns, purchased primarily through
straw buyers, that is flooding into Mexico from border states. Our
efforts in this area are dismal.

As Albert Einstein said, "We cannot solve problems by using the same
kind of thinking we used when we created them."