DRUG WAR

Cartel Violence Calls For U.S. Response

The alarming escalation of violence among drug cartels in Mexico has
heightened attention to border security.

U.S. officials have warned of increased activity by the cartels in
Americans cities such as Atlanta, Phoenix and Birmingham, Ala.

Stepped-up enforcement stopped nearly three-quarters of a million
people from illegally entering the country last year. Officials
confiscated 2.8 million tons of drugs. State Department officials
estimate that $22 billion in drug-related profits made its way from
the United States back to Mexico in a five-year period ending last
year.

In Mexico, the battle over control of territory and the lucrative drug
smuggling have resulted in nearly 6,000 people killed since 2008, and
officials fear that the cartels are importing their violence into the
United States. Last month, Justice Department operations targeting a
cartel operation in this country resulted in more than 50 arrests in a
single day. There have been more than 750 arrests in the United States
and Mexico in the past 21 months.

However, the Wall Street Journal reported, "Law enforcement officials
acknowledge that the Mexican and U.S. governments have yet to gain the
upper hand against these groups' U.S. operations, which reach coast to
coast, from dealers in small towns in Maine to big-city coordinators
in southern California."

"It doesn't just involve Mexico and Mexicans, it involves our kids
dying in cities all over the country," said California Rep. Jerry
Lewis, who put the challenge facing America on a level with
Afghanistan.

It is not just the traffic from Mexico that concerns him and others;
it is the "outbound" trade in illegal weapons that fuels the violence
in both countries. Guns stolen or illegally purchased in the United
States have been used in 95 percent of the killings in Mexico, the
State Department estimates.

Members of Congress called on Homeland Security, which polices the
borders, to direct more resources against the illegal outbound
trafficking in weapons. Rep. Lewis called for more cooperation from
the Pentagon to provide helicopters to back up Homeland Security's use
of unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the border. The Mexican
government is also using its military against the cartels.

Congress will have to provide the resources, both domestically and
through international cooperation, needed to combat the growing power
of the cartels here and in Mexico. The brutality and gruesome murders
can no longer be seen as a problem south of the border, but one that
has infiltrated U.S. communities and must be fought aggressively on
this side of the border as well.