A September 1st article by Jefferson Morley in Spy Talk suggests that while the capture and extraction of Guadalajara cartel founder Rafael Caro Quintero from the Sierra Madre is important, once again the people at the top are bypassed.
Last week a former attorney general was arrested for his part in covering up the 2014 slaughter of 43 students. Another 83 military commanders and police officers were arrested but the people at the top, once again bypassed.
I posit that Mexico is a failed state, the government only able to offer basic services. Corruption is so deep and widespread that the cancer of the cartels is the only thing keeping the government operating.
Nearly 20% of Mexico’s GDP comes from the drug trade and it is estimated there is upwards of 80% profit. Hence the inter-cartel fighting for drug manufacturing and distribution throughout Mexico and into the United States.
On the profit side, so many politicians, bankers and small companies make money laundering drug money that it’s the equivalent of a small country's budget. A classic example is Wachovia bank, now part of Wells Fargo. According to the Justice Department, Wachovia accounts took in at least $373 billion in wire transfers that were made from casas de cambio in Mexico between May 2004 and May 2007.
In addition, more than $4 billion in bulk cash was shipped from Mexican casas de cambio to Wachovia accounts, prosecutors allege. Wachovia also operated a "remote deposit capture" service that took in another $47 billion, according to prosecutors. Some of the money was used to buy planes for trafficking, according to prosecutors. U.S. investigators seized more than 20,000 kilograms of cocaine from the planes.
The bank(s) were fined but no one went to jail.
I could go on, but you get the point.