The size and numbers of people crossing the Southwestern border (SWB) of the U.S. continue to plague officials leading America’s War on Drugs when it comes to cocaine trafficking from South America into the United States. Many American officials lob blame on Mexican authorities, feeling for too many years they have turned a deaf ear and blind eye toward the problem. Corrupt border and law enforcement officials and the overwhelming size and scope of the problem also add to its severity. Further, the insatiable demand for cocaine in the U.S. coupled with the high profit margins it yields for South American drug czars continue to fuel the problem. The SWB represents one of the biggest sieves when it comes to cocaine moving into the U.S. from South America. Whoever is to blame, no one denies the scope of the situation, “By one federal estimate, 40% of all the drugs crossing South Texas move through Starr, sometimes amounting to 15 tons of marijuana and 1,000 lbs. of coke a week. Confiscations in the Rio Grande valley doubled last year; arrests this year by the Drug Enforcement Administration shot up from 230 to 570” (Woodbury, 1996, 31).
The SWB is of great significance in America’s War on Drugs because it is a 2,000+ mile stretch of land that includes everything from densely populated cities to the most remote and isolated deserts. Because of this, the SWB is difficult to patrol adequately and there are many places along the stretch that appeal to drug traffickers because of remote and difficult terrain. In recent testimony given before Congress, Barry R. McCaffrey singled-out the SWB as the most problematic issue in America’s efforts to diminish the flow of cocaine and other illegal drugs from South America into the U.S.. As the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy stated in front of Congress:
More effective drug-control operations along the vulnerable SWB are essential to decreasing the incidence o...