FBI Paints Picture of Supply Chain Between Mexican and US Gangs

October 31, 2011

Written by Patrick Corcoran


The FBI government has released its 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, which undermines scaremongering by those who warn of an "invasion" of Mexican criminal gangs in U.S. cities.


As might be expected, the multinational gangs that figure the most in the U.S. government's description are Mexico drug traffickers syndicates, from the Sinaloa Cartel to the Zetas, and their American allies. Somewhat surprisingly, Colombian groups don’t appear in the report at all, an indication of the degree to which Mexicans have supplanted Colombians as the primary source of drug-related concern for American policy-makers.

As the report indicates, “US-based gangs and MDTOs [Mexican drug trafficking organizations] are establishing wide-reaching drug networks; assisting in the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and illegal immigrants along the Southwest Border; and serving as enforcers for MDTO interests on the US side of the border.â€