Imagine walking outside witnessing people getting severely injured or even murdered! Several incidents like this have been reported numerous times in Mexico. Drug cartels are the people committing these crimes. Drug cartels are the "criminal organizations that control the distribution of illegal drugs through formal or informal enterprises" (Ackerman). In Mexico, violence has increased consistently due to the drug war. These cartels continue to injure, murder, kidnap, and rape people. However, in recent months cartels have been committing violence in silence instead of being bold about their moves. "Cartels became silent by not committing massive massacres". "When the cartels were bold they committed massacres of which one massacre included 72 deaths" (Miroff). The Mexican drug war is not given much attention. Failure to address these issues can lead harsh disasters in the future. The main location of the cartel operates is Mexico (Miroff). Unfortunately Mexico isn't the only country that is involved with drugs. The United States and Columbia are part of the drug cartels as well. Colombia uses Mexico as a route to ship their drugs (Lee). The drugs that are produced in Mexico are smuggled into the United States and sold here because the values of the drugs are much higher in the United States. For example, "a kilogram of cocaine costs $2,000 to produce in Mexico and costs anywhere from $34,000-$120,000 to buy depending on what part of the United States the cocaine is sold in" (Fantz). .
The United States plays a dominant role in the drug cartels because the United States actually consumes $19 to $29 billion worth of drugs and these are sold by the cartels yearly (Lee). The dominant drugs that are consumed by the United States are methamphetamine and marijuana (Lee). Surprisingly, the drug cartels make around $39 billion a year in wholesale profits (Carlson).
