CIA Assets and the Rise of the Guadalajara Connection

• NCJ Number: 130351
• Journal: Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: special issue (July 1991) Pages: 85-96
• Author(s): J Marshall
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 12 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands
• Note: Version of essay appeared in "Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America," by Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall (University of California Press, 1991)

Annotation

The reason why some drug traffickers prosper and grow powerful while others are caught and incarcerated may depend more on their political protection than on their ruthlessness.

Abstract

The author contends that, since World War II, one of the most critical sources of institutional protection for the drug trade has been the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This contention is illustrated using the example of the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel in Mexico, one of the largest drug suppliers to the North American market in the late 1970's and 1980's. The cartel's success is explained by its connections to the Mexican intelligence agency and the CIA. The author is also critical of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the State Department for providing some level of protection to Mexican drug traffickers. Given the continuing divisiveness of the Camarena murder case in U.S.-Mexican relations, the author recommends a congressional investigation of the CIA's Mexican connections. 52 notes (Author abstract modified)