New Mexican president begins targeting the finances of Mexico's drug cartels.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Reuters. 

The new Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has begun targeting the finances of Mexico's drug cartels. Reuters. Charges have been filed against three businesses and seven individuals connected to the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the newest and most dangerous cartels. Obrador's government is cooperating with US government officials and based the charges on US Treasury intelligence.  Obrador has also said he will crack down on cartel efforts to steal fuel, which is a large non-drug source of income for the cartels. 

My Comment:

Good news out of Mexico. For far too long these cartels have been involved in money laundering and banking. Going after their checkbooks is a very good way to hurt their operations. It is amazing to me that it took a new president to get these kinds of actions going against the cartels. And a leftist, albeit a nationalist leftist, president at that. 

Targeting the fuel theft problem is a positive step as well. I have said before that the cartels are expanding out from just being drug smugglers and producers. They have a huge side business in stealing fuel, both from gas stations and directly from pipelines. A crackdown on this activity is needed as well. 

Such a crackdown will hurt the cartels in the future. With border security less of a joke than it was before due to election of President Trump and the migrant caravan crisis, the cartels are likely bleeding money from their former drug smuggling operations. Though our border is still porous due to the Wall not being completed, now is a good time for the cartels to expand into other things. 

They have taken a plan from ISIS's playbook. Before ISIS was largely destroyed they had a large and diverse economy. Much of their income was from plunder and taxes, which are likely outside of the cartel's control. But like ISIS they have decided that oil and gas are good secondary incomes. They have also used kidnapping and ransom to gain funds, though that out dates ISIS by years. 

I am somewhat impressed by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, aka Almo. Though he is a leftist, he is made of stronger stuff than I had thought. My initial impression is that he would lay down for the cartels and do nothing against him, despite the government being in a de facto war with the drug cartels. It seems as though Obrador is going to fight, despite the obvious danger. 

And I do think that Obrador is in danger. He is very much a man of the people and has abandoned his protective service details. That makes him extremely vulnerable to counterattacks from the cartels. The attack on former Brazilian presidential candidate and current President Jair Bolsonaro shows that men of the people put their lives at risk. I fear something similar could happen to Obrador. 

I do have to say that attacking financials can help defeat groups like this. Once again, I cite the fight against ISIS as an example. We specifically targeted ISIS's financials during the war against them. We targeted their fuel trucks, warehouses full of cash and even some oil rigs with airstrikes. While airstrikes are probably out of the question in the Mexican Drug War, the idea is the same. Hit the cartels in the pocketbook and they can no longer afford to conduct operations. Time will tell if it will work or not and if there is any blowback.