Synopses & Reviews
Organized Crime in Mexico takes a hard look at the dire implications of the pervasive and powerful criminal enterprises in northern Mexico, comparing and contrasting the present threat to past issues, including drug and human smuggling during the latter half of the twentieth century. Criminal organizations operating in Mexico and the United States threaten the economic well-being of North America as well as the democratic freedoms of our neighbor to the south. Cameron H. Holmes, an experienced organized-crime prosecutor and anti-money laundering expert, shows how this shift in criminal activity is extremely damaging to North American economies and explains that in order to halt this economic erosion, U.S. policy requires a new strategy, changes in thinking, and new and increased countermeasures.
Strategically, we have light-years to travel and little time to do it. Without intervention criminal activity will strangle legitimate business, degrade the Mexican economy, and, because the United States itself is so intimately affected, undermine the U.S. economy in turn. Continued prosperity in both countries depends on our joint success in controlling these criminal enterprises. Organized Crime in Mexico examines the new diversification and strategies of organized criminal groups, suggests a series of countermeasures, and places these issues in a global context. What is transpiring in Mexico is part of a larger international problem, and criminal enterprises currently pose new and consistent threats to economies around the world.
Review
“From money laundering to drug running, Holmes does a wonderful job explaining the vast criminal enterprise of the Mexican cartels.”—Fred Burton, vice president of Stratfor Global Intelligence and coauthor of Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi
Synopsis
The city of Juarez is ground zero for the drug war that is raging across Mexico and has claimed close to 60,000 lives since 2007. Almost a quarter of the federal forces that former President Felipe Calderon deployed in the war were sent to Juarez, and nearly 20 percent of the country's drug-related executions have taken place in the city, a city that can be as unforgiving as the hardest places on earth. It is here that the Mexican government came to turn the tide. Whatever happens in Juarez will have lasting repercussions for both Mexico and the United States.
Ricardo Ainslie went to Juarez to try to understand what was taking place behind the headlines of cartel executions and other acts of horrific brutality. In The Fight to Save Juarez, he takes us into the heart of Mexico's bloodiest city through the lives of four people who experienced the drug war from very different perspectives--Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz, a mid-level cartel player's mistress, a human rights activist, and a photojournalist. Ainslie also interviewed top Mexican government strategists, including members of Calderon's security cabinet, as well as individuals within U.S. law enforcement. The dual perspective of life on the ground in the drug war and the "big picture" views of officials who are responsible for the war's strategy, creates a powerful, intimate portrait of an embattled city, its people, and the efforts to rescue Juarez from the abyss.
About the Author
CAMERON H. HOLMES (1949-2013) was the director of the Southwest Border Anti-Money Laundering Alliance and served as chief of the Financial Remedies Section of the Arizona attorney generals office for twenty-one years. DENNIS LORMEL is the managing director of the Anti-Money Laundering Practice at ISPA International. He served for twenty-eight years as a special agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation before retiring.