Profs & Pints Northern Virginia: The Rise of Mexican Drug Cartels

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “The Rise of Mexican Drug Cartels,” with Dan Schneider, who researches the fight against drug trafficking and teaches courses on transnational crime as an assistant professor at American University’s School of International Service.

Mexican drug cartels have grown immensely over the past 30 years. Not only have they brought unprecedented levels of violence to the country, they also have been able to use their immense wealth and firepower to pull onto their payrolls tens of thousands of government officials—from street cops to Cabinet secretaries and, it is alleged, more than one president.

Come to Crooked Run Fermentation in Sterling, Va., to learn in depth about Mexican drug cartels and U.S. and Mexican efforts to combat them. The speaker, Professor Daniel Schneider, is a former federal prosecutor and expert on transnational crime, corruption, and terrorism who previously has given excellent Profs and Pints talks on the making of terrorists and on the illicit international money flow exposed by the Pandora Papers. His talk is sure to give you a much more informed perspective on the drug war.

Professor Schneider will discuss the cartels’ history, looking at how they have gained enormous power and at their use of violence and bribery to accomplish their goals. He’ll also examine how they have managed to grow dramatically, despite our nations’ expenditure of more than $1 trillion over 50 years to fight drug trafficking. This growth also has happened despite Mexico’s transformation from a one-party state to a multi-party democracy, a development that had created hopes of a reduction in corruption.

Finally, he will discuss the recent arrests in El Paso, Texas, of Ismael Zambada Garcia (“El Mayo”) and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, son of the notorious former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, “El Chapo” Guzman, who is now serving a life sentence in a supermax prison in Colorado.  Tellingly, American law enforcement officials did not inform their Mexican counterparts of the operation resulting in the arrests, even though it originated in Mexico.  This shows the profound lack of trust between law enforcement agencies in the two countries – trust that is essential if the power of the cartels is to be meaningfully eroded.

He'll field your questions and tackle a big one asked for years and never answered with much success: Is there a better way to wage the “drug war”? (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: A map illustrating territory held by various drug cartels as of 2020. Graphic by BaptisteGrandGrand / Wikimedia Commons.