Organized crime cannot exist without public corruption, and there's no freakin' way the Mexican drug cartels can move $50 billion in bulk product and bundled cash each year throughout the United States without a little help from well-placed friends.
Indeed, in the last sixteen months nine South Texas lawmen have been charged with "using their badges to sneak drugs or guns through the U.S.-Mexico border region from Laredo to Brownsville" as reported by Dane Schiller for the Houston Chronicle:
Interviews and court records and testimony show the South Texas cases often involve one officer at a time pulled to the dark side by friends, family or associates offering quick cash. "If you are a local person, you are going to have friends and relatives in the community and know people on both sides of the border," said Steve McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety. "They are going to know someone, who knows someone, and take a shot."
Last March the mayor, police chief and a village trustee in Columbus, NM were charged with running guns into Mexico for the Juarez cartel's enforcement crew La Linea, and the case has raised a red flag about the extent to which the narco insurgents have corrupted U.S. cops and politicians in border communities as reported by Bob Reynolds for Al Jazeera.
Of particular concern is corruption within the U.S. Customs and Border Protection where 129 agents already have been charged in recent years and another 600 are under investigation.
