Barraging them with pesos

Grits for Breakfast reviews the War on (some non-pharaceutal company controlled) Drugs from North of the Border:

… the so-called “Merida Initiative” seems more political and symbolic than practical. Mexico doesn’t need our money, they need to clean up their own law enforcement agencies while America needs to focus on reducing both demand and corruption north of the border.

…  the United States shouldn’t be spending so much on helicopters and equipment when many in Mexican (and increasingly US) law enforcement are working as much as agents of drug cartels as police.

Given that the “war” is mostly symbolic (though it’s killing real people, and more money just puts more weapons of individual destruction into more hands) there are two things that might be done.

One is to stop treating this as a “war” — which perversely legitimized the gangsters, creating mostly mythical “armies” of alien invaders. They’re not, they’re just ordinary crooks. Treating them as crooks, and not some special kind of super-gangster might not be so bad. People beat the crap out of car thieves and shoplifters when they catch them in the act (sometimes the police have to rescue the criminals from angry shopkeepers as a result). If we started seeing narcotics dealers as just another gang of crooks, maybe people would stop fearing them, and start treating them with the contempt they deserve. Instead, the state is throwing money at the problem — which, in the case of the Merida Initiative is only making some U.S. manufacturers richer, and putting more money in the hands of people who can buy narcotics.

A second tactic which doesn’t seem to be considered is the Canonizago… Alvaro Obregon, during the Revolution, observed that no Mexican general could withstand a barrage of gold pesos. Criminal proceeds have always been legitimized over time. HSBC started out laundering opium money, Las Vegas was built on mafia investments, etc. Why not let the gangsters “clean” their money, or pay them enough to retire?

Obregon, of course, had a stick as well as a carrot. Those who couldn’t be incorporated into the Revolutionary family were destroyed (like Pancho Villa). The gangsters aren’t stupid, they’ve invested their funds in all kinds of things outside narcotics. Forget the source of the money, and let them maintain their “ill-got gains.” But destroy them if they don’t “get with the program” and put that money into things like dam construction, telecommunications, banking, etc….. WITHIN MEXICO. Given that asset forfeiture laws exist in the United States and elsewhere, then start working with those countries to identify those gangsters with assets abroad. Some will try to keep their funds outside the country, but they can be extradited.

Of course, there are gangsters with a taste for criminality, but I suspect most just want to get rich. Let ’em. As long as the money comes back to Mexico (and money has no morals), Gangsters are already heavily involved in investments here… and the problem isn’t the money source so much, as the fact that criminals (especially those perceived as “super criminals”) can’t be held accountable for their actions like ordinary investors: try getting an environmental impact statement for a new hotel out of Chapo Guzman.

However, if Chapo is a legitimate investor, and is willing to file an environmental impact statement, what difference does it make where he originally earned the cash? He’s always claimed he was creating jobs anyway. Tell him to put up, shut up or die.

Certainly, a better form of “economic stimulus” than tossing more money at the police.