Whack-a-mole drug war: Small Success Shows Bigger Failure to Stop US-Mexico Cash Smuggling

Small Success Shows Bigger Failure to Stop US-Mexico Cash Smuggling: "U.S. authorities celebrated the confiscation of more than a million dollars in cash along the Mexican border, unwittingly illustrating the overall failure to stop billions of dollars in drug money that flow south into Mexico each year. ...“

This is the largest seizure of outbound currency in the history of Eagle Pass Port of Entry,” said customs director Cynthia O. Rodriguez.

Rodriguez’s comment unintentionally illustrates the general failure of U.S. and Mexican efforts to stop the southward flow of drug profits. According to the Washington Post, American officials grabbed just $85 million in illicit cash at the border in 2009. This is overshadowed by the $18-$39 billion in drug profits that the U.S. government estimates to cross the border each year. The figure appears to conflate cash shipments with other forms of money transfer, but even the lower end of the range would mean that U.S. authorities’ cash seizures are a fraction of a percent of the total."