Hard times hit Mexican illegal drug trade, competition among rival gangs leads to violence as homicides spike up

In down turned economic times, competition for scarce resources and territory becomes intensified. This was true during the Great Depression when "Depression Desperadoes" gangs and thugs began crowding each other out when the economy went into a tailspin, and fewer dollars were available from their criminal enterprises. There is another similarity to the Great Depression era -- the old familiarity and corruption that some police and criminals seemed to enjoy together came to an about face and street war with the creation of the FBI and the battle royale that ensued. This phenomenon appears to be repeating itself in our era south of the US border.

Consider what is happening south of the US border in Mexico. Mexico has been hit by a brutal crime wave as rival drug gangs step up attacks against each other and the police. More than 4,000 people have died this year in violence connected to criminal gangs in Mexico. The intensity of violence rivals the violence levied by the Columbian cartels bringing full the mean streets of brutality, violence, and fear. The gangs are using typical intimidation tactics used in trafficking that involve stark displays of violence and murder. This past week, a Mexican newspaper reporter working in Juarez along the U.S. border was shot by armed men that killed the reporter on his way to work Thursday. From the press report, "A recent series of drug-related violence has left at least seven people dead in the northern border city. Police said Monday that a burned and mutilated body was dumped in front of a police station. Authorities say police later found two men and two women shot to death outside a medical clinic. The Associated Press reported that a woman's body was found in a trash bag, while a bystander was killed in a car crash caused by a police chase. On Monday, Mexican President Felipe Calderon named a former federal lawmaker, Fernando Gomez Mont, to replace Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, who died in a plane crash last week in Mexico City.Mourino was a central figure in Mr. Calderon's government and helped lead a campaign against mounting violence by drug cartels. " Read the original article -- http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-13-voa45.cfm

Historically, thinking of lessons learned from the last great crime wave that broiled during the Great Depression, only when the federal government rationalized the illegal markets and stripped organized crime from their prohibition-led intoxicant sales did the situation turn around. Additionally, and not to be ignored, it took updated police methods along with new technologies to rival those being used by the criminal gangs to turn around the problem then in order to overcome the not insignificant local corruption problems of the era.