Pentagon To Senators: ‘All Your Constituencies Are Confronted By This Threat’ From Mexican Drug Cartels

A top Pentagon official told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday that the tentacles of Mexico’s criminal organizations have reached well-beyond the southwest border into the interior of the U.S. homeland.

Those remarks buttress the 2010 Drug Threat Assessment by the U.S. Justice Department, which stated that street gangs, which “acquire drugs directly from [drug-traffickers] in Mexico or along the Southwest Border,” are distributing narcotics in “more than 2,500 cities.”

Nevertheless, Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has said on separate occasions that people who say the border is not secure or out of control are wrong and simply trying to score political points.

On April 1, Napolitano said that the U.S.-Mexico border is not “overrun or out of control,” and last April she said the border “is as secure now as it has ever been.”

“It’s important to recognize, just to conclude, that when we discuss the trans-national nature of this [illegal narcotics] threat that does also include criminal activities that take place inside the United States as well,” William Wechsler, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Counter-narcotics and Global Threats, told senators.

“For instance, the influence of Mexican transnational, criminal organizations extends well beyond the southwest border to cities across the country, including Atlanta, Chicago, and Detroit,” he said. “All your constituencies are confronted by this threat.”

The Pentagon official went on to criticize the executive branch for a lack of inter-agency coordination in dealing with the narcotics threat, adding that the Defense Department can help alleviate that problem. 

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