Are Mexican drug cartels active in every state?

Testifying at a Feb. 24 hearing on the Department of Homeland Security 2010 budget before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said Mexican drug cartel operations are widespread in the United States.

“I was in Mexico City again just last week,” Napolitano said. “We must continue a concerted and sustained effort against these cartels. Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.5 million people, is right over a bridge from our border, and the rule of law has effectively been lost there.

“The cartels, in essence, have fingertips in the communities across the United States, and so you will see, in different places in the budget, but we are very, very concerned about the situation in Mexico, but we are very, very energized by the effort we are seeing across our federal government and across the Mexican federal government in that regard,” Napolitano said.

According to an April 2008 National Drug Intelligence Center report, Mexican drug cartels are operating in 195 U.S. cities.

“Mexican DTOs [Drug Trafficking Organizations] are the most pervasive organizational threat to the United States,” the report said. “They are active in every region of the country and dominate the illicit drug trade in every area except the Northeast.


Link: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/62109