One of the urgent issues facing the states in Southwest, mainly in Arizona and California is the corruption and the violence that surrounds the Mexican drug cartels.  This has become a vicious war along the border, one that has both presidents, Barack Obama and Felipe Calderon meeting in order to discuss the options and the plan of attack.  The cartels have waged war on each and on the governments of both the United States and Mexico.  Armies were deployed in 2006 by Calderon, and the violence relating to the drug cartels have resulted in the murders of more than ten thousand people during the last three years.  Obama has enacted the authority of officials, allowing them to seize all of the assets that the cartels have invested in the United States, this has affected three of the major cartels that are operating currently in the country Mexico.  Americans involved in any way with assisting the gangs that are money laundering, the obtaining of very high powered guns and weaponry and transport of drugs will also face much more serious penalties and consequences.

There are a few heavy hitters or kingpins that are working in the country of Mexico today.  The Sinaloa drug cartel operates in the states in the Western part of the country such as Durango, Chihuahua, Sonora and the Baja of California.  This organization is responsible for transporting marijuana and cocaine across the border and into the United States.  They traffic to not only the border states of California, Arizona, Texas but as far reaching as Chicago, Illinois and New York City.  Heroin and methamphetamine are also transported by the Sinaloa.  Joaquin Guzman Loera is one of the cartel’s leaders.  Eight years ago he escaped from prison and has not been caught.  He is listed on the Forbes list of the world’s most wealthy and his estimated worth is over one billion dollars.  He is one of the two top drug dealers in the country. Both countries are working together to interrupt the connections and the funding of these cartels, and while much has been accomplished, but there is still so much work to be done in the future.