Mexico's Illicit Drug Networks and the State Reaction

by Nathan P. Jones

Mexican drug networks are large and violent, engaging in activities like the trafficking of narcotics, money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, and mass murder. Despite the impact of these activities in Mexico and abroad, these illicit networks are remarkably resilient to state intervention.

Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews with US and Mexican law enforcement, government officials, organized crime victims, and criminals, Nathan P. Jones examines the comparative resilience of two basic types of drug networks―"territorial" and "transactional"―that are differentiated by their business strategies and provoke wildly different responses from the state. Transactional networks focus on trafficking and are more likely to collude with the state through corruption, while territorial networks that seek to control territory for the purpose of taxation, extortion, and their own security often trigger a strong backlash from the state.

Timely and authoritative, Mexico's Illicit Drug Networks and the State Reaction provides crucial insight into why Mexico targets some drug networks over others, reassesses the impact of the war on drugs, and proposes new solutions for weak states in their battles with drug networks.

240 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2016

Reviews

[Hung-ya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nathan P. Jones started out examining two different types of drug networks, territorial and transactional, which are differentiated by their business strategies. They trigger different state reaction, too. The author offers theoretical frameworks on the adaptiveness and aptness of drug networks and how the state government would usually respond to such provoke. Then he came up with three different and relatively significant cartels cases before offering insight how these cases can be fit into the state reaction argument; why the state government always seems to target some cartels over others; how the long-term strategies should the state government develop in order to tackle the core of the drug networks.

Good read.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and well researched, and led to excellent discussion in class.