Mexican Drug Cartels Switch to Selling Humans

categories: Human Trafficking Awareness, Human Trafficking in the US, Human Trafficking in the Western Hemisphere, International Human Trafficking and Migration, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution, Trafficking in Women

Published August 13, 2009 @ 11:19AM PT

Here's a math problem you won't remember from school: Which is higher, the black market value of a pound of cocaine or the black market value of a 13-year-old girl? If you guessed the girl, you get 100% on this math test.

When a drug cartel trafficks a pound of cocaine into the U.S., they can only sell it once. When they traffic a young woman into the U.S., they can sell her again and again. This is a simple economic fact that I (and others in this field) have been aware of for years. However, it seems some Mexican drug cartels have recently discovered this additional potential for profit, and they are now switching from trafficking heroine to trafficking human beings.

The idea that drug traffickers will suddenly switch to humans is even more disturbing in the light of an increased national discussion around legalizing some drugs, like marijuana. What would the pot traffickers do then? Would they get respectable jobs in the brand new legal marijuana industry? Or would they use their criminal contacts to traffic harder drugs, guns, and people? I'm of the inclination that while some criminals might go clean in a new legal drug industry, the rest will see how much more cash they can make through the illegal sale of human beings.

What do you think?

CNN recently did a story on this disturbing new trend, which feature anonymous interviews with women being trafficked into the U.S. by some of the Mexican cartels.

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Comments (10)

I can see a few pot idealists going legal, doing only what they're doing now, but I can see a bunch of them switching to some other illegal and more profitable (and non-taxed) market, if pot were legalized.

One thing I've been wondering lately: there seems to be an unholy trinity of drugs, weapons, and slavery. The drugs and slavery are illegal now, but weapons manufacturing is legal (though smuggling weapons is not). What if governments cut back drastically on manufacturing weapons? Would that give the cartels less power, if there were fewer guns lying around?

Posted by Anemone Cerridwen on 08/13/2009 @ 02:54PM PT
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I think supply and demand kicks in then. We are not the only country in the world making guns. Kind of the weakness of gun control I think. If you outlaw guns and make owning one illegal, the people most likely to have guns are the people ok with breaking the law, and drug cartels are VERY comfortable with that. More so than street gangs, drug cartels can get their hands on weapons from other countries where they have no compunction about selling weapons to any buyer.

I think proposing to curb gun crime by outlawing guns is like trying to curb car theft by not giving car thieves drivers licenses. It only works as intended if people follow the rules and criminals are by definition aren't so good at that. I believe that a more appropriate punishments for those in human trafficking would be seen as cruel and VERY unusual... but I digress :P

Posted by Seth Piepgrass on 08/13/2009 @ 05:39PM PT
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Those who sell human girls are very evil and sick indeed, but I can't imagine how sick and evil you have to be to buy these girls and use them. The "human trafficking" problem worldwide would diminish if these disgusting men who are willing to pay to rape a child/young girl were addressed. Why is there a market for this? Prostitution is one thing--a consenting (sadly) adult willing to sell herself is unfortunate, but VERY different from this. What in the world is wrong with these men who would pay to rape a child/young girl? That's not just sex---it is something else far more terrifying.

Posted by Susan S. on 08/13/2009 @ 06:04PM PT
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Theyre called pedophiles and its because we let them live in the foolish belief that they can be cured that this shit continues to happen...

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/05/2009 @ 10:22PM PT
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Are you saying that we should not decriminalze mariajuana because it MIGHT cause some bad guys to stop selling pot and start trafficking in humans? Sorry, but that sounds a little bit of a reach, the kind of oh-gosh-this-could-happen "logic" I usually hear from the right wing

Posted by Slim Chance on 08/14/2009 @ 04:28AM PT
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That video and this whole story doesn't sit right with me. This sounds like a lot of hokum to garner attention to something that may not exist. I want real proof before I can believe this is true.

Posted by jack barr on 08/14/2009 @ 01:37PM PT
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Mr. barr...

Why do you find it so hard to believe that human trafficking exists ?

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/05/2009 @ 10:24PM PT
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Hello there Miss Kloer. I just found your site. Its very informative

& timely. Hope you continue to fight this evil. By the way please

check the article of Joel Vin Der Reijden Beyond Dutroux Affair in

www.isgp.eu. You will find this article very interestiing. Thanks

Posted by Christopher Cruz on 08/16/2009 @ 12:23AM PT
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   To attach marijuana legalization to increased human trafficking is beyond a stretch. To say that a mexican pot farmer, or shipper would suddenly decide to kidnap and sell young girls is ludicrous. These things take two completely different kind of people. So marijuana becomes legal, they burn their crops, and the U.S. is overrun with teenage mexican girls?

   First, the trafficking issue is hugely overblown. The numbers are inflated by other forms of trafficking such as agricultural workers and such, other reasons for women to travel which end up included in the numbers, and any travel specifically for the sex trade even though no-one is being forced.

   If anyone cares about making headway on this issue then we must stop cluttering the works with unrelated side issues and step up enforcement and education programs.

Posted by Timothy Odell on 08/27/2009 @ 07:40AM PT
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Mr. odell...

I find it very hard to believe that your so naive as to believe that there is no such thing as forced prostitution...

Would you mind clarifying your thinking here ?

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 09/05/2009 @ 10:26PM PT
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Author

Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.