[20190131]IN11030_西南边境贩毒：第116届国会的国土安全问题.pdf

CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress INSIGHTINSIGHTi i Drug Trafficking at the Southwest Border: Homeland Security Issues in the 116th Congress Kristin Finklea Specialist in Domestic Security Updated January 31, 2019 The United States sustains a multi-billion dollar illegal drug market. An estimated 28.6 million Americans, or 10.6% of the population age 12 or older, had used illicit drugs at least once in the past month in 2016. The 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment indicates that Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) continue to dominate the U.S. drug market. They “remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the United States; no other group is currently positioned to challenge them.” The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicates that these TCOs maintain and expand their influence by controlling lucrative smuggling corridors along the Southwest border and by engaging in business alliances with other criminal networks, transnational gangs, and U.S.-based gangs. TCOs either transport or produce and transport illicit drugs north across the U.S.-Mexico border. Traffickers move drugs through ports of entry, concealing them in passenger vehi