While telling Congress of the FBI’s efforts to battle the Mexican drug cartels, FBI director Robert S. Mueller III rattled off some pretty grim statistics.
Appearing Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee, Mueller said:
- Between $18 billion and $39 billion flows annually from the United States across the Southwest border to enrich the Mexican drug cartels.
- There were over 3,000 drug-related murders in Juarez, Mexico in 2010.
- There were over 34,600 drug-related murders in all of Mexico from December 2006 to December 2010.
- It is estimated that 95 percent of all South American cocaine that moves from South America to the United States goes through Mexico.
- 701,000 kilograms of marijuana were seized during the first five months of 2010 in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.
Mueller told the committee that the FBI is committing resources to battling the cartels.
“To address corruption on the Southwest border, we have 13 Border Corruption Task Forces with roughly 120 agents in FBI field offices in the region, and one National Border Corruption Task Force at FBI Headquarters to direct these efforts,” he said. “We have border liaison officers who work one-on-one with their law enforcement counterparts in Mexico.”
