Feds seized $1.6 billion in drug money on US-Mexico border in 2007
The $1.6 billion is out of a total $12 billion that is estimated to be smuggled over the border.
Source: “The sheriffs stash,” The Economist, July 12, 2008, page. 42.
As many as 7,000 people kidnaped in Mexico in 2007
Estimates by independent crime researches in Mexico state that as many as 7,000 people could have been kidnapped in Mexico in 2007.
Source: Reuters, “Satellites track Mexico kidnap victims with chips,” Yahoo News, August 21, 2008.
Kidnapping in Mexico increased 40 percent between 2004 and 2007
Source: Reuters, “Satellites track Mexico kidnap victims with chips,” Yahoo News, August 21, 2008.
More than 430 kidnapping in Mexico reported in 2007
Figure is up 45 percent from the previous year.
Source: “Mexico launches anti-kidnap squad,” BBC News, August 12, 2008.
$23 billion annual revenue in drug trafficking in Mexico
Mexican drug cartels bring in as much as $23 billion a year in revenue, according to the United States Government Accountability Office.
Source: Manuel Roig-Franzia, “Mexican Drug Cartels Move North,” Washington Post, September 20,2007,(last accessed: October 6, 2007).
Human smuggling market in Mexico
According to author Moises Naim, the FBI estimates that “the Mexican people trade earns the networks $6 to $9 billion each year.
Source: Moises Naim, Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are hijacking the global economy, (New York: Doubleday, 2005), pg. 88.
Counterfeit Market worth $12.5 Billion in Mexico
Source: Sergio Solache, “Counterfeit goods market explodes across Mexico,” Arizona Republic, October 15, 2006.
90 percent of guns seized in Mexico are from United States
Richard A. Serrano, “U.S. guns arm Mexican drug cartels,” Los Angeles Times, August 10, 2008.
530 to 710 tonnes of cocaine enter the US through Mexico each year
Source: The Economist, “Marching as to war,” February 2, 2008.
Drugs contribute roughly 4 percent of Mexico’s GDP
Source: The Economist, “Marching as to war,” February 2, 2008, pg. 45.
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