Trafficking of Illegal and Regulated Drugs Across the Border of United States Essay

Narcotics and trafficking of illegal and regulated drugs across the border of United States from either Mexico or Canada is the biggest threat facing the United States. A report released by the Internal Homeland Security department stated that the smuggling of Cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, marijuana, and fentanyl across the borders of the US through Mexico and Canada still possess the most significant threat to the American people (Giaritelli, 2017). Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO's) have continually adapted mechanisms aimed at evading detection and capture by the law enforcement officers making it harder to control the supply and use of these drugs within the US borders (Giaritelli, 2017). Additionally, other threats to the US border such as boarder security issues and human trafficking opens the routes or drug smuggling on a larger scale by creating an appropriate environment for the TCO's. In as much as potential hazards such as steep terrain and bad weather affect the number of individuals who can access the points of entry of US border, the cartels responsible for smuggling narcotics into the nation sees these elements as an opportunity due to limited surveillance that can be carried out in these areas. The ability of the cartels to operate in more than one nation also gives them the financial capability that makes curbing their activities both within and outside the US borders a challenge.

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Physical border security issue impacts the way different intelligent agencies can collect and analyze data by limiting the extent to which local authorities and enforcers can collect this data. It, therefore, becomes necessary that only the Federal law officials such as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and; Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are mandated to deal with issues of security at the border to collect this information. Collaboration however, between the federal agencies and local law enforcers goes a long way in collecting and counteracting the activities of the criminal gangs operating at the US borders (Best, 2010).

Increased human trafficking has altered the way intelligence is collected in many ways. Most of the illegal immigrants fall into the hands of traffickers in an attempt to get a better life and escape from the exploitation and social injustices in their origin nations (Best, 2010). The US intelligence organizations focus on reducing the rate of invisibility of exploitation. The latter entails programs implemented and aimed at monitoring, gathering intelligence and administrative controls on labor markets and sex industry as a way of curbing the cause of trafficking. Corruption within the US border has also made individuals be a weak link in combating human trafficking. As a consequence intelligence organization have installed cameras and motion sensors at the border to offer a more definitive picture of the smugglers' activities.

Terrorist's ability to adapt and follow extremist ideologies makes them a significant threat to the US. The ability of terrorists to fashion their propaganda and possibly influence vulnerable US citizens to follow their ideologies demands for increased surveillance measures aimed at identifying and uprooting both the terror individuals and the radicalized domestic lot. The threat posed by terrorists has demanded the implementation of human intelligence (HUMIT), with informers and clandestine agents penetrating and observing the activities of these organizations and individuals (Motley, 1987). Besides the use of informants' screening at the entrance of borders has helped in identifying potential terrorists and individuals associated with terror activities at points of entry in the US borders.

Counterintelligence can be utilized to protect information sources relating to the Trafficking of Narcotics within the US borders while at the same time attacking the personnel of cartels aimed at penetrating and gathering information on the programs implemented to curb trafficking of drugs in the US. Through counterintelligence (CI) vulnerabilities that may expose the activities of Drug fighting organizations such as the DEA are protected from falling into the wrong hands. Additionally, from offensive perspective counterintelligence can be utilized to neutralize potential espionage agents or even turn their actions against the TCO's they serve. Therefore, with counterintelligence techniques, the acquisition of vital drug-related information and protection of the same information from falling into the wrong hands can be easily done.

HUMINT is among the best technique of collecting information about the activities of cartels. Most TCO's responsible for running drugs to the US use their trusted soldiers. These soldiers if turned can be a reliable source of valuable intelligence that can help designated organizations in combatting trafficking of the drugs. Information collected by human intelligence is unique as proficient technical collectors may fail to gather such data (BIRAG, 2011). The use of HUMINT exposes the drug-fighting organizations with the potential of having double agents who may deliberately provide false information to the agency to mislead their actions for the benefit of the TCO's. Moreover, SIGINT intelligence technique can also be utilized to gather data through reconnaissance satellites carrying overhead surveillance of activities of drug traffickers. Vital information regarding the productivity of the drugs, how they are transported and the tunnels and other routes used to smuggle them to the US can be detected. These sensors, however, collects general information that may be hard to qualitatively analyze and collaborate the data to provide intelligence that can be acted on with utmost certainty. Human error during interpretation of the signals can also act on the benefit of the TCO's (BIRAG, 2011).

References

Best Jr, R. A. (2010). Securing America's Borders: The Role of the Intelligence Community. DIANE Publishing.

BIRAG (2011). Brief Overview of the Strengths and Weaknesses of IMINT, HUMINT, SIGINT, and MASINT in Intelligence Collection. Retrieved on 10th July 2018 from http://intlrelationsandaffairs.blogspot.com/2011/10/brief-overview-of-strengths-and.html

Giaritelli, Anna (2017). DHS: Drug smuggling is the biggest threat on the US-Canada border. Washington Examiner. Retrieved on 10th July 2018 from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dhs-drug-smuggling-is-the-biggest-threat-on-the-us-canada-border

Motley, J. B. (1987). Coping with the Terrorist Threat: The US Intelligence Dilemma.". Intelligence and Intelligence Policy in a Democratic Society, 165-175.