The Cartels: The Story of Mexico's Most Dangerous Criminal Organizations and Their Impact on U.S. Security (Praeger Security International)

An up-to-date examination of Mexico's version of the "War on Drugs" that exposes the evolution of major cartels and their corruption of politicians, law-enforcement agencies, and the Army.

• Documents the origins of Mexico's drug industry to explain today's situation involving a graft-ridden Army, suborned police, ruthless capos, unethical office-holders, and U.S. security forces

• Emphasizes the threat that the widespread criminality represents to the United States, as well as the constraints on Washington's ability to solve its neighbor's crisis

• Exposes the linkages between elected officials, particularly governors, and the underworld

• Illustrates the challenges that will remain, even if the cartels were shattered, by the presence of a human infrastructure of 500,000 men, women, and children skilled in kidnapping, extortion, torture, murder for hire, human smuggling, and dozens of other crimes