Looking for money and guns on the border

Washington Post:

President Obama is finalizing plans to move federal agents, equipment and other resources to the border with Mexico to support Mexican President Felipe Calderón's campaign against violent drug cartels, according to U.S. security officials.

In Obama's first major domestic security initiative, administration officials are expected to announce as early as this week a crackdown on the supply of weapons and cash moving from the United States into Mexico that helps sustain that country's narco-traffickers, officials said.

The announcement sets the stage for Mexico City visits by three Cabinet members, beginning Wednesday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and followed next week by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Napolitano, designated by Obama to convene a multi-agency security plan for the border, said the government is preparing plans to send more agents and intensify its investigation and prosecution of cartel-related activity in the United States. In addition, she said, the government may expand efforts to trace the sources of guns that move from the United States into Mexico.

To combat the southbound flow of guns, ammunition and grenades at border checkpoints, the government may deploy new equipment, such as scales to weigh vehicles and automated license-plate readers linked to databases, as well as other surveillance technology, she said.

Government officials are discussing how to increase intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Mexico, following a visit there this month by Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And the administration could employ tools used to track terrorist financing to follow the flow of funds within the estimated $65 billion North American drug trade. Funds -- estimated at $18 billion to $39 billion a year -- move through wire transfers as well as cash smuggled into Mexico in planes and vehicles and by human "mules."

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If they are effective at this, it could pay for itself in confiscated cash and weapons. As I noted in the post below, I don't think the cartels are buying their grenades in the US. They certainly are not buying them at retail stores. It is possible that some corrupt National Guard troops could be stealing them, but they would probably be traceable if confiscated. It still think it is more likely that they are buying them from someone like Chavez or rogue Chinese companies.

The focus on the border needs to be not just on outbound traffic in money and weapons. If they could put a tight cordon on the area around this side of Juarez and Tijuana, they could render a painful blow to the flow of contraband narcotics into the US. The reason those cities are so bloody right now is that they are the gateways to the I-10 and I-5 corridors that feed supplies to their US dealers. We should make them choke points.