May 17, 2019

Human Trafficking Part of Larger Cartel Strategy

Former DEA Tucson head Tony Coulson discusses when drug cartels added human smuggling to their business model.

Arizona's southern border with Mexico falls into Sinaloa Cartel territory. Cartels control the routes used by migrants to reach the U.S. and they're profiting off the surge. Tony Coulson retired as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Tucson and now consults law enforcement agencies about the border. He explained when cartels added human smuggling to their business model.

"Prior to the mid-200s the human trafficking organizations along the border were pretty independent of the drug trafficking organizations. That paradigm changed when Chapo took control of this border area," Coulson said. According to Coulson, the Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán co-opted human trafficking along the border to ensure it did not interfere with drug smuggling missions.

"Instead of having a drug smuggling group along the border and a human trafficking group along the border running into each other and bringing Border Patrol's focus into that area, they used the human trafficking as a diversion to the drug trafficking operation," Coulson said.

Arizona 360
Arizona 360 airs Fridays at 8:30 p.m. on PBS 6 and Saturdays at 8 p.m. on PBS 6 PLUS. See more from Arizona 360.
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona