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Erica Hill talks to Michael and former DEA agent Robert Strang about the action on Wednesday that resulted in the death of the leader of one of the Mexican drug cartels.
ERICA
HILL: The drug war next door could escalate. That is
the fear following the death of a major cartel
leader.
(VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: The ruthless drug lord gunned down in this
shootout between police and cartel members. His name:
Arturo Beltran Leyva. Mexican President Felipe
Calderon said killing him was a heavy blow against
one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in
Mexico.
But it could also unleash a power struggle between
rival cartels, one that could, in fact, lead to more
bloodshed?
Michael Ware just returned from the front lines in
Mexico. He joins us, along with Robert Strang, who's
a security expert and former special agent for the
DEA.
Good to have both of you with us. We should point out
that it's not just President Calderon who's saying
this is a huge blow. The acting administrator for the
DEA also said...
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's correct.
HILL: ... this is a heavy blow. So, is it a heavy
blow, Michael, to the cartel there, or is this going
to incite more violence?
WARE: Well, we'll have to wait and see. This is
certainly a body blow to the general dynamics of the
cartels, to lose one of the leadership, and someone
so senior, obviously has a disrupting effect. But
what are the ripples going to be? Will there be a
smooth transition of power within the cartel? Will
others come and try to feed off the carcass? Will
there be internal disputes within the cartel? We just
don't know which way it will go yet.
HILL: So, do you see this then as sort of being the
first major one to fall in what could be in fact a
line of the heads of these cartels being brought
down?
ROBERT STRANG, FORMER DEA AGENT: I do. President
Calderon said three years ago when he came into
office, "I'm going to work with the United States.
I'm going to do the best I can to stop this $20
billion industry." And 14,000 deaths in the last
three years, he says, "What am I going to do to stop
it?"
This is the first major victory he's had. He's on his
way to do what Colombia did to those cartels, he's
going to do the major cartels in Mexico.
HILL: You said repeatedly, Michael, that it's Mexican
blood paying for this insatiable American appetite
for illegal drugs.
WARE: That's right. Well, there is the, you know, the
moral compass. I mean, all of this death is stemming
from a struggle for the right to supply America's
illicit demand for drugs. So if you can have this
Mexican blood on your hands, then you're a better --
or a worse -- person than I.
But also, let's not forget the penetration of
American soil. If you want to be purely
self-interested about this, there are hundreds upon
hundreds of active cartel members in America, in
literally hundreds of American cities. And they don't
muck around. I mean, we're not talking LA. street
gangs here. We're talking L.A. street gangs on
steroids, and...
STRANG: Right. Well, look. Last year, there were
hundreds of arrests made by the Justice Department
and DEA in the United States. We're having a lot of
crossfire, kidnappings, crime in cities like Phoenix
and Atlanta and San Diego that are directly affected
by what's happening in Mexico.
These cartels, the billion-dollar salesmen down
there, there are CEOs running it, need the people up
here to get the job done. It's one big organization.
So, look, we've got to get to the drugs before they
get to our kids in our country. There is bloodshed.
Let us protect our own kids in our own country. Let
us work with Mexico. This is a country that's right
across our border. We cannot allow this to continue.
WARE: My final point would be, after we took down the
Medellin and the Cali cartels, power shifts to the
Mexicans, we now target the Mexicans -- well, there's
$20 billion up for grabs every year. That profit
incentive is going to see this industry evolve and
evolve and evolve.
STRANG: Right.
WARE: Ultimately, every time we try to find a way to
stop it, it's like an insurgency. It's adaptive.
STRANG: Well, do we give up and just let the drugs
come to our kids?
WARE: We have to address the demand.
STRANG: We do. It's a three-legged stool. You have to
hit the treatment, enforcement, and also the
education of the kids.
WARE: Yes.
HILL: And you hit them all with the exact same
intensity?
STRANG: Right. You do.
HILL: You do?
STRANG: You do. And that's -- everybody agrees, after
year after year, keep hitting these cartels in
Mexico, keep education our kids through programs like
DARE in the United States, keep putting funding into
treatment centers so people that have a problem can
get better. This is how we're defeating the problem.
This is how we're trying to make it better for the
kids in our country.
WARE: But 'just say no' is not going to work
ultimately, is it? I mean, is this a case like
prohibition? I mean, shall we eventually face facts?
STRANG: Yes. Well, the facts are that we can't have
methamphetamine legal in our country. The facts are
that heroin and cocaine are killing too many people.
The facts are, that we cannot allow this to continue,
and we have to put up the good fight, which we're
doing.
WARE: But where do we find the few good men left to
train, you know what I mean?
STRANG: Well, they're there. And not everybody is
corrupt.
WARE: Agreed.
STRANG: We've got a good president in Mexico. He's
working with us. We're working with him. We're on the
right track here.
HILL: On the right track but still a very long road
ahead.
WARE: Oh-ho. Never-ending.
HILL: Michael Ware, Robert Strang, good to have both
of you with us. Thanks.
WARE: Cheers.