On the Border: Guns, Drugs — and a Betrayal of Trust
We must be willing to push the cartels back at least across the border. At the very least.
Editor’s note: This article is part of an occasional series looking at the violence tied to Mexican drug cartels, their expanding global connections and how they affect people’s daily lives. Earlier, we examined how U.S. demand for drugs is bringing cartel operations into rural America.
Columbus, New Mexico (CNN) — Mayor Nicole Lawson is only 37, but her hair is already turning white as she tries to keep this border town corrupted more than a year ago by Mexican cartels from falling deeper into financial ruin.
Lawson runs the village by day and works as a town emergency medical technician by night. She says she often sleeps just two hours, averaging $1.47 an hour as the new mayor.
The former mayor, police chief and a village trustee all pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of trafficking highly sought AK-47-style pistols to Mexican cartels. Some of the weapons were later seized at murder scenes across the border.
