$1Billion Whale

"A former mayor of San Diego spent the last decade wagering more than a billion dollars at casinos across the country, eventually liquidating her savings, auctioning her belongings, selling off real estate, borrowing from friends and taking more than $2 million from a charity set up by her late husband, a fast-food tycoon..."

San Diego Ex-Mayor Confronts $1 Billion Gambling Problem

Alaska Crime Story

For Mr. Keyes, the superficial facade of an ordinary life as a construction contractor and family man concealed the dark and cold interior life no one ever saw of a roving serial killer, rapist, arsonist and bank robber.

NY Times

Decapitation and the cartels

The cartels use decapitation to make their point but the forces of good use a decapitation strategy--killing or capturing a cartel boss--too combat the cartels. The Commander of NORTHCOM says the strategy isn't working.

After a few trials and some tribulations, the military learned in Iraq and Afghanistan that killing the most senior insurgent leaders was actually less effective than killing the mid-level facilitators. Rand wrote about it back in 2002.  I suspect that the counter-cartel establishment is going through a similar learning experience.

A Narco-Criminal-insurgency primer

Small Wars Journal has been covering this topic for a while and here is a good roll-up. 
This post is focused on one document that I found particularly useful, Criminal Insurgencies in Mexico and the Americas, by Dr. Robert J. Bunker. It is a report to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere about the current threat in the Americas. It is a useful primer for understanding the current issues and arguments associated with narco-organizations.


The author summarizes the threat categories and the government policies to counter them. His central argument is that the countering efforts are not coordinated and the strategic situation has worsened over the last 30 years. In response, he recommends the Merida Initiative be replaced by a "more encompassing Western Hemispheric Strategy".

I don't agree with his claim that drug cartels and narco-gangs are the "#1 strategic threat to the United States", but next to global malign-Iranian influence, I do think they will pose the most  significant asymmetric problem for US forces in the future. At a minimum AWG should stay connected to the community of interest associated with this threat and maintain currency.


If the US military is asked to play a larger role in the countering effort (probable considering the expansion of the problem set, the militarization of the criminal organizations, the proximity to the homeland, and the political implications) AWG will likely be asked to support.