Trump’s crackdown on Mexico’s narco-cartels won’t work

Donald Trump has said he would not rule out military action against Mexico’s narco-cartels which he blames for the opioid crisis killing astronomical numbers of Americans. ‘Mexico’s gonna have to straighten it out really fast, or the answer is absolutely. They’re killing 300,000 people a year with fentanyl coming in,’ he told Fox News host.

This isn’t the first time Trump has talked tough when it comes to drugs. The former and possible future president has mulled deploying commando teams to take out the narco godfathers bin Laden-style. He has also weighed up putting Mexico under naval embargo. 

Trump also isn’t the the only Republican to bang the drums of war in recent years. Last January, Dan Crenshaw of Texas introduced a bill authorising armed strikes against fentanyl importers. Another bill put forward by Republican Lindsey Graham would have classed narcos as terrorist organisations and fentanyl as a chemical weapon, while previous presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called on ‘our military to annihilate the Mexican drug cartels and finally end the supply-driven fentanyl crisis.