Mexican drug cartels danger to both nations

  Mexican drug cartels are now the biggest organized crime threat in the United States, according to the U.S. Justice Department. That is because they are uniting with traditional organized crime groups in our country to control the illegal drug operations.

  This is especially true of cocaine, much of which now flows across our southwestern border with Mexico, including our own area where seizures of drugs have become more frequent.

  These cartels' infiltration of the United States is disturbing and must be curtailed, but the impact of the groups on Mexico is even more devastating. In our opinion, respect for the rule of law could vanish, at least in the border areas, unless that nation can bring the drug trade under control.

  Already, the cartels have hit lists of law officers who resist them and the gangs kill them with seeming impunity. Anyone who chooses to help law enforcement faces the same fate. The violence directed at the Mexican authorities and Mexican citizens is a direct challenge to the rule of law.

  We were therefore interested in comments made by Arizona Sen. John McCain recently in an television interview in regard to this danger, a theme he echoed in remarks here when he visited Wednesday.

  He said Americans should worry less about illegal immigration and more about Mexico.

  "We'd better worry about the country of Mexico," McCain said in the TV interview. "We'd better worry about its system of government because the drug cartels are a direct threat to it."

  He said the drug cartels are reacting so violently because Mexico President Felipe Calderon is truly serious about dealing with them, something that was not the case with his predecessors. Too often in the past, authorities looked the other way. Some undoubtedly still are doing that.

  McCain said if this problem is ignored, it will cross the border. The Justice Department report is an indicator it already has. This is a joint problem for Mexico and the United States and it needs to be dealt with jointly and effectively.