Benjamin Smith

But these protection rackets also had a crucial side effect. They introduced violence to the trade. New local governments asserted their authority over the protection rackets by arresting or murdering the old traffickers and putting their own smugglers in their place.

The laws were not overtly prodrugs. But they were resigned to the fact that “extirpating this vice” was “impossible.” What is more, the money was needed to “cover the most urgent necessities of the public services.”

Cantú’s response was the first example of a political maneuver that would cement the association between local governments and the drug trade. Rather than publicly tax the narcotics business, he imposed Mexico’s first off-the-books drug protection racket. Now the state would receive money for protecting the drug business and not implementing antidrug laws. It was a turning point—the first use of a trick that would be repeated by border governors for decades to come.