Economy of narco: prohibitionism, systemic violence and criminal capital

Abstract

The most active drug trafficking groups in Mexico have configured a criminal economy not only dependent on the chain value of drugs, but also as a system branched out towards a variety of criminal activities including those threatening a dignifying life therefore human development. Their internal organizational rearrangements, outward expansion, and their activity plots beyond the Mexican borders, lead to consider them as part of the Transnational Criminal Networks. In the need to understand this overturn representing the evolution from the basic and plain drug trafficking, it is precise to measure the component as TCN in the Mexican neoliberal framework, and tackle the role of the United States of America as consumer, but also as promoter of prohibitionist and punitive policies.

*The original article, published on January 1, 2018, was modified in response to a request to anonymize personal data and was replaced by a new version on September 8, 2026. See the “Editorial Clarification” included in the PDF of this version, available at the DOI: https://doi.org/10.33064/38crscsh917-aclaracion.