Arrest of Public Enemy No. 1 marks milestone in drug war

The recent capture of Public Enemy No. 1 in the illicit Mexico-U.S. drug trade brings both good news and bad.

On the up side, the apprehension late last month of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman by U.S. and Mexican authorities illustrates the scope of success that can be achieved when law enforcement and military officials from two nations interact and cooperate toward a mutual goal.

On the down side, the arrest of one leader — even one acknowledged as Public Enemy No. 1 by the Chicago Crime Commission — likely will have little lasting impact on the thriving Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations or their success in reaching their lucrative American markets.

VALLEY HEROIN COMES FROM MEXICO

Mexican DTOs remain the largest source of heroin in Ohio and the Mahoning Valley, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Guzman’s loss of market share only will become the gain of one or more of his competing drug lords in Mexico.

That reality, however, should not soften the applause for a fine performance by a cast that included the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, the Mexican navy, marines and other Mexican agencies.

Guzman was arrested in a hotel-condominium in Mazatl °n, on the Pacific Ocean in Sinaloa, the Mexican state that is the center of his global drug operation. Mexican marines wearing masks — perhaps out of fear of potential retribution from Guzman’s allies and followers — took him into custody peacefully and nonviolently.

That seamless arrest of the world’s most- wanted man stands as a testament to the skillful teamwork of Mexican and American authorities.

As such, it should serve as a springboard for even more robust U.S.-Mexican cooperation to make bigger dents in the drug cartels and quell their drug wars that have claimed about 80,000 lives in Mexico since 2006.

AMERICAN LIVES AT STAKE

And it’s not only Mexican lives that are at stake. There are more than 38,000 drug overdose deaths per year in the United States, 75 percent of which are heroin and opioid-related. And those numbers have been increasing alarmingly in the nation and in the Valley in recent years.

And, as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder pointed out, “The criminal activity Guzman directed contributed to the death and destruction of millions of lives across the globe through drug addiction, violence and corruption.”

Let this milestone life-saving arrest spur even more multinational investigative missions toward disrupting the chain of supply of illicit drugs and, in turn, lessening the destructive impact they wrack on far too many lives.