The Geopolitics of Mexico's Drug Trade / China

When the United States began criminalizing narcotics in the early 20th century, it didn’t end the drug trade—it internationalized it. That decision pushed production and smuggling into Mexico, where U.S. demand remained constant. Over decades, trafficking routes hardened, cartels evolved from rural smugglers into complex organizations, and drug profits fused with state power, security forces, and local economies. Today, narcotics trafficking functions as a geopolitical system: linking producer regions, consumer markets, and supplier states, while reshaping sovereignty, violence, and governance. In recent years, U.S. enforcement choices, opioid demand, and Chinese chemical supply chains have transformed Mexico into the central battlefield of this system. The result is a war without borders—where global policy decisions are paid for locally.