The light that pierces the shadows of drug trafficking

BY JEREMY CARPER

The trafficking of narcotics and other illegal substances is one of the great threats to world stability. Criminal cartels are ruthless in moving these drugs from cultivation through processing, to markets around the world. Their presence often corrupts government officials and sometimes even the local security forces that are supposed to be involved in the fight against drugs. In some instances profits from trafficking are laundered and then funneled into terrorist organizations. On a worldwide basis, drug trafficking undermines the institutions of democratic government and brings misery and instability to society.

For about four years, my job as a US foreign service officer put me on the narcotics control team at the embassy in my host country in Latin America, where I had responsibility for public aspects of the fight against drugs.

While I knew of individual successes and many instances of great personal courage on the part of my friends and colleagues, I also was well aware that narcotraffickers were well funded and seemed inhuman in their ferocity, depravity, and ruthlessness. It often was a discouraging picture, as it still seems to be today. But it need not be. Prayer is one weapon against narcotrafficking that all of us who are concerned about the scourge of drugs in our communities could be using more effectively.

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