Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico’s Drug Wars

Having followed Mexico’s cartels for years, border security expert Sylvia Longmire has become all to familiar with a dangerous underworld group that will do whatever it takes to deliver drugs to American consumers. The cartels have grown increasingly bold in recent years, building submarines to move up the coast of Central America and digging elaborate tunnels that both move drugs north and carry cash and U.S. high-powered assault weapons back to fuel the drug war.

Based on long experience working on border issues, Ms. Longmire sees a very real threat of Mexican cartels operating not just along the southwest border, but deep inside every corner of the United States. Her book offers real solutions to the critical problems facing Mexico and the United States, including programs to deter youth in Mexico from joining the cartels and changing drug laws on both sides of the border.

Sylvia Longmire is a retired Air Force captain and former Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. During her eight years with AFOSI, she conducted numerous criminal investigations and worked extensively in the fields of counterintelligence, counterespionage, and force protection. During her last assignment, Ms. Longmire worked at HQ AFOSI as the Latin America desk officer, analyzing issues in the US Southern Command area of responsibility that might affect the security of deployed Air Force personnel.

From 2005 to 2009, she worked as a senior intelligence analyst for the California state fusion center and the California Emergency Management Agency’s Situational Awareness Unit, focusing almost exclusively on Mexican drug trafficking organizations and southwest border violence issues.

For the last six years, she has regularly lectured on terrorism in Latin America at the Air Force Special Operations School’s Dynamics of International Terrorism course. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of South Florida in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, with a focus on the Cuban and Guatemalan revolutions.

We hope you’ll join us for a timely and important discussion.