To lessen heroin epidemic, we must stop smuggling at its source

Presidential candidates in Iowa are declaring a new war on heroin. Overdose deaths due to heroin are higher than ever in the last decade in both states, and heroin-related deaths have more than doubled nationwide between 2008 and 2013.

Hillary Clinton, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina all are calling for more care for addicts and searching for long-term solutions.

The Mexican cartels are responsible for nearly all heroin smuggled into the United States, and transport the bulk of their drugs over the Southwest Border through the legal Ports of Entry (POEs) in cars and trucks, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. A border wall won't solve the problem.

Once across the Southwest Border, the drugs are rushed to stash houses in hub cities such as Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Phoenix, and then transported via to distribution points in cities like Chicago and Boston before making their way to Cedar Rapids. Some smugglers use commercial aircraft, again using legal POEs, particularly into New York City, usually from South America.

These facts surprise policymakers who assume the cartels smuggle most of their drugs overland, through tunnels or across the Rio Grande - which is how most marijuana is transported.

If our candidates for president want to confront the heroin epidemic, they need to adopt a three-pronged attack: stopping smuggling at the POEs (and being prepared to move where the cartels move next, such as in the air and on the seas), attacking the illicit finance that moves billions of dollars each year and stepping up the intelligence to support both.

To attack smuggling at the source, the strategy requires hiring more agents and equipping them to stem the flow of illegal drugs. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security Chairwoman Candice Miller, R-MI, says that means hiring the 1,000 customs agents authorized and not yet on the payroll and adding more than 2,500 additional officers. She also says we need to invest $4 to $6 billion dollars to modernize the POEs at the land and air borders.

The U.S. government's tough controls on banking institutions appear to have pushed the flow of illicit finance further underground. The $10 billion that used to flow through the system still is going to the U.S., but (as reported by a senior Mexican banker to the Financial Times), 'It's just no longer on the radar.”

As former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral James Stavridis writes, we need to aggressively 'follow the money.” With more resources and talent, the effort to stem the money flow can be more effective. This will require interagency, international and private-public cooperation.

To empower our agents at the ports and in the financial sphere, we need to inform their efforts with the best intelligence on the ground and in cyberspace. The cartels have been successful on the ground because of superior intelligence and the ability to act on it - an advantage we must turn against them. On the finance side, the action has moved to the dark web, and our ability to gather intelligence in that space and snare the illegal organizations will be crucial to success.

The danger is that candidates in Iowa will look to bumper sticker solutions - build a wall - instead of investing in the hard work that is necessary to succeed in addressing the heroin epidemic. The Texas Border Coalition is developing what we, the people face-to-face with the cartels on the border, hope will be solutions to the problem.

' J.D. Salinas, III, is chairman of the Texas Border Coalition. He formerly served as Hidalgo County, Texas, Judge. Comments: chairman@texasbordercoalition.org