Like so much of the United States, Phoenix has been hit hard by the recession. One type of business is booming, however: kidnapping. Over the past few years, Phoenix has acquired a dubious reputation as America's kidnapping capital.
State and federal statistics show that most types of crime have dropped in the Phoenix area in recent years. On the other hand, kidnapping has surged from 48 reported cases in Maricopa County in 2004, to 366 in 2008 and 359 the year before.
Law enforcement authorities say the vast majority of kidnappings in the Phoenix area stem from a single source: the illicit drug traffic coming north from the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Approximately half of all the marijuana seized along the U.S.-Mexico border is taken along our state's 370-mile border.
Sinaloa sits along the Pacific Coast, a few hours south of Arizona. It's where most Mexican drug cartels were formed and where kidnappers began nabbing victims in order to get debts paid. They soon expanded their victim pool by including local merchants, prominent citizens and others in order to extract hefty ransoms from the victims' families and business associates.
Over time, the kidnappings have migrated north, carrying a wave of related crimes, including shootings and home invasions.
Though murders in Maricopa County are down overall, the wave of Mexican drug-related kidnappings and killings has officials alarmed. They want to act now to prevent the sort of violence plaguing Mexico, where over 6,000 people were killed in drug-related activities in 2008.
Stories of beheadings, brazen kidnappings and killings of Mexican police officers and other public figures regularly filter north now. Though the crimes in Phoenix and other border cities here haven't reached those levels yet, the groundwork has been laid.
Mexico's drug trade extends across the United States. Authorities estimate the cartels have distributors in at least 230 U.S. cities.
The United States and Mexico are partners in the drug trade, state senator Jonathan Paton told the New York Times: "They send us drugs and people, and we send them guns and cash."
Paton and other legislators are considering legislation to stiffen penalties on illegal gun purchases and people smuggling in an effort to slow the flow of crime coming north.
