It is axiomatic that organized crime cannot exist without public corruption. Indeed, given that the Mexican drug cartels have well-established supply lines, distribution networks and operational cells in 230 locales throughout the United States from which they pull $20 to $30 billion in cash a year, one can only wonder how they have gotten away with so much for so long without some inside help.

Well, the problem apparently starts — but certainly does not end — at the border where dirty U.S. border agents such as Martha Garnica make a mockery of law enforcement as reported by Ceci Connolley for the Washington Post:

She lived a double life. At the border crossing, she was Agent Garnica, a veteran law enforcement officer. In the shadows, she was “La Estrella,” the star, a brassy looker who helped drug cartels make a mockery of the U.S. border.

Martha Garnica devised secret codes, passed stacks of cash through car windows and sketched out a map for smugglers to safely haul drugs and undocumented workers across the border. For that she was richly rewarded; she lived in a spacious house with a built-in pool, owned two Hummers and vacationed in Europe.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/09/mexican-drug-cartels-us-corruption.html