Overview
Due to Mexico’s 1,969-mile-long shared border with the United States, transnational organized crime networks have long existed. Moreover, Mexican organized crime has long been tied to its modern political system. In fact, the Mexico’s modern political system emerged alongside the rise of organized crime. This entry examines the century-long organized crime from the period of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1921) to the present.
Guns and Drugs: The Mexican Revolution
Organized crime in Mexico is as diverse as in the United States because of Mexico’s proximity to the United States and due to the flows of people from other parts of the world to Mexico during the nineteenth and twentieth century. In Mexico, Chinese organized crime has played a role since the 1800s. With the passage of the US Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Chinese migrants sought to gain entry into Mexico in order to pass through its unpatrolled border. Chinese tongs operated in Mexico beginning in the 1800s. Even...
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Carey, E. (2014). History of Organized Crime in Mexico. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_625
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_625
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