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America must get tough against the Mexican drug cartels, former US Attorney General, William Barr, declared earlier this month. Likening them to Isis, he backed a joint resolution from two Republican senators, giving the US president authority to deploy the military against the cartels in Mexico. Failure to do so would, he warned, allow the cartels to continue flooding the US with their 'deadly drugs on an industrial scale'. America's anti-drug strategy was ineffective because, he said, 'it leaves the drug supply chain untouched...real progress requires aggressively attacking the drug supply at its source. The head of the snake is in Mexico.'
Europe must apply a similar approach if it's to solve the migrant crisis.
The deal agreed last week between Britain and France to tackle the small boats crisis in the Channel won't on its own succeed because it doesn't attack the crisis at its source.Rishi Sunak and Emmanuel Macron are aware of this. In the joint declaration issued at the conclusion of Friday's summit in Paris, there was a pledge to 'strengthen information exchange and cooperation on a range of threats'; these include terrorism, drug trafficking and 'immigration-related organised crime'.
It is noticeable that there has been a shift in Sunak's rhetoric in recent weeks. Whether at PMQs, visiting a control centre in Dover or speaking at the Anglo-French summit in Paris, Sunak has repeated that the key to cracking the migrant crisis is 'breaking the cycle of criminal gangs'.
The head of Europe's trafficking snake is Albania, whose powerful mafia network has been spreading west for two decades. Last year the German government, reported that
there were 40 Albanian gangs in the country, which were becoming richer and more violent as they expanded their drugs and people trafficking.
This presence is replicated in Belgium, Spain, Greece, France, Luxembourg and now Britain.
Comment: This case was always about silencing Jones, and those like him who have a voice and question the narrative, in every way. Crushing him under the weight of the legal system.