The highest-ranking U.S. law enforcement official is laying direct blame on the Mexican cartels for the recent surge in methamphetamine. By naming specific cartels, the attorney general marks a coming evolution in Washington’s stance.

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr:

Now, Methamphetamine is manufactured on an industrial scale by two major Mexican cartels in Mexico: Sinaloa, and CJNG. It comes across the border via a distribution network where it goes initially to multiple large cities in the U.S. fewer than 12, from there it is broken down and distributed throughout the country.

On September 10, the newly appointed Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Timothy Shea, accompanied by Attorney General Barr, announced that in a span of six months, Operation Crystal Shield conducted: 750 investigations; 1,840 arrests; the seizure of more than 28,560 pounds of methamphetamine; $43.3 million in drug proceeds; and 284 firearms.

Crystal Shield leveraged existing DEA initiatives that target major trafficking networks, including the Mexican cartels. From Fiscal Year 2017 to 2019, DEA domestic seizures of methamphetamine increased 127 percent from 49,507 pounds to 112,146 pounds. During the same timeframe, the number of related arrests increased by nearly 20 percent.

“Almost all illicit drugs come up from Mexico and are controlled by these two dominant cartels–which are really states within a state–they act with impunity and have acted with impunity, and until we can deal decisively with the situation in Mexico, we are not going to see an end to the drug problem,” AG Barr added.

For the attorney general to publicly mention the Sinaloa and Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) as acting with impunity sets a possible course for U.S. policy changes. His recognition of the cartels’ evolution into parallel governments cannot be understated.

Jaeson Jones is a retired Captain from the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division and a Breitbart Texas contributor. While on duty, he managed daily operations for the Texas Rangers Border Security Operations Center