Yet too much of the war on cartels has focused on the old-fashioned parts of the economy, from tobacco and commodities to construction and vitamins.In one way, this emphasis makes sense, since cartels are easier to spot in sales of nearly identical things, or in the rigging of bids for the same project.
Since the cartel's last meeting in March, OPEC has argued that the market was not lacking in oil supplies and blamed speculators for driving up prices.
Saudi Arabia and the other members of OPEC entered crisis mode back then; adjusted for inflation, oil was at its lowest price since the cartel's creation, threatening to feed unrest among the ranks of jobless citizens in OPEC states.
Since many cartels now operate across borders, so do investigators: American and Japanese trustbusters joined forces to flush out the car-parts cartels.
First, since the cartels were vertically integrated, transnational organizations, the campaign against them required the involvement of more than one country.
Mexico has become ground zero in the American counternarcotics fight since its cartels have cornered the market and are responsible for more than 80 percent of the drugs that enter the United States.
Since drug cartels frequently recruit law enforcement officials as allies, it is never clear in Mexico whether they will in fact enforce the law — or whether they are impostors.
Calderon insists that Mexico is doing all it can, and that the United States is doing too little, especially since the cartels are armed and funded with weapons and dollars from the United States.
Since the drug cartel war began in 2005, Mexico had been designated a high-risk source of money laundering.
Mr. Rodriguez, who is currently the OPEC president, has helped fortify the cartel since it nearly collapsed amid low oil prices two years ago.
