Mike Gallagher, Investigative Reporter at Albuquerque Journal
June 3, 2018

From the olive groves of Sicily to the jungles of Columbia to the teeming streets of Bangkok, United States diplomats and law enforcement have worked successfully with their counterparts in foreign countries to fight organized crime groups trafficking in large quantities of illegal drugs. Now the United States, including New Mexico, is faced with the largest opioid epidemic in the nation’s history. As it confronts multiple organized crime groups supplying heroin and other illegal drugs from Mexico, will the United States be able to use lessons from the past to fight the increasing threat of Mexican drug cartels?

Mike Gallagher is an award-winning journalist who has covered drug trafficking and border issues with Mexico since the 1970s. He joined the Albuquerque Journal as an investigative reporter in 1986 covering organized crime, the criminal justice system and political corruption.

Supported by Urban Enhancement Trust Fund, Sandia National Labs and County Commissioner Wayne Johnson