[Catfish]

Who do you think exports the drugs? What has the CIA to do with drug traficking? Why does the DEA have such problems? From where do the cartels get the money to buy their weapons, and all this infrastructure? Why do so many people flee, from Mexico? Of course there's the Mafia, the N'drangeta and whatnot who have a hand in distributing the stuff , also to Europe, but they all get the stuff via the US.
The focus has to be on the demand side of the equation. It means focusing on drug treatment and addiction north of the Rio Grande, and the distribution from there.

Regarding getting a grip on the situation from a european viewpoint? Offering legal drugs cost-free to real addicts and helping them to get out, look at Norway, Sweden, Denmark or Germany. Still enough idiots who want drugs because it is soo cool, but compared to Mexico?
You see 16-year olds drive around in fat SUVs and spending a thousand dollars per day, so your chance to get money is to join the club, and it is so easy.
On the other hand you are a good law-abiding politician who wants to ban drugs and arrest drug dealers? You're dead.

Or, maybe you find 10,000 Dollars in your mail box, without any info, every week. You do not even know to whom you can give the money back, and that is the trick. After some weeks there will be some small demands, and either you obey, or they kill your wife, your kids, and you. And maybe your neighbours, just to make sure. “What good is an atrocity if no one knows you did it?”

And now i climb my high horse: All Mexicans are baaad. Build wall and make America great again, all problems solved. Only that this is not my high horse.

It is not meant as harsh as it sounds, but if anyone is interested in the background of drug trafficking, read Winslowe's "Days of the dead", it will really open your eyes.
edit sorry, the english title of the first book is "The power of the dog", the second "The Cartel".