In August 1999, federal agents announced that they had broken up one of America’s twenty largest drug rings in a yearlong operation dubbed “Operation Southwest Express.” In all, agents indicted 100 suspects, arrested 77, and seized 5,622 pounds of cocaine, 2 tons of marijuana, $1 million in cash, 2 Ferraris, a Land Rover, and 7 weapons. In the process, they disrupted a network of smugglers and dealers that were bringing drugs into the country from Mexico through El Paso and supplying several major cities in the eastern and Midwestern United States, including Chicago, New York, and Boston.

While officials consider drug busts like Operation Southwest Express crucial to America’s antidrug efforts, critics of the nation’s drug war contend that breaking up one drug ring will have virtually no impact on the availability of drugs. Due to the great demand for illegal drugs in America—and the astronomical...