This is Almost Certainly the Wrong Way to Go About Things

This idea

Mexico should, after a public and transparent process, designate one of its dealing organizations as the most violent of the group, and Mexican and U.S. enforcement efforts should focus on destroying that organization.

Leads Matthew Yglesias to conclude

I certainly agree that something along these lines is the right way to deal with the crime and violence associated with hard drugs. The idea that a city is going to eradicate the buying and selling of cocaine and heroin from its borders is preposterous. What you want to do is make the dominant business strategy for a vendor of hard drugs be something like “don’t kill anyone and don’t be a nuisance.” You find the peg that’s stick out highest on the disruptiveness chart, and you whack it down.

You know what would work? Legalization. People still smuggle alcohol but without the violence that attended alcohol smuggling during Prohibition. You stop the violence and corruption associated with drug smuggling? Make it unnecessary.