1969

• In response to high amounts of marijuana entering the United States through Mexico, the U.S. Customs Department begins Operation Intercept. For two weeks, every single vehicle at the U.S./Mexican border is searched. The first major drug interdiction operation does little to slow the flow of marijuana across the border.
  
  

1973

• Richard Nixon establishes the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
  
  

1979

• Carlos Lehder and George Jung use small planes and a small Bahamanian island (Norman's Cay) to transport cocaine between Colombia and the U.S.
  
  

1983-1985

• After the collapse of Lehder's Colombian operation, cocaine transportation routes shift to Mexico.
  
  

1993

• Pablo Escobar, leader of the most powerful drug cartel in the world (based in Medellin, Colombia) is killed by Colombian police with the help of U.S. Special Forces (see image).
  
  

2000

• President Bill Clinton's $1.3 contribution to Colombia's drug enforcement efforts sets the tone for the United States' next decade of drug interdiction efforts.