By Peter Andreas, from his book out this month from Oxford University Press. Andreas is a professor of political science at Brown University.

The agents moved in to seize the shipment, but the traffickers turned on them, shooting the senior officer and torching his vehicle. With the local courts hopelessly compromised and corrupt, the outraged authorities wanted to extradite the perpetrators of this brazen crime. But this only made the outlaws more defiant and violent, and they were never caught.

This may sound like Tijuana or Juárez today, but the year was 1772, and the place was near my…