Sprithawk, Sprithawk, Spirithawk, you idealistic and romantic soul. What are we going to do with you, silly boy?
Don't you realize that tens of thousands of law enforcement jobs require gangs to exist? The cops have no interest in reducing gang activity. They want more gang activity so they can increase head count and make more money. Look at TSA as a correlated example. They actually aid terrorists by over-reacting to every little threat. This is exactly what the terrorists do for a living and want as an outcome. Now they have a huge government bureaucracy to do their dirty work for them. Do you think Al Quaeda could have set up shop in every airport and train station in the country and demand that people take off their shoes?
A lot of people complain that the Mexican government relies too much on drug trade for money, so they pretend to fight the drug lords, but actually have no such intent. Works exactly the same way here. It's called corruption. The flow of money is a little different here, but the difference is only in the technical details.