audio, stills, text and or video: Go to http://www.zReportage.com to see more - According to government figures, there were 47,515 drug-related killings in Mexico between late 2006 and late 2012, though many experts put the death toll much higher. Every aspect of Mexican life is affected by organized crime and its endless struggle for control of the distribution of drugs, most are destined for the United States and Canada. In just one month, photographer Louie Palu covered more than 110 murders in Mexico. There's no way of knowing how many of those deaths involved people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. As long as its justice system allows criminals to operate with impunity Mexico will continue to be rocked by the drug trade and its violence, no matter what economic gains the country makes. This is one photographer's view of the deadly U.S.-Mexico frontier. This project was supported with a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

June 5, 2011 - Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico - LUIS AVILA ARCHULATA, 40, an ex-gang member who grew up and spent his whole life in Arizona after crossing the U.S. border with his mother at the age of 2. Luis was a drug addict and was jailed multiple times in the U.S. and finally deported to Mexico where he now lives. He was recruited into gangs in the U.S. and was first exposed to drugs in the U.S.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

March 2, 2012 - Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico - A Mexican soldier stands guard by a bullet riddled vehicle in which two men were executed by drug cartel assassins.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

Feb. 7, 2011 - Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico - The bodies of men executed and dumped on the side of the highway in Navolato, Sinaloa which was the birthplace of one of the former leaders of the Juarez Cartel. Navolato is located next to the home turf of the Sinaloa Cartel who were locked in a battle for control of Ciudad Juarez for several years.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

Aug. 24, 2012 - Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico - Mexicans look through the U.S.-Mexico border fence into the United States from a Mexican beach west of Tijuana.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

May 27, 2011 - Laredo, Texas, United States - A man holding a U.S. passport coming from Mexico with his bike lines up at the port of entry into the United States under the watchful eye of a U.S. Border Patrol Agent and a dog used to sniff out illegal narcotics.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

July 28, 2012 - Nogales, Sonora, Mexico - MARISOL ESPINOZA, a 20-year-old woman from Chiapas, Mexico rests in a shelter for deportees and migrants the night after she was deported from the U.S. She crossed into the United States and walked through the Arizona desert for 6 days until she was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

March 1, 2012 - Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico - A heavily armed man who was killed by the Mexican military during an operation trying to hunt down the head assassin of the Sinaloa Cartel known as ''El Fantasma'' in Quila, which is believed to be territory controlled by El Mayo a Mexican drug lord associated with the Sinaloa Cartel.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

July 8, 2012 - Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico - Multiple track marks from injecting heroin seen in the legs of a Mexican man in Ciudad Juarez who was deported to Mexico from the U.S. He was first exposed to illegal drugs in the U.S., became an addict and was eventually deported. Drug addiction in Mexico along the U.S. border is rising due to the amount of illegal drugs passing through border towns.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

Dec. 10, 2011 - Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico - Girls dressed as angels pray at a crime scene where a young man was assassinated while rival drug cartel assassins ''heated up the plaza.''
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

July 25, 2012 - Nogales, Sonora, Mexico - A migrants feet after walking for days through the Arizona Desert seen in a migrant shelter after being deported by U.S. authorities. One of the number one injuries to migrants is severe blistering on their feet from walking in the desert in the heat.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

Dec. 5, 2011 - Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico - A woman who was found beating herself downtown is seen in a privately run shelter for the mentally ill west of the city. Due to a lack of state social infrastructure many people with extreme mental illnesses are brought here.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

March 7, 2012 - Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico - A man with hands bound behind his back and killed execution style on the banks of a river. Culiacan is the cradle of many of the drug cartels and their leaders in Mexico.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

July 12, 2012 - Yuma, Arizona, United States - A U.S. Drug Enforcement Agent (DEA) aims a flashlight down a 55-foot deep drug smuggling tunnel that runs almost 720 feet under the U.S.-Mexico Border cut through a floor of a small industrial unit south of Yuma, Arizona in the town of San Luis. It is estimated that the tunnel built by a Mexican drug cartel cost up to 1-million dollars and took one year to build.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

July 5, 2012 - Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico - Some of the many mayors of the town of Praxedis in the Juarez Valley located east of Ciudad Juarez. This town has been under one political party rule for decades and has been under the control of drug cartels who have killed many mayors in the region and throughout the country in order to maintain control of this lucrative smuggling region.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

July 1, 2012 - Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico - The PAN party candidate MARGARITA CERVANTES ARELLANES seen celebrating with supporters after her winning campaign made her the first female mayor of Monterrey, Mexico the capital of the state of Nuevo Leon.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

Aug. 24, 2012 - Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico - Mexican families at a beach on the Rio Grande river which serves as the U.S.-Mexico border where the states of Chihuahua, New Mexico and Texas intersect.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

July 30, 2012 - Nogales, Sonora, Mexico - An auto parts manufacturing facility known in Mexico as a Maquiladora where electronic parts are made for vehicles worldwide.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

March 29, 2012 - Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico - Migrant laborers from Guerrero State work at a farm near Culiacan, Sinaloa picking tomatoes destined for export across the border to the United States and Canada.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

July 18, 2012 - Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico - A heroin addict shoots up along the Tijuana River in Mexico.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

Aug. 24, 2012 - Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico - The Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico Border fence located west of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas near the state of New Mexico.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA

July 7, 2012 - Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico - A former teacher who lost his mind on cocaine at a privately run shelter for the mentally ill located in the desert west of Ciudad Juarez.
© Louie Palu/zReportage/ZUMA