CRISIS Mexico Drug War Spills into U.S. - FrontPageMag.com

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/07/26/mexico-drug-war-escalates/

Mexico Drug War Spills into U.S.

Posted by Ryan Mauro on Jul 26th, 2010 and filed under FrontPage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com, National Security Advisor to the Christian Action Network, and an intelligence analyst with the Asymmetric Warfare and Intelligence Center.

The drug conflict in Mexico has been growing for years into a full-scale guerilla war, and now it has spilled into Texas. There are contradictory reports that the Los Zetas drug gang has taken over [1] at least two ranches near Laredo, Texas, forcing law enforcement to ask for federal intervention. The drug lords have become increasingly brutal and effective, have ties to foreign terrorist groups and have even set off a car bomb. As the U.S. fights two campaigns overseas, a lack of border security is permitting an insurgency south of the border to threaten us at home.

On July 16, the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Lavedo in Mexico issued a warning [2] that there were “credible reports of widespread violence occurring now between narcotics trafficking organizations and the Mexican army in Nuevo Lavedo.” The Zetas, which have hired former military personnel including special forces, blocked off roads and threw grenades. All Americans in the area were told to stay inside.

The area has become a battlefield between the Gulf cartel and the Zetas. The intense fighting forced [3] up to 90 businesses to close their doors out of fear for their safety. Around the same time, eight drug gang members died in a firefight [4] between 60 criminals and 100 soldiers in the state of Chihuahua which “virtually shut down” a border city.

Hordes of blogs then began reporting that two ranches near Laredo, Texas had been seized. Examiner.com said [1] that two anonymous sources at the Laredo Police Department confirmed the story and said a news blackout was being imposed. Last May, the FBI http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6432122.html[5] that the Los Zetas had obtained a ranch in Texas to train its operatives in attacking its U.S.-based rivals. However, the Loredo Police Department is denying [6] the story.

This follows a dramatic escalation in the drug war when drug cartels used [7] a car bomb for the first time in Ciudad Juarez. The bomb was so sophisticated that it was compared to the professionalism of Hezbollah. The attack was carried out by shooting a police officer and then alerting the authorities so that paramedics and law enforcement would arrive. The device was then detonated, killing four people.

Rep. Sue Myrick issued a prescient warning shortly before the attack. She called on the Department of Homeland Security to form a task force to investigate Hezbollah’s presence in Mexico after one of the terrorist group’s cells in Tijuana was broken up. [8]

“[A] high-ranking Mexican Army officer, who asked not to be named for security reasons, states they believe Hezbollah may be training the Mexican drug cartels’ enforcers in the art of bomb making. This might lead to Israel-like car bombings of Mexican/USA border personnel or National Guard units in the border regions,” she wrote. [9]

Less than a month later, her fear became true. The “Hezbollah-like” sophistication of the car bomb is shocking, but it should not be surprising. Experts have warned of such an alliance for years. In an article [10] last month, the drug gangs’ ties to terrorist groups were explored in detail. The terrorist group named the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, often referred to as the FARC, is in business with the cartels. Michael Braun, a former Drug Enforcement Agency chief of operations, said [11] that Hezbollah was using “the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels.” Humberto Fontova has also reported [12] on the cartels’ ties to Cuban officials.

Over 25,000 people have died in Mexico’s drug war since the strife erupted into a war three and a half years ago, with the number of casualties increasing each year. The death toll in Ciudad Juarez has already surpassed [13] the entire number for last year. The city now has more murders [14] than Baghdad. Recently in Monterrey, a mass grave of over 50 people was discovered. [15]

“The Mexican drug war is evolving into an open insurrection. The cartels are purchasing high-powered weapons all over the world. The edge in weaponry is shifting towards the cartels.” Larry Martines, the director of the Nevada Department of Homeland Security in 2007, told FrontPage.

“If the U.S.A. does not increase assistance via military resources, funding, advisors, plus most importantly, expanded intelligence gathering technology, we might very well end up with a Narco-Republic on our southern border….We do not have much time left,” he said.

The deteriorating security situation caused alarm at the Joint Forces Command last year, which warned [16] that Mexico and Pakistan were the two countries most at risk of “rapid and sudden collapse.” Despite this warning, some officials tried to downplay the crisis. Last March, then-Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said [17] that “Mexico is in no danger of becoming a failed state.” Senator John Kerry said [18] “I am troubled by suggestions from some quarters that Mexico is in imminent danger of becoming a failed state. Mexico is a functional democracy with a vibrant and open economy.”

The escalating drug war in Mexico makes it clear that the U.S. cannot be safe without adequate border security. The increasingly violent nature of the drug cartels, coupled with their ties to terrorist groups, make them a distinct threat to the homeland. Americans must force their elected officials to place a higher priority on protecting the nation than trying to score political points with the immigration issue.

Los Zetas in Los Angeles -- Mexican Cartel Expands in California

La Opinión, News Report, Jorge Morales Almada, Translated by Sarah Damian, Posted: Jul 23, 2010

http://newamericamedia.org/2010/07/...es---mexican-cartel-expands-in-california.php

One of the most violent criminal organizations in Mexico has established itself in Los Angeles.

From here, it controls drug distribution to other parts of the country and, according to an informant, has started recruiting former California prisoners to become assassins.

This is the fearsome organization of Los Zetas – a group of Mexican army deserters that in the late 90s became the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel. Since then, they have consolidated as a group of sicarios, fighting wars against some Mexican cartels and partnering with others.

Los Zetas began its incursion into the United States through Texas, but now they have extended their criminal network in California.

The head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Narcotics Division, Lieutenant Alvin Jackson, admits, "Here in the city, the Sinaloa, Gulf and Los Zetas cartels are operating."

"They are operating at the middle level and at the street level," he told La Opinión in an interview, flanked by his team of agents.

"The (anti-drug) agencies working in Los Angeles are combating seven major cartels from Mexico. We’ve detected two of them, Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, working in distribution for the area covering San Fernando Valley, Westside, Central and South Central (Los Angeles)," said the police chief.

The other cartels operating in the area are the Arellano Félix, Beltrán Leyva, Sinaloa, La Familia and Carrillo Fuentes cartels.

Since 2006, the Sinaloa cartel, whose main drug lords in Mexico are Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, has taken over the California territory, displacing the Arellano Félix cartel, to distribute drugs across the United States.

One of the top henchmen working for "El Chapo" and "El Mayo" was identified by the DEA and FBI as Víctor Emilio Cázares Salazar (or Gastélum), as known as "El Licenciado."

But recently Los Zetas have established their operations in the Los Angeles area, a strategic location for drug trafficking.

Recruitment

The informant sets the date, time and place for the interview. He wants to be in a public place where there are lots of people. He starts giving driving directions over the phone. He changes the location for the meeting three times, as a precaution.

The meeting finally takes place on a public bench at the corner of 83rd Street and Vermont Avenue in South Central Los Angeles.

The man who signals from a distance looks about 50 years old, with long hair in a ponytail, and a green military-style jacket.

He talks fast, says that he was in the army and for a few years has been going back and forth to his native state of Michoacán.

He does not hide his sympathy for the cartel La Familia.

"The truth is that La Familia does more for the people than the f------ government," he says. "They do care about the people, so the people protect them, and they'll never be able to destroy them."

The informant, who keeps looking in every direction, says that in the last few months Los Zetas have been recruiting people after they get out of Los Angeles jails, gang members who are unemployed and would be more than happy to fire an AK-47.

"They’re bringing them to Mexico where they’ll train them. That is their army," says the informant, who asked to have a longer interview on another day because he is feeling a little anxious.

The days passed and the informant stopped answering his cell phone. He didn't respond to voicemail. Days later his phone said it was out of service. One of his relatives in Mexico says they haven't heard from him.

Strategic Point

"That is something we can’t say," said Los Angeles FBI director Steven Martinez regarding the recruitment of gang members by Los Zetas.

What the local FBI chief does stress is that Los Angeles is a strategic point for drug cartel operations, both for consumption and distribution throughout the country.

"There are people here who are connected with these major groups, for distribution networks, but the cartels are in Mexico, the drug lords are there," he says.

Martínez explains that the drug lords live where the drugs are produced, and that the marijuana that is produced in California is also sponsored by the cartels.

"There are operations for growing marijuana," he acknowledges, "but it's a production sponsored by the cartels in Mexico, Central and South America, something that our intelligence is very interested in and we are working to fight these activities."

It just amazes me we are doing nothing to protect our borders.

IMO, one of the points lost in the recent thread regarding a possible incursion by Los Zetas in to Texas is that they are ALREADY operating within this country.

Further, the situation across the border is escalating and escalating quickly. The use of car bombs and the rate at which innocents are being targeted and murdered should be a massive wake up call here in the U.S. both in political terms by our "leaders" and in situational awareness by our citizens.

In order to control perception, often times TPTB will utilize pressure to kill a story or manipulate perception through disinformation. There are several reasons for use of those tactics including operational security or simply killing a story to avoid embarrassment.

Los Zetas is on par with and perhaps exceeding what Hamas and Hezbollah do with training in the M.E. They are ruthless, Godless, and willing to kill or die without remorse.

The border between the U.S. and Mexico is now more violent than that of Pakistan and Afghanistan or Israel and Gaza.

Mexico.

23,000 murders in three years.

There have been just over 1000 American deaths in Afghanistan since 2001.

There have been just under 2000 Coalition deaths.

There have been 23,000 murders in Mexico in THREE YEARS mostly directly related to violence by the cartels with Los Zetas at the top of the offenders.

The issue isn't a ranch or two in Texas, the issue is they are already operating within this country. What they are doing in Mexico, they are already doing here.

Mike

Victims pile up, but IDs don't

Mexico grows numb to killings, gang butchery

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/7120925.html

By DUDLEY ALTHAUS
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
July 23, 2010, 6:44AM

GUADALUPE, Mexico —The brutality done amid the stacks of rusting cars might unnerve even the meanest junkyard dog.

Mexican soldiers raided a salvage yard here — tucked down a rutted dirt road flanked by scrap heaps and truck repair shops on the east side of Monterrey - to discover the fragmented remains of as many 14 people in shallow graves and 55-gallon drums.

The bodies had been burned, perhaps dissolved in acid, beyond recognition. More victims of Mexico's gangland wars, investigators said.

Little wonder. Cartel clashes have killed scores across northern Mexico over the last 10 days: a car bombing in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso; gunfights with troops in Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo; an attack on a birthday party in Torreon, 300 miles south of west Texas; gunbattles in Sinaloa, the Pacific Coast state considered the cradle of Mexico's mobsters.

But with the underworld violence killing 25,000 Mexicans in less than four years, assassins have become nearly as inventive at disposing of their victims as in dispatching them.

Bodies minus limbs

Bodies get dumped in empty lots and roadsides, heaped together in cases of massacre, or laid out alone if that's how the victim died. Police recover corpses stuffed in cars, tumbled into clandestine tombs, laid out like scrabble pieces to form letters.

The detached head, legs and trunk of a man's body were found strewn through Ciudad Juarez on Tuesday evening, the local newspaper El Diario reported, one of seven people killed in the city Juarez that day.

With decapitations becoming almost cliché, now arms and legs get severed, too. One victim in Ciudad Juarez was found crucified on a chain-link fence with a pig's head attached to his torso. Another reportedly had his face stitched to a soccer ball.

Videos of torture interrogations and gruesome executions appear online.

"This is narco-terrorism. The criminals are seeking a reaction in the public," said Eduardo Gallo, president of Mexico United Against Crime, a citizens' group. "They want the public to doubt that government is doing well in the fight.

"We aren't addressing the psychological damage this is causing. We are becoming so accustomed to such violence that we incorporate it into our daily lives."

The macabre itself usually serves as the killers' message. But, as punctuation, often-misspelled notes left with bodies explain why the people were killed and warn others that a similar fate awaits.

"They have their own special codes of communication," said David Perales, a press liaison with the Nuevo Leon state detective agency in Monterrey. "Sometimes they use the bodies to leave a message, and other times they want to hide all evidence of their crime."

Not so subtle messages

Three men were found hanging from bridges on busy roads this month in Cuernavaca, the oasis 50 miles south of Mexico City once known mostly for its flowering gardens and spring-like weather.

"You'll have to find another lover, I've killed this one for you," sneered a placard addressed to Texas-born gangster Edgar Valdez, whose nickname was La Barbie. "The authorities can't do it, but we can."

"Let it be clear: all the pushers, thieves, extortionists and kidnappers are going to end up like this," the note warned.

Dying far from their homes, many of the fallen are neither claimed by families nor fully identified by authorities, and so they are buried nameless in common graves of municipal cemeteries. Other victims simply vanish, swallowed by the earth or disintegrated in a chemical stew.

Officials in early June pulled 56 bodies from an abandoned mine shaft south of Cuernavaca. Clandestine plots, called narco graves, and makeshift crematoriums turn up from Cancun to the Baja California coast.

The scrap yard holding some of the latest discoveries hunkers on the frayed edge of Monterrey - the wealthy city 130 miles south of the border that is Mexico's industrial motor. Many of the businesses along the lane leading to the yard seem abandoned.

A river flanks the high-fenced yard, as do empty lots, shipping containers and a garbage dump. Steam shovels and trucks were noisily depositing the rubble wrought by last month's Hurricane Alex into the dump.

"This is the perfect place to do this sort of thing," said Heriberto Enriquez, who was directing the trucks bringing rip-rap to the dump, of the narco graves. "We're no longer shocked by any of this; it's happening all the time now."

Identification tough

A day after soldiers and investigators uncovered the graves, the yard stood abandoned. Only two visibly frightened black dogs prowled behind the locked wire gate.

Local media forgot the mass graves almost as soon as they were discovered. Attention turned to the bodies of four young men dumped last week in a busy intersection in Monterrey and gunbattles Friday in Nuevo Laredo.

With only some teeth and bone fragments to work with, investigators say, it will take a while to identify how many people were found in the junkyard. Putting names to the remains will take longer.

"We have to do it scientifically," Adrian de la Garza, head of the Nuevo Leon state detective force, said. "We still have to figure out if they were human."

There was also an article posted recently (I can't find it) about how Mexican women are helping disguise AQ types in Mexico to help them cross the border into the US. If that doesn't make you realize it really is a war, then what will? And don't forget about the shot fired into the San Antonio city hall, I think it was, that was posted a week or so ago.


This was posted elsewhere last night. They are here, taking over and nasty:

Welcome to Maywood, Mexico.

http://capoliticalnews.com/blog_post/show/5771


Boasting a population that is 97% Hispanic, more than half foreign born, and 40% illegal, the Los Angeles County, Calif., incorporated city of Maywood has achieved the Reconquista goal. It is now as lawless and chaotic as any place in Mexico. Maywood is a warning to every city and town in America.

The Maywood City Council announced this week that after years of radical policies, corruption and scandal, the city was broke and all city employees would be laid off and essential city services contracted out to neighboring cities or to L.A. County government.

How did this happen? Until recently, Maywood was the model for "brown power" politics.

Maywood was the first California city with an elected Hispanic City Council, one of the first "sanctuary" cities for illegal aliens, the first city to pass a resolution calling for a boycott of Arizona after that state passed a law to enforce federal immigration laws, the first California city to order its police department not to enforce state laws requiring drivers to have licenses to drive, the first American city to call on Congress to grant amnesty to all illegals.

Council meetings were conducted in Spanish. Maywood was the leader in the peaceful, democratic achievement of the La Raza goal to take power in the U.S.

The City of Maywood started out quite differently. Back after World War II, Maywood was a booming blue-collar town with good jobs, a multi-ethnic suburb of Los Angeles.

On the 25th anniversary in 1949 of Maywood's incorporation as a city, the town celebrated with a beard-growing contest, a rodeo, and wrestling matches in City Park. Chrysler operated an assembly plant there until 1971.

But the early 1970s saw these industrial jobs in aerospace, auto and furniture manufacturing, and food processing evaporate under the pressure of higher taxes, increased local and state regulation, and the attraction of cheaper land and cheaper labor elsewhere.

The multi-ethnic Maywood of the post-war years was transformed in the 80s and 90s by wave after wave of Hispanic immigrants, many of them illegal.

In August 2006, a "Save Our State" anti-illegal immigration rally in Maywood drew hundreds of protestersbut a larger number of defenders of illegal immigration. The pro-illegal protesters carried signs which read "We are Indigenous ! The ONLY owners of this Continent!" and "Racist Pilgrims Go Home" and "All Europeans are Illegal Here."

According to newspaper reports at the time, objectors to illegal aliens were subject to physical attacks. A 70-year-old man was "slashed," a woman attacked, and cars vandalized. Pro-illegal demonstrators raised the Mexican flag at the U.S. Post Office.

The illegal population and their sympathizers became increasingly radicalized. Elections to the City Council saw "assimilationist" incumbent Hispanic council members ousted by La Raza supporting radical challengers.

For years, the Maywood City Council authorized police checkpoints to stop drunk driving. Drivers without licenses had their cars impounded. Illegals in California cannot get drivers licenses. By 2005, the number of such impounds were in the hundreds. A community campaign was launched forcing the City Council to suspend the checkpoints.

Cars were still being impounded whenever a police traffic-violation stop resulted in a driver without a license. Felipe Aguirre, a community activist with Comite Pro-Uno, an "immigration service center," coordinated a new campaign against any impounds. He was elected in 2005 to the City Council. He is the mayor of Maywood today.

Aguirre and a new majority of the council dismantled the Traffic Department. Illegals were given overnight-parking permits and impounds stopped. You didn't need a license to drive in Maywood. The Los Angeles Times wrote glowingly of this "progress" in a story entitled "Welcome to Maywood, Where Roads Open Up For Immigrants".

The Maywood Police Department was restructured by the new council. A new chief and new officers were hired. Later it turned out that many of the new officers had previously been fired from other law enforcement agencies for a variety of infractions. The Maywood P.D. was known as the "Department of Second Chances."

Among those hired was a former L.A. Sheriff's deputy terminated for abusing jail inmates; a former LAPD officer fired for intimidating a witness; and an ex-Huntington Park officer charged with negligently discharging a handgun and driving drunk.

Even the L.A. Times called the Maywood Police Department a "haven for misfit cops." Their story alleged that a veteran officer was extorting sex from relatives of a criminal fugitive; that another officer tried to run over the president of the Maywood Police Commission; and that another officer has impregnated a teenage police-explorer scout.

Charges of corruption and favoritism led to one recall of city council members and threats of more recalls are heard to this day.

Maywood is represented in the state Senate by Democrat "One Bill" Gil Cedillo. He earned the nickname by introducing every year in the state legislature a bill to grant drivers licenses to illegals. Maywood is represented in Congress by Democrat Lucille Roybal-Allard, a staunch advocate of amnesty for illegals.

Today, Maywood is broke. Its police department dismantled along with all other city departments and personnel. Only the city council remains and a city manager to manage the contracts with other agencies for city services in Maywood.

Maywood is the warning of what happens when illegal immigrants, resisting assimilation as Americans, bring with their growing numbers the corruption and the radical politics of their home countries. Add the radical home-grown anti-Americanism of Hispanic "leaders" and groups like La Raza and you get schools where learning is replaced with indoctrination, business and jobs replaced by welfare and gangs, and a poisonous stew of entitlement politics.

In too many American communities, this sad tale is all too familiar


--------------------

I'm wrong.

Apparently, Los Zetas isn't the only bad ass in the world of violent offenders.

Google La Linea.

They can claim to have detonated the first car bomb in this escalating war.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Concerns in Juárez climb as bombing threat grows

By Daniel Borunda \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 07/25/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15596444?source=most_viewed

The threat of more deadly car bombings like the one earlier this month has forced Juárez authorities to take measures to protect police stations, and authorities reported finding more explosives in Chihuahua on Wednesday.

The car bombing that killed three people apparently was ordered because law-enforcement agencies are perceived to be siding with either the Sinaloa and Juárez drug cartels, which have unleashed a wave of violence in the city that has claimed the lives of nearly 6,000 people since 2008.

The July 15 bombing killed a Mexican federal police officer and a paramedic responding to a call about a wounded police officer laying on a sidewalk. The police officer, who also was killed, was a decoy who lured agents to the scene before the blast.

The bomb, made from about 22 pounds of Tovex, a water gel explosive commonly used as a replacement for dynamite in mining, was detonated by remote control. Authorities on Wed nesday found 55 pounds of the explosive in the mountains between Chi huahua and Sonora states following a shootout with gunmen.

Officials did not say if the explosives were bound for Juárez.

In response to the bombing, Juárez officials last week increased security at police stations and prohibited parking next to the buildings.

A police spokesman said the identifications of people are checked and vehicles are inspected when entering the parking lots of stations, some of which have sandbags piled outside like bunkers.

"It is due to the situation in the city and the threats against members of police agencies," police spokesman Jacinto Segura said. "There is a brief revision (search) of the vehicle and the identification of the person, including staff and workers."

Threats against police are no idle matter in Juárez.

Twenty-four city police officers have been slain this year, Segura said. The latest victim was 20-year-veteran Jesus Hernandez Talamantes, 57, who died at a hospital Wednesday after being shot in the head during a gunfight with a pair of bank robbers.

Threats and other propaganda by the cartels are often made using banners hung from bridges or other high-visibility locations and graffiti, nicknamed "narco-pintas."

Graffiti from La Linea, or the Juárez drug cartel, claimed the car bombing was because Mexican federal police are allegedly working for the Sinaloa drug cartel reputedly led by Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman.

Mexican federal authorities have repeatedly denied federal police favor one cartel over another. Earlier this year, federal police replaced the Mexican army in running the anti-crime operation in Juárez.

Federal police said the car bombing was in retaliation for the arrest of Jesus Armando Acosta Guerrero, alias "35," who is accused of being an operations leader of La Linea.

Acosta, according to police, was key in the cartel hierarchy. Acosta is suspected of not only overseeing drug deals and the elimination of enemies, but he was also responsible for bribing authorities at the local, state and national level. The bribe money was paid to a person known as "La Leyenda," or the Legend, who would then pass the cash to corrupt officials.

Police alleged Acosta received direct orders from Jose Antonio "El Diego" Acosta Hernandez, who follows command in the cartel hierarchy after Juan Pablo "El JL" Ledezma, who is the lieutenant of reputed cartel boss Vicente Carrillo Fuentes.

The Juárez bombing follows the history of Colombian drug cartels, which have been using car bombs and improvised explosive devices (IED) for 30 years.

A report on IEDs in Colombia published last December in The Journal of ERW and Mine Action stated that IEDs have been used in a variety of forms besides vehicles, including donkey-drawn carts, bicycles and ambulances. Bombs have also been set in buildings as booby traps for police.

The report stated members of terrorist groups such as ETA from Spain and the Irish Republican Army visited Colombia in the 1980s and 1990s to train cartels, guerrillas and paramilitary groups how to make bombs.

"The car bombing indicates how extreme the conflict between the Juárez cartel and their adversaries has become," said Howard Campbell, an anthropology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso who studies drug trafficking.

"The Juárez cartel believes -- and all evidence seems to indicate -- that federal forces have mainly targeted their organization in Juárez, not the Chapo Guzman cartel," Campbell said. "Most Juárez residents and the majority of analysts in the U.S. and Mexico feel that the Chapo Guzman cartel has strong support within certain sectors of federal law enforcement and the military in Mexico."

On July 18, graffiti in Juárez told the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration they had 15 days to go after Mexican federal police supporting the Sinaloa cartel or there will be another car bombing.

Last week, the Sinaloa drug cartel hung a banner in Chihuahua City telling Gov. José Reyes Baeza to get rid of Fernando Ornelas, who heads the state police intelligence center known as Cipol.

The banner claimed Ornelas is "supporting the narcoterrorists from La Linea" and that violence will follow if he isn't removed. "We don't want to kill innocents," the banner said.

Earlier this month, the U.S. State Department re-issued a travel warning for Mexico with specific caution for U.S. citizens visiting Juárez, the Valley of Juárez and towns in the northwestern part of the state of Chihuahua.

The document stated three times as many people have been killed in Juárez since 2006 than in any other city in Mexico. The city with the second-most homicides since 2006 is Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state and base for the Sinaloa cartel.

The State Department also warned travelers about violence in other regions of the country. "It is imperative that U.S. citizens understand the risks involved in travel to Mexico," the warning stated.

Campbell said the car bombing is another example of drug trafficking organizations exceeding the power of the government in specific regions. "Sadly, the future seems to hold no short-term end to the violence," Campbell said. "Currently, the Mexican government appears too weak, disorganized and corrupt to stop or significantly lessen the violence."

And look at this that Dutch just posted on his "holy war" thread.

These *things* are worse than animals would ever behave. That's what we're up against. You don't want it coming to YOUR DOOR.





Mexico jail guards 'let gang inmates out to kill'

By Katie Cassidy
SKY NEWS / NEWSCORE
9:24 AM, July 26, 2010
www.nypost.com

Mexican prison guards allowed inmates to walk out of jail with borrowed guns and drive away in official cars so they could carry out drug-related killings, Sky News reported Monday.

Following the murders, which included a massacre at a private party last week, the criminals dutifully returned to their cells, Mexico's attorney general's office claimed.

Four staff -- including a prison director -- were placed under a form of house arrest while investigations continued.

"According to witnesses, the inmates were allowed to leave with authorization of the prison director ... to carry out instructions for revenge attacks using official vehicles and using guards' weapons for executions," office spokesman Ricardo Najera said. "Unfortunately, the criminals also carried out cowardly killings of innocent civilians, only to return to their cells."

The inmate gang, with suspected links to drug cartels, was accused of killing more than 30 people in three separate shooting sprees.

In one attack, 17 people died when gunmen stormed a party in the city of Torreon and opened fired at random.

Police tests matched bullet casings found at the scene to four assault rifles assigned to guards at the nearby Gomez Palacio prison, Najera said.

Similar investigations linked the guns to earlier killings at two bars in Torreon, the capital of northern Coahuila state.

At least 16 people were killed in those shootings on Feb. 1 and May 15.

Interior Secretary Francisco Blake said the findings "can only be seen as a wake-up call for authorities to address, once again, the state of deterioration in many local law enforcement institutions ... we cannot allow this kind of thing to happen again."

Much of the violence in Mexico is blamed on rival drug cartels, who continue to fight for the control of lucrative smuggling routes through the country. More than 25,000 people have died since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on the gangs in late 2006

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/intern..._dgMcLbmbCln6Lds64QZyLI?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=

=

Allot of the mexican drug cartel are X-military and some are reported to be special op, so with that we have a rouge group that needs to be dealt with and our government has deserted us for other interests, so its up to the people that live there.

MzKitty, excellent article!

I am literally sitting mere miles from Maywood right now.

Publius, you are dead on. But, what we get from our leaders is denial and obfuscation.

Mexico's officials actually sound very much the same...

It's not terrorism... nope...

----------------------------

Mexico attorney general: Juárez explosion not narco-terrorism

By Maggie Ybarra and Daniel Borunda / EL PASO TIMES

Posted: 07/16/2010 10:22:26 AM MDT

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15531121?source=pkg

There were no indications of drug cartels engaging in terrorism, he said. Chávez did not confirm the explosive device used or whether it was a car bomb that detonated in the downtown district.

Chávez said this attack is not meant to weaken the state but to intimidate society.

Click to expand...

----------------------------------------

mzKitty is this the article you were looking for?

EXCLUSIVE: 'BMWs' Help Afghans Go AWOL From Texas Air Base

A loose network of Mexican-American women, some of whom may be illegal immigrants, have been responsible for helping numerous Afghan military deserters go AWOL from an Air Force Base in Texas, FoxNews.com has learned.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/20/exclusive-awol-afghans-bmw/

mt4design said:

MzKitty, excellent article!

I am literally sitting mere miles from Maywood right now.

Publius, you are dead on. But, what we get from our leaders is denial and obfuscation.

Mexico's officials actually sound very much the same...

It's not terrorism... nope...

----------------------------

Click to expand...

This is the comment the person who posted the article wrote:


Yesterday, 09:00 PM
Post #2

who knew?

a city of shiftless, lice infested dirtbags who want to break the law while claiming they care about the country, who are unskilled, uneducated, diseased and riddled with criminals and scum, had nothing to offer and managed to wreck what was built by skilled, educated and purposeful citizens.

as IF somehow a nest of tapeworms in the gut will bring about robust health....simply because the tapeworms want it to be so....

so ya got all your douchebag socialist utopian circlejerk wet dream horseshit, but it didn't work?

nah!

never has, never will.

wishes upon reality are not claims.

Very good articles, making the point it is not one isolated event that causes outrage but the large compilation of events. When you look at them as a group it paints quite a picture. Thanks

ambereyes said:

Very good articles, making the point it is not one isolated event that causes outrage but the large compilation of events. When you look at them as a group it paints quite a picture. Thanks

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Oh, there's more... much more. This is from CBS a couple of days ago.
There's a vid at the link too:

NOGALES, Mexico, July 23, 2010
Mexico's Drug War Adopts Al Qaeda Tactics
Car Bombs, Mass Killings Part of Increasing Violence Related to Drug Cartels


By Bill Whitaker

* Play CBS Video Video Drug War Violence Escalates


The Mexican drug war persists with 43 people indicted in San Diego and 18 bodies linked to drug wars discovered outside Monterrey. Bill Whitaker reports that gangs have resorted to al Qaeda-like tactics.

* The remains of a vehicle are cordoned off in a street in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Friday July 16, 2010.

The remains of a vehicle are cordoned off in a street in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Friday July 16, 2010. (AP Photo)

* Photo Essay Mexico Border Violence

U.S. struggles to keep Mexican drug cartel violence from spilling across border.

* Stories
* Massacre at Party in Mexico, 17 Dead
* Car Bomb Signals New Turn in Mexico Drug War

(CBS) As America fights two wars overseas -- another one is raging, much closer to home.

Mexico's drug war is every bit as violent. On Friday alone, 43 people were indicted in San Diego for murder and kidnapping, including a Mexican government official.

And outside Monterrey, Mexico, 23 bodies were found Thursday at a dump site used by drug gangs.

As CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports, the cartels have begun using the same ruthless tactics as al Qaeda.

Responding to an emergency call of a policeman shot in downtown Juarez, an officer and a paramedic work frantically to save the man's life - when in a flash, a huge explosion occurs from a nearby car bomb.

Mexico's drug war takes a dramatic and frightening turn. For the first time, drug gangsters used a car bomb as a weapon. The wounded man was a decoy dressed in a uniform to lure police to the bomb. An officer, a paramedic and the decoy died in the blast.

Then, over the weekend, strange and ominous graffiti appeared warning the U.S. FBI to investigate corrupt Mexican officials, or expect another car bomb.

"The use of the car bomb clearly represents a tactical escalation … We've seen the first car bombing, there probably will be more,'' said Brian Jenkins with the Rand Corp, a think tank that studies government policy.

Mexico has been bleeding and crying since President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug cartels four years ago. He deployed 45,000 troops; but so far they're no match for ruthless drug gangsters who are flush with guns and money from $25 billion or more annual profits from selling drugs to the U.S.

Recently President Calderon blamed the U.S. for Mexico's troubles, writing in an editorial: "The origin of our violence problems begins with the fact that Mexico is located next to the country that has the highest levels of drug consumption in the world."

"The way they see it, they are fighting our war on drugs,'' said Jenkins, the Rand Corp. analyst.

Especially on the border, where there have been 140 drug slayings in Nogales, Mexico so far this year, more than all of last year.

"There's a lot of homicides in any hour, any day of the week," said Marco Flores Lopez, a crime reporter for TV Azteca Sonora.

Nowhere is bloodier than Juarez. This city just across from El Paso, Texas is more dangerous than Baghdad -- with more than 1,000 drug related slayings so far this year.

"The war that they are having is a tremendous, all-out war,'' says Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz.

An all out war, that now with a recent car bombing, just took a deadly turn for the worse.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/23/eveningnews/main6707471.shtml

mt4design said:

IMO, one of the points lost in the recent thread regarding a possible incursion by Los Zetas in to Texas is that they are ALREADY operating within this country.

Mike

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It's not lost on those who live in the borders States...or in the communites ON the border.

Fight fire with fire...


And it better be quick

lw

Publius said:

Allot of the mexican drug cartel are X-military and some are reported to be special op, so with that we have a rouge group that needs to be dealt with and our government has deserted us for other interests, so its up to the people that live there.

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The government hasn't deserted us for other interests- this is a MAJOR interest. Mexican drug cartels are supported by the WoD which is a very profitable venture.

Drugs are Big Business and the cartels are just a piece of it.

A big problem I see is if US Citizens take to defending our borders, the enemy has already been allowed to build and supply an attack on those US efforts from the *rear* and flanks. We'd possibly be surrounded from the get-go? Doesn't mean we shouldn't "go for it" IMO.....

LONEWOLF said:

A big problem I see is if US Citizens take to defending our borders, the enemy has already been allowed to build and supply an attack on those US efforts from the *rear* and flanks. We'd possibly be surrounded from the get-go? Doesn't mean we shouldn't "go for it" IMO.....

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There's still millions and millions more of us than them.

We just haven't gotten nasty on their butts yet.

My intuitive feel for the Gov-Media Spin Cycle

mt4design said:

IMO, one of the points lost in the recent thread regarding a possible incursion by Los Zetas in to Texas is that they are ALREADY operating within this country.

Further... a massive wake up call here in the U.S. both in political terms by our "leaders" and in situational awareness by our citizens.

In order to control perception, often times TPTB will utilize pressure to kill a story or manipulate perception through disinformation. There are several reasons for use of those tactics including operational security or simply killing a story to avoid embarrassment.

The issue isn't a ranch or two in Texas, the issue is they are already operating within this country. What they are doing...?

Mike

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Mike, further up the thread in Ryan's article he mentions the populist support of the people of Mexico (indirectly) by the quote of the former Mexican solider that "La Familia Cartel does more for the Mexican people than their government"...

Should our brilliant information brokers decide to hide the fact that RIVAL DRUG ORGANIZATIONS are in battle with one another on Two Ranches in TEXAS; then we will all bear witness to the soup-bowl of organizations of good and bad intent from either side of the border that attempt to spin the truth in order to incite the nationalistic pride or "social reformist" to morp a Cartel war into a civil/race war.

My advice to the MEDIA, I "predict" people will be watching you this time. So get YOUR story straight! Two peoples seperated by a river and national boundries demand it!

Banks Financing Mexico Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal

The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of the biggest banks in the U.S.: Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August 2010 issue.

This was no isolated incident. Wachovia, it turns out, had made a habit of helping move money for Mexican drug smugglers. Wells Fargo & Co., which bought Wachovia in 2008, has admitted in court that its unit failed to monitor and report suspected money laundering by narcotics traffickers -- including the cash used to buy four planes that shipped a total of 22 tons of cocaine.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...rtels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal.html

Interesting. So have Banks assisted in buying aircraft for other Groups wanting to use them for criminal/terroristic activities?? I'm sure this isn't new news to Intelligence Agencies.

What this article IMHO points out is the large scope of the drug cartels, their power and the money they have.

ambereyes said:

What this article IMHO points out is the large scope of the drug cartels, their power and the money they have.

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Let's call them what they are in reality: ARMIES

mzkitty said:

Let's call them what they are in reality: ARMIES

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You are right, well equipped, well trained and well funded armies.

The least-cost way to stop this is for the US to legalize drugs.

Unfortunately, the politicians, law enforcement, gangs, organized crime syndicate(s) are all against this - because it would curtail revenue to these groups.

So we continue to spend upwards of $50 Billion per year fighting this stupid war on drugs. And with the war at the border, we could easily spend another $50 Billion per year sending our military down there.

Hacker said:

The least-cost way to stop this is for the US to legalize drugs.

Unfortunately, the politicians, law enforcement, gangs, organized crime syndicate(s) are all against this - because it would curtail revenue to these groups.

So we continue to spend upwards of $50 Billion per year fighting this stupid war on drugs. And with the war at the border, we could easily spend another $50 Billion per year sending our military down there.

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I agree but it wont happen.

Too many hands are being greased on both sides of the border. Too many politicians in DeeCee and Mexico and elsewhere are making piles of cash for anything to be done.

One of the biggest reasons there is a war right now on the Mexican side of the line is because rival cartels with their own "influenced" political contacts are waging war for control of the routes that bring illegal drugs IN to the U.S.

And, one of the reasons DeeCee sits on their hands is because our so called "leaders" are just as corrupted as those on the other side of the line.

If need be, that violence WILL spread to this side of the line.

If need be, politicians here WILL cease any attempt to "close the border" because it impacts their wallets directly.

Mike

You want free or legal drugs? Move to Mexico. Can't you see what it has done for them? Do you really want that to happen here?

Caplock50 said:

You want free or legal drugs? Move to Mexico. Can't you see what it has done for them? Do you really want that to happen here?

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Drugs aren't legal there either. And, the problem IS here already.

Children are killed in their front yards, shot in schools, shot in parks, over and over here in L.A. by rival gangs shooting in to crowds over turf disputes.

IMHO, every time a person in this country buys an illegal drug like pot or cocaine they might as well be pulling the trigger when some assassin in Mexico shoots an innocent or a cop over control of trafficking routes.

And, politicians in DeeCee, L.A., and all over the country are guilty of taking drug money to look the other way here in the U.S.

But, prohibition of alcohol didn't work and it made gangsters warlords and billionaires once upon a time. Once it was made legal and reasonable limits were placed upon it's consumption things have generally gone much better.

Mike

dstraito said:

It just amazes me we are doing nothing to protect our borders.

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It should not amaze you. It's been going on for 40 years. The illegal invaders come here, take advantage of our good nature, and live off our welfare, then they become arrogant and have the gull to march and protest on our streets! Now were facing a nearly full outbreak of war right on our border, and when it spills over for good who do you think the 30 million illegal invaders are going to side with?

The biggest lobby to keep drug'$ illegal is probably the Cartel'$. No freaking law on a piece of paper will stop people willing to leave your head in a burlap sack. The severity for engaging in this type of work thins the field of competition real quick!

This is business in the most ruthless-logical fashion. Ignore reality if you will, illu$ion rule'$!

But making drugs legal is not the answer; enforcing the laws we have is. Legalizing drug use will only spread its use faster and further. Look at smoking. Before, how wide-spread was it? Now, after all the laws prohibiting where and when one can smoke, as well as who can, it has dropped off. The reverse would be true if you legalize the use of drugs.

Caplock50 said:

But making drugs legal is not the answer; enforcing the laws we have is. Legalizing drug use will only spread its use faster and further. Look at smoking. Before, how wide-spread was it? Now, after all the laws prohibiting where and when one can smoke, as well as who can, it has dropped off. The reverse would be true if you legalize the use of drugs.

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Not so, Cappy.

Illegal drugs increase the use of drugs- you have pushers etc, that pull people into drug use because it is big money. Make them legal and you take the bucks out of the cartels- and they have to look for something else to make the $$$.

It as the same in Prohibition; illegal booze increased the drinking because big money was to be made.

Btw, is Buff still in denial about Laredo? http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=366715 / http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=366786

Ender said:

Not so, Cappy.

Illegal drugs increase the use of drugs- you have pushers etc, that pull people into drug use because it is big money. Make them legal and you take the bucks out of the cartels- and they have to look for something else to make the $$$.

It as the same in Prohibition; illegal booze increased the drinking because big money was to be made.

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Actually, I think in this specific case we're talking about - narco-terrorist activities - legalization would bring about a ton of violence as well. You think they'll stand still while the profitability of their product gets jerked out from under them like the proverbial rug?

Anywhere there's serious talk of legalization, there'll be bombings and assassinations that will - conveniently for the narco-terrorists - get blamed on right-wing conservatives who are against legalization.

We're in for a world of sh*t either way we go, I'm afraid.

There are contradictory reports that the Los Zetas drug gang has taken over [1] at least two ranches near Laredo, Texas

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The link above is to the original article that we were discussing two days ago.

Did I miss something? Do we have any more evidence today that the article is true than we had two days ago or are we still dealing with "contradictory reports" in regards to the two ranches in Laredo?

I was spreading this news far and wide among family and friends in Texas when I first saw it...then I had to send out disclaimers later in the day about the "contradictory reports".

Would like to know if we have anything more solid that the Examiner article from 7/24?

Kris

PCViking said:

Btw, is Buff still in denial about Laredo? http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=366715 / http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=366786

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Dude..I'm not saying there isn't a problem on our border and in Mexico with the cartels..

what I am saying is there is NO ZERO ZIP NADA proof of TWO RANCHES in the USA being taken over by said drug cartels..

The title of the first thread was "two ranches in US taken over by Zetas"..

that simply is not the case..or if it is can you please provide a link to proof that "two ranches in laredo tx were taken over my zetas"..

Ender said:

Not so, Cappy.

Illegal drugs increase the use of drugs- you have pushers etc, that pull people into drug use because it is big money. Make them legal and you take the bucks out of the cartels- and they have to look for something else to make the $$$.

It as the same in Prohibition; illegal booze increased the drinking because big money was to be made.

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Just curious which drugs do you think should be legal? Marijuana, don't really see much of a problem, what about meth, cocaine, heroin and PCP? Do you think that legalizing them would work, what about the cost of problems with the health these people would have? Not really sure one way or another in some ways I guess as long as minors don't have access I really think adults that are stupid enough to kill themselves with them so be it. They would probably end up wasting their lives in another way.. Just my small thoughts on it..

From what I can gather, there is NO confirmation on the record which verifies any take over of a ranch in Texas over the weekend.

Does that mean it didn't happen? No. Does that mean it did. No, but at least two sources within the LPD said it did they just didn't go on the record.

We do know that gun battles did occur and multiple deaths were reported the day this incident was reported to have happened.

So, what we have is this...

from the Tuscon Citizen

http://tucsoncitizen.com/the-cholla...rco-trafficers-seize-us-ranches-in-laredo-tx/

July 25, 2010 1515 MT

Texas residents have confirmed with me that no “invasion” by Los Zetas has occured in the last 48 hours in Laredo Texas. The Rio Grande is swelled at this moment and patrolling is done by airboat. It is unlikely that any armed contingent of Los Zetas crossed the river for the purposes of an armed seige of ranches. The reports of local law enforcement involved in armed conflict with the narco-trafficers is false. What the residents have told me is that if Los Zetas wants a ranch, they do not take it by force, they buy it. Texas Monthly has a great article on the kinds of things happening with Texas real estate and the drug cartels at http://www.texasmonthly.com/2010-08-01/feature3.php.

So if, and that is a big if, there was shooting at the reported two ranches off of Mines Rd and I-35, it was as Hector Garcia said, “a disagreement.” If Laredo PD or Webb County Sheriffs office responded to the call, then it would be approriate for law enforcement to take a number of officers with them and be prepared for the worst. I am left with a couple of questions which I will attempt to answer as soon as I know.

1. Is there a 911 call that exists reporting shots fired?

2. Which Law Enforcement agency responded, if there was an incident?

3. Are the reported ranches in disagreemnt known or suspected members of the criminal enterprise known as Los Zetas?

The good thing that comes out of all of this is that Laredo Texas is now a part of this story and if there are any shenanigans happening there, it’s bound to come out.

Will keep updating with information as it comes in.

Update July 25 2010 2206 MT

http://www.kens5.com/home/Laredo-mayor-Its-time-for-action-99195579.html

Laredo Mayor, Raul Salinas says “It’s time for action” He went on to say,”There’s an increase [of violence], but it’s happening throughout the country of Mexico, and that violence is contained within Mexico,” Salinas said. “On the U.S. side, Laredo side, we have been able to use our resources that we have to ensure that we don’t have a spillover of that violence on our side of the border.But more resources are needed for this ongoing effort.” “I would like to see for the government to really give us a helping hand, because we need it,” Salinas said. Let’s not wait until something crazy to happen. Let’s act now before something serious happens.”

The violence has fostered collaboration among the police department, federal entities like the FBI , customs and border protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Mexican authorities. They’re working together to monitor the border carefully.​

Now why would the mayor go on television with this kind of rhetoric? This story is bizarre to say the least. Still waiting on a citizen of Laredo to get back to me with an absolute report on the weekends activity.

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People have raised the issue of the Rio Grande being full and patrolled by boats which would lead to doubts about a crossing.

I would remind anyone who doubted the prospect of a crossing that tunnels exist all along the border and some are quite complex and VERY well built.

Mike

ETA: read the comments section for some first hand information

Here's what happened when Portugal decriminalized drugs:

http://www.wimp.com/portugaldecriminalizes/

Drug use declined, crime declined.