Shifts in cartel alliances fuel shootouts in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — At least eight men were killed in related shootouts Tuesday as shifting alliances feed the already vicious rivalries among Mexico's criminal empires.

Initial press reports quoting town officials in western Durango state said the clashes between rival drug cartel gunmen killed as many as 19.

But a spokesman for the attorney general of Durango, where marijuana and heroin are produced and through which U.S.-bound cocaine flows, insisted that only eight men had died.

"This frightens us, because we aren't accustomed to this kind of thing here," said the spokesman, Ruben Lopez.

It was not immediately clear who the antagonists were this time. But the killings mirror others this year between criminal factions in which up to 15 people at a time have been slain.

The gangland competition for narcotics smuggling routes has been heightened by the Mexican government's success in dismantling or pressuring some of the factions that comprise the cartels, President Felipe Calderon said.

"The Mexican government has hit in a key way the financial and operating structures" of the cartels, Calderon told reporters. "This is forcing their realignment.

"A confrontation is occurring not only against public security but particularly — in a very, very intense way — between the cartels themselves."

A U.S. counternarcotics official characterized Calderon's campaign as "a muddy, bloody uphill climb."

"It's not over. It's going to get worse before it gets better," said the official, who spoke on condition that his name not be reported.

$1.4 billion package The U.S. House voted last week to approve the first annual installment of a three-year, $1.4 billion package of equipment and training for Mexican and Central American police fighting the drug war. But the first year's spending was trimmed by about $100 million to $400 million, all going to Mexican security forces.

The Merida Plan, proposed during a summit between Bush and Calderon in that Mexican city last year, must be approved by the Senate before it is implemented.

Durango is considered the territory of the so-called Federation, which includes criminal groups based in Chihuahua and Sinaloa states.

The Federation, whose nominal head is Sinaloa trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been rattled recently by the reported desertion of the Beltran Leyva clan, considered a major trafficking gang. It joined the Gulf Cartel, based in the Mexican cities bordering Texas' Lower Rio Grande Valley, the Mexico City newspaper El Universal reported, quoting Mexican officials.

Fighting between the Beltran Leyvas and the Gulf Cartel's gunmen, the Zetas, has caused much of the nation's violence, including the Nuevo Laredo and Acapulco areas.

The Federation and the Gulf Cartel reportedly negotiated a truce last spring which diminished the violence for several months. But the bloodshed resumed this spring as the cartels — and the smaller criminal gangs that comprise them — jockey for dominance.

The violence was particularly intense in Sinaloa state in northwest Mexico on the Gulf of California. Among those slain there was one of Guzman's sons. In addition, Arturo Beltran Leyva, the leader of his family's clan in Sinaloa, has been singled out by Mexican officials as the likely mastermind of the May 8 assassination of a senior federal police office in Mexico City, Edgar Millan.

The Gulf Cartel's reputed chieftain, former policeman Osiel Cardenas, awaits federal trial in Houston on drug-related charges after Mexico allowed his extradition in January. Police now consider Heriberto Lazcano, a former special forces soldier who heads the Zetas, as the de facto head of the organization, officials said.

Tuesday's shootout in Durango was linked in the Mexican press to the weekend kidnapping of a state police commander in the area and to the attack on the family of a local politician.

But Lopez, the attorney general's spokesman, dismissed those reports as speculation.

Police abandon posts Mexican newspapers reported that a weekend attack by gangsters on Villa Ahumada, a small town 95 miles south of the border at El Paso, was triggered by the arrest a week ago of the area's reputed crime boss. Among at least six people reportedly killed in the raid was the brother of the boss as well as three city police officers and innocent bystanders. Villa Ahumada's remaining police officers abandoned their posts.

On Monday, Calderon called the crackdown he launched upon taking office nearly 18 months ago a "struggle for the future of Mexico."

While there are plenty of reports of gang violence south of the border. You don't hear so much about Americans at the Border. Too bad.

Americans are regularly abused. According to this article entitled US Warns Tourists of 'Small-Unit Combat' at Mexico Border -- Murder and kidnapping of Americans have become routine in Tijuana. Tijuana sits just across the border from San Diego, California. According to the State Department sometimes heavily armed attackers wear the uniforms of the Mexican police or military. If there is silence about events at the border. The silence about killings north of the border is deafening. And yet....

More Americans killed by illegal aliens than Iraq war, study says

When you start digging into the numbers the only ones that can be sourced with the feds are the number of American murdered in 2005: 16692
I have seen federal numbers for illegals held in jail ranging from 19.3% to 27% of the federal prison population.

Here's a sampling of USA cities wanted for murder. What you'll see is that in big USA cities like LA or NYC most of the murderers are Hispanic. Unknown are the % of illegals. In smaller cities the FBI will post the nationalities of the murderers. About 25% of the most wanted are illegals wanted for murder. This number agrees with the percentage of illegals incarcerated in federal prisons. +-25%
Pictures of top 10 most wanted in LA. Up until recent stories about crime in LA posted by the LA Times--the pictures included the nationality of the murderers. They were all foreign nationals and mostly Mexican.

Wanted for Murder in New York City.

Chicago wanted for Murder

Philadelphia wanted for murder

San Francisco wanted for Murder

New Orleans wanted for Murder

Pictures of suspects wanted for murder in Washington DC

FBI USA 10 most wanted. (two of 10 are Mexican nationals) Around 40% of the FBI's wanted for murder are Mexican Nationals

There are currently no exact numbers on the number of Americans killed by illegals. Part of the reason is that the government deliberately obscures the number. I talked on the phone with the head of statistics for the US Bureau of Prisons. He said his office wasn't allowed to publish the number of illegal alien murderers. Rather they were forced to put legal and non legal residents in the same category. He said further that most of illegals in the federal prisons were in for drug related charges. Most of the illegals in jail for murder were in the state prisons. I talked to ICE. They put out detailed numbers on illegal child molestors. However, they put out nothing on illegal murderers.

Part of the reason for the silence on the matter is that there is evidence to suggest that most Americans being killed by illegals are black--as is the suggestion in this LA Times Article. Also this article from the LA Times. And here. This makes intuitive sense. We see stories regularly of drug gang killings in Mexico but we don't see those same stories in the USA. The reason we don't see those stories is not because its not happening. Rather we don't see the stories about illegals killing blacks because that kind of story is terribly politically incorrect. The populations being displaced in downtown sanctuary cities especially are American blacks. That means that their criminal elements would be pushed aside by Mexican gangs as well. That's also the story that the wanted for murder posters in all the major cities seems to suggest.

Nevertheless, the pattern of non reporting is starting to break. Discovery Channel has a series called Gangland that mentions ethnic cleasing of blacks by Mexican gangs

Reported Foreign Nationals on Death Row in the U.S.

To look at other USA cities go here http://stlouis.fbi.gov/ and replace stlouis with the city you want.

All that said the true number of criminal aliens is far higher than is revealed by criminal aliens in prisons. Most are simply waived through the courts.DHS Secretary Chertoff, has been quoted as warning that two million people in this country illegally have committed serious crimes. If you check the links you'll notice that its McCain who cites Chertoff. See also here and here Here is more info from Judicial Watch.

However the number of illegals on death row is far lower. Sadly, so many small towns and villages across America have sent their warriors off to war half way across the world only to see communities fill up with illegal aliens.

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