Sources: Zetas Plan to Make Nuevo Laredo Their Base of Operations

They've moved about 150 miles west to Nuevo Laredo. Our intelligence sources tell us the group wants to take over the city and make it their base of operations.

The U.S. Consulate General's office has already confirmed a gunbattle in Nuevo Laredo. It's happening near Boulevard Colosio and the city's zoo. The consulate general's office is telling all U.S. citizens to take shelter until the fighting stops.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS learned the Zetas are already calling in reinforcements. We're told 700 Zetas from around Mexico are joining the 500 already brought to the area last week.

The Gulf Cartel also called in reinforcements last week. CHANNEL 5 NEWS learned they joined forces with two rival cartels, La Familia Michoacana (LFM) and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Our sources tell us the Sinaloa Cartel and LFM have a deep hatred of the Zetas. They could also benefit by getting a cut of the Valley's drug smuggling business.

It was a rough week for the border. CHANNEL 5 NEWS was following an explosion of shootouts and grenade attacks in northern Tamualipas.

Violence was reported in border cities like Valle Hermoso, Reynosa, Guerrero, Miguel Aleman, Ciudad Mier, and Valadeces. According to the Mexican military and CHANNEL 5 NEWS sources, last week's violence left at least 23 people dead.

Our sources tell us it was triggered when a Gulf Cartel member murdered a Zeta leader on January 18. The Zetas demanded the Gulf Cartel hand over the killer.

When that didn't happen, the Zetas kidnapped 16 Gulf Cartel members in Miguel Aleman. We're told that led to the shootouts up and down the border.

“Americans better wake up to the level of violence illegal immigration and the cartels bring with them. The Dept. of Justice has stated this is the greates threat to America.”

Americans seem to worry about all manner of things except the real dangers. More beheadings in Mexico than ANY WHERE...more kidnappings...until it happens to one of their own family, they will ignore it.

MORE today from NAFBPO:

Mexican Drug Cartels Active Nationwide, Obama Administration Officials Say
Tuesday, March 02, 2010

[snip]
Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs David Johnson made the remarks at a State Department press briefing when CNSNews.com asked if the plan to combat drug trafficking and money laundering around the world included dealing with Mexican drug cartels in the United States.

Johnson said that U.S. law enforcement agencies are in charge of combating the cartels, but that those agencies have had success targeting those operations on America soil.

“Yes, there’s a broad impact in the United States of cartel operations that are based inland from Mexico,” Johnson said. “I think that illustrates another point that bears some exploring. When people think about, quote end quote, ‘spillover,’ you tend to think of a glass and things that are spilling over right at the border.

“It doesn’t tend to be that way,” Johnson said. “The spillover, if you will, is more broadly in the United States, and some of the border communities would be not nearly as effective than (sic) some of the more inland areas are.”

Testifying at a Feb. 24 hearing on the Department of Homeland Security 2010 budget before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said Mexican drug cartel operations are widespread in the United States.

“I was in Mexico City again just last week,” Napolitano said. “We must continue a concerted and sustained effort against these cartels. Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.5 million people, is right over a bridge from our border, and the rule of law has effectively been lost there.

“The cartels, in essence, have fingertips in the communities across the United States, and so you will see, in different places in the budget, but we are very, very concerned about the situation in Mexico, but we are very, very energized by the effort we are seeing across our federal government and across the Mexican federal government in that regard,” Napolitano said.

According to a May 2009 Congressional Research Service report, 5,630 people died in Mexico from drug cartel-related violence in 2008.

She said that the drug cartels and the violence associated with them are a threat to U.S. security.

“These cartels are big. They’re organized. They have fingers that reach into hundreds of American communities,” Napolitano said at the hearing. “And there needs to be a sense of urgency about this if for no other reason than because the presidency of Mexico will expire in another year and a half and also because quite frankly people are dying.”

According to an April 2008 National Drug Intelligence Center report, Mexican drug cartels are operating in 195 U.S. cities.

“Mexican DTOs [Drug Trafficking Organizations] are the most pervasive organizational threat to the United States,” the report said. “They are active in every region of the country and dominate the illicit drug trade in every area except the Northeast.

“Mexican DTOs are expanding their operations in the Northeast and have developed cooperative relationships with DTOs in that area in order to gain a larger share of the northeastern drug market,” the report added.

“Federal, state, and local law enforcement reporting reveals that Mexican DTOs operate in at least 195 cities throughout the United States,” it said

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/62109

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