Posted on 03/02/2005 8:34:04 AM PST by JustAnotherSavage
GANG LAND By Michelle Malkin · March 02, 2005 10:32 AM
First Lady Laura Bush is leading a warm-and-fuzzy youth initiative to discourage young boys and men from joining gangs.
But as I report in my new column today, it's going to take a hell of a lot more than Kodak photo-ops to combat the criminal alien gang problem spreading across the country:
With all due respect to the First Lady, this is a job best left to law enforcement professionals willing to get tough, get dirty, and crack heads. From the suburbs to our national forests, savage criminal alien gangs are infiltrating America and luring young recruits.
Compassionate conservatism ain't gonna stop them.
As many law enforcement sources have been informing me, native gangs such as the Bloods and Crips have nothing on the recent wave of criminal alien enterprises settling across the heartland. Recent enforcement action in New York demonstrates the scope of the problem. Last month in New York, 41 criminal aliens with felony convictions were arrested by immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) agents on a single day as part of a joint public safety initiative between ICE and the U.S. Probation Office of the Eastern District of New York.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, the aliens arrested in New York — half of whom were here illegally—include citizens of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Haiti, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Trinidad, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. The operation targeted criminal aliens with prior felony convictions for "murder, firearms trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering, racketeering, fraud, false statements, receipt of stolen property, producing false identity documents, copyright infringement and other federal felonies."
A related ICE operation in Chicago targeted violent Hispanic gangs. Over the past five years, ICE agents on Chicago’s Violent Gang Task Force have arrested more than 375 known alien gang members.
As I've been reporting in previous columns and on the blog, the most notorious criminal alien gang on the scene is Mara Salvatrucha/MS-13. They're on the border, in the suburbs, and now...in our national forests. Earlier this week, I spoke with Siskiyou County, Calif., sheriff Rick Riggins, who has uncovered massive marijuana farms in our federal forests . Riggins reports that the Mexican Mafia and MS-13 paraphernalia have been discovered on the scene.
My conclusion: The solution lies with increased federal-local cooperation, aggressive deportation, and uncompromising immigration enforcement, not with piddly anti-gang/"conflict resolution" grants doled out by the First Lady.
*** Related news:
Alleged gang members accused of murdering pregnant 17-year-old
Jail just a rest stop for gangsters
U.S. steps up battle against Salvadoran gang MS-13
An inside look at MS-13 gang initiations
Full-blown war by Hmong gangs alarms police (registration required)
Gang getting more violent (registration required)
Mara Salvatruchas to take on the Minutemen vigilantes TrackBack <1>
Good. For lots of people, it is a social club and I think the former silent majority and younger generation needs to be a bit more pro-active.
"ANY widespread criminal activity that serves to intimidate and threaten law-abiding citizens is by its very definition terrorist."
One would think so. From what I'm seeing, illegals and gangs have caused more death and destruction than 9/ll did.
The answer may not be the governments problem to solve properly. This is America, a capitalist, competition based economy. Why not allow bidding to occur on contracts to defend the border. Private companies provide all kinds of military support to our government, the range of power to enforce the border would require strict controls against conflict with local, State, and Federal law enforcement.
BTT
Interesting bit from the gangbangers themselves.
Mara Salvatruchas to take on
the Minutemen vigilantes
by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - March 1, 2005 - (ACN) It looks like there is going to be a "showdown at OK corral" on April 1st in Tombstone, Arizona. A high level leader of the Mara Salvatruchas, Ebner Anivel Rivera-Paz, has issued orders, from federal prison, to members of his extremely violent organization to teach the Minutemen vigilantes a lesson they will never forget, La Voz de Aztlan has learned.
The Mara Salvatruchas (MS-13) are a consequence of USA policies in Central America and are just another example of "the chickens coming home to roost". Its members are the sons of immigrants from El Salvador and other Central American countries that were forced to flee because of the CIA instigated war during the Reagan Administration that completely destroyed the physical, economic, social, religious and cultural infrastructure of the region. MS-13 was founded in Los Angeles by the offspring of the immigrants for protection. Later, many of the members were deported back to Central America where they expanded their operations and joined up with former members of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN).
Today, the Mara Salvatruchas have grown immensely in numbers and their network has expanded through Mexico all the way to Canada. The extremely violent group controls large portions of the drug, stolen vehicle and immigrant smuggling operations along the US/Mexico border and will not put up with clowns like the Minutemen vigilantes. The amateurish Minutemen may be in for a big surprise on April Fools Day and on the subsequent days that they plan to patrol the border with Mexico in Arizona. The Mara Salvatruchas are known to cut the "testicles" of their enemies and feed them to their vicious dogs. Other times they have cut the heads off their opponents to play football soccer with them. These are not people to mess around with.
There is a good probability that very few cowardly Minutemen vigilantes will show up on April 1st in Tombstone, Arizona. The principal imbeciles organizing the event are known to be mere loudmouths. The morons think that they will be just having "some fun in the sun" hunting down defenseless Mexican migrant workers but instead may meet up with the devil himself. Satan has a very warped sense of humor and April 1st would be an excellent day to express it.
http://www.aztlan.net/salvatruchas_vs_minutemen.htm
We've written too and aren't giving any more $$ until they handle judicial nominees.
We've written too and aren't giving any more $$ until they handle judicial nominees.<<
Terrific!
I wonder if something "formal" can be started. A letter perhaps stating what we expect, and how much we will no longer spend..with signatures attached?
I am hoping to make some impact by involving several of my friends here locally. Rather than individual letters that could be overlooked, one large one with the dolloras they will loose given as a total on the bottom would have impact.
I cant write it. I'm no good at that!
Be sure to see post 47.
This may be a "pro-pot" site, but it has some more info on the subject:
The Pot Farms of Sequoia
By Benito Ortiz, Pacific News Service. Posted March 1, 2005.
Growers using national parks to illegally cultivate marijuana often recruit undocumented farmhands to work their fields – and let them take the rap when they're caught.
This piece was translated by Miguel A. Báez and Mónica Monroe, and originally appeared in Noticero Semanal.
Sequoia National Park authorities have found at least 40 marijuana fields in the last two years. Last year, five undocumented Mexican immigrants were arrested in one of the fields, according to a National Park Service investigator who did not want to be identified.
"About 95 percent of the people who grow marijuana in this park are illegal aliens," the agent said. "The illegals just work in the fields but the people who really run them are first- and second-generation Mexican Americans who recruit these illegals, promising them $15,000 cash and sometimes more to grow marijuana for just four months," he said.
These undocumented immigrants are among a group of unemployed day laborers who can be found outside large hardware and construction stores in the San Joaquin Valley, waiting for someone to hire them for a day's work. Many of them used to work in the fields of the Central Valley.
"Some of them don't even know they were hired to grow marijuana until they get to the park," the agent said.
But the land owners don't keep their promises to the field workers. Many undocumented farmhands never see their money, either because they get arrested before getting paid or because their bosses disappear with all the drugs, the agent said.
Nearly all the marijuana that has been found and confiscated was grown near rivers or streams on the hillsides. Between 10,000 to 20,000 marijuana plants are grown on each field, whose average size is about one acre. Walking through these areas is difficult because of the roughness and inaccessibility of the land. The vast vegetation of pine trees, oak trees, bushes and other plants provide these fields with shade and protection. This makes the authorities' job harder. Even with the use of helicopters, finding marijuana fields in the Sequoia National Park is not easy.
How Growers Operate
Growing marijuana in the Sequoia National Park has become a highly sophisticated process.
"Obviously there are more people behind this and they are the ones that pay for all of this," the agent said. "We have learned that the people in charge have connections with cartels in Mexico. These cartels send highly trained people to teach the undocumented immigrants how to grow marijuana, and how to find the perfect area for the fields," he added.
The irrigation system in nearly all the fields is sophisticated; a drip system provides water to each plant through a hidden underground irrigation pipes installed in rivers, or under running water coming from the mountains. Water is pumped uphill through pipes that are activated by solar timers.
"They start growing marijuana between March and April," said Richard Thiel, one of the park's employees.
The undocumented immigrants recruited to grow marijuana live in the fields during the four months it takes the plants to grow.
"They live in tents and have drinking water and bathrooms," the agent said. "Besides the workers, there are also one or two armed men," said the agent. These guards don't work in the fields; they just watch the workers to make sure they don't run away and watch for outsiders.
"Every ten days people come to bring them food, fertilizers and pesticides," said the agent said. Sometimes the suppliers don't come for many days and the workers have to go for days without eating. Many of the people who bring supplies to them are women with children, probably to deter the authorities, according to the investigator.
"But these women, knowing that what they are doing is wrong, ignore the fact that they could also be arrested, in addition to having their car confiscated and their children taken away," the investigator said.
How Authorities Operate
"It is a crime to take food and leave it by the side of the road," said the agent in charge of the investigation. The crime is even worse when weapons, fertilizers and pesticides are brought into the park.
Currently, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is investigating one of the suppliers with the goal of finding the leaders of the operation.
"As long as we're just arresting the ones who grow marijuana in the park, we're not going to solve the problem," the investigator said. "We are going directly for the people at the top."
"There are forest rangers that are trained to lead investigations, detentions and also to continue with the investigations after the arrests are made," he said. To make the search of the marijuana fields more effective, the park authorities are now using a tracking system, utilizing new and different tactics.
"We will install electronic sensors, satellite detectors and other innovative techniques that have been designed in the last few years," the agent said.
Meanwhile, some groups are trying to make growing marijuana in national parks a federal crime.
"We are trying to charge the detainees with federal crimes and not just for illegal violations, especially since Sequoia Park is a national park under the protection of the federal government," the agent said.
Punishment and sentences
"Planting and growing marijuana in national parks is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and a charge of conspiracy that can add five to 10 years," said Alexandra Picavet, public information officer of the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of Interior, assigned to the Sequoia National Park.
"And if there are charges of firearm possession, this adds 10 more years to the original sentence," Picavet said. She added that the suppliers that are arrested for conspiracy can be sentenced to five to 10 years in prison, in addition to having their car confiscated and losing custody of their children.
Nobody knows exactly when Sequoia National Park started to be used to grow marijuana, but authorities estimate that this has been going on for many years. The discovery of the first field at the beginning of 2001 was purely coincidental, according to Thiel.
Thiel said that one day a forest ranger noticed water flowing out of the ground on one of the park's many small trails. He started to investigate and discovered that the water was coming out of a leak in an underground pipe.
"He tried to tear it out of the ground but the pipe was much longer than he first thought so he continued tearing it out of the ground until he came to a huge marijuana field," Thiel said. "For his own security, and also as to not alert anyone nearby, he immediately left to alert the authorities," he said.
Hikers have also found fields in the park that they reported to authorities. Other than confiscating drugs, authorities had confiscated an AK47, shotguns, pistols and .22 caliber rifles.
Meanwhile, the remains of fertilizer and pesticides that the marijuana growers are using have started to cause ecological problems in the forests after they mix with the river water, according to Picavet.
"This is a problem that, if not prevented immediately, can with time cause irreversible harm to plant and animal life in the park," she said.
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/21385/
"Amazing times we are living in. And one question is, will this forum even allow this discussion to take place in full, without deleting links to specific terroristic threats made by the Voz De Aztlan, such as those posted in reply #47?
I hope that FR has grown up in the past couple of weeks, and will not stifle this debate, which directly impacts national security."
I wondered if that site on post 47 would be allowed. It's always good to take a look at the other "side".
I find it amazing that American citizens on US soil are threatened by FOREIGN ORGANIZED CRIME.
Just call your congressmen at their offices if you don't want to write.
But we do need to do something and an organized freep isn't a bad idea at all. Just don't know how to go about it.
"But we do need to do something and an organized freep isn't a bad idea at all. Just don't know how to go about it."
If you figure it out, let me know and I'll do what I can, not sure FR would sanction such.
Just call your congressmen at their offices if you don't want to write.
But we do need to do something and an organized freep isn't a bad idea at all. Just don't know how to go about it.<<<
I have written (and personally called) my congressman and the Governors office. Sorry you misunderstood me. I was actually talking about some sort of organized Freep. (See what I mean about not being able to "write", meaning I have a hard time putting ideas into words.)
Is anyone on this thread interested in an organized freep or written campaign about withholding voluntary donations until we are actually heard?
I'm in.
Yep, sometimes you have to hold your nose and read what creeps like the Aztlaners are saying, if only for their intell value in determining coming threats.
The see-no-evil "Ostrich Defense" is pretty stupid.
Call Halliburton or one of its subsidiaries, Kellogg Brown & Root, maybe? That would make the leftie-liberals just NUTS.
I saw it alright.
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