Posted on 06/21/2005 12:41:10 PM PDT by robowombat
Mexican drug commandos expand ops in 6 U.S. states Feds say violent, elite paramilitary units establish narcotics routes north of border
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: June 21, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON – The ultra-violent, U.S.-trained elite, Mexican paramilitary commandos known as the "Zetas," responsible for hundreds of murders along the border this year, have expanded their enforcement efforts on behalf of a drug cartel by setting up trafficking routes in six U.S. states.
A U.S. Justice Department memo says the U.S.-trained units have recently moved operations into Houston, San Antonio and the states of California, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. They have been operating in Dallas for at least two years, according to the feds.
The original Zetas are former Mexican army commandos, some apparently trained in the U.S. by Army special forces to combat drug gangs. Members of a broader Zetas organization have worked for the Gulf cartel since 2001. They provide firepower, security and the force needed to oversee shipments of narcotics and smuggled aliens along the border and up Interstate 35, which runs through Texas and Oklahoma.
According to FBI officials, the Zetas are attempting to consolidate their grip on the smuggling route along I-35. Anyone caught not paying the 10 percent commission they charge on all cargo – drugs or humans – is killed, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement sources.
The Zetas have also brought their cold-blooded killing tactics to the U.S., say federal law enforcement authorities – murdering rival drug dealers and sometimes innocent bystanders.
"Texas law enforcement officials report that the Zetas have been active in the Dallas area since 2003," said the Justice Department intelligence bulletin circulated among U.S. law enforcement officials. "Eight to ten members of the Zetas have been involved in multiple assaults and are believed to have hired criminal gangs in the area ... for contract killings."
The feds say the group has begun establishing its own trafficking routes into the United States and will protect them at any cost.
"U.S. law enforcement have reported bounties offered by Los Zetas of between $30,000 and $50,000 for the killing of Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement officers," the bulletin said. "If a Zeta kills an American law enforcement officer and can successfully make it back to Mexico, his stature within the organization will be increased dramatically."
The Zetas take their name from a radio code once used by its members. While originally there were 68, the Zetas have trained a second generation of commandos – many of them sons and nephews of those trained by U.S. military forces to combat drug trafficking in Mexico. U.S. law enforcement officials say they now number more than 700. Their numbers also include some Mexican army deserters and former federal police officers.
U.S. and Mexican law enforcement authorities say the Zetas operate special training camps in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Michoacán, where newly recruited Zetas take intensive six-week training courses in weapons, tactics and intelligence gathering.
The Zetas conducting a bloody war for control of the entire southern border in an effort to secure a monopoly on drug-smuggling and people-smuggling routes, according to law enforcement officials.
At least 600 have been killed this year in a wave of violence waged by the Zetas gang, headed by reputed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, said Mexico's Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca.
Among the victims of the U.S-trained Zetas have been other suspected smugglers, hit men, police, soldiers and civilians on both sides of the 2,000-mile border.
There are widespread reports of the commandos making cross-border runs into U.S. territory in military-style vehicles, armed with automatic weapons.
The U.S. government spent millions of dollars training Los Zetas to intercept drugs, some of them coming from Mexico's southern border, before they could reach the U.S. The U.S. government has also sent U.S. Border Patrol agents to Mexico's southern border with Guatemala to train law enforcement and military forces to intercept human smugglers destined to reach the U.S.
Guzman, whose nickname means "Shorty," bribed guards to escape from prison in 2001. He is one of Mexico's most-wanted fugitives. U.S. authorities have offered a $5 million reward for his capture.
The spike in killings and kidnappings in northern Mexico in recent months has made headlines and prompted federal agents and soldiers to patrol the streets of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas. Recently, a new police chief in Nuevo Laredo was assassinated nine hours after taking office.
Among the 600 people murdered in gang shootings across the Mexican border this year, many were slain execution-style, with their hands tied behind their backs.
The violence along the border has reached a point where some are questioning President Vicente Fox's ability to govern the country.
A senior U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official, Anthony Placido, told Congress last week that Mexico's corrupt police forces were "all too often part of the problem rather than part of the solution" in fighting the drug cartels.
Fox won office in 2000, ending 71 years of one-party rule and promising to clamp down on the multibillion-dollar cross-border trade in cocaine, marijuana and heroin.
While initially winning praise for putting bosses like Benjamin Arellano Felix and Osiel Cardenas behind bars, his crime-busting reputation has been undermined by the alarming rise in violence, along with evidence Fox has failed to clean up Mexico's police forces.
Faced with the fallout on its southern frontier, the State Department has twice issued travel warnings for the Mexican border, where more than 30 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped.
Mexico's apparent inability to curb the bloodshed on the 2,000-mile border is affecting the financial markets. Banking group HSBC said "staggering" levels of violence could raise questions about Mexico's stability in the run-up to next year's presidential election. Fox is constitutionally barred from running for re-election.
His approval rating has taken a hit, dropping 3 points to 56 percent in a poll in May, with many Mexicans complaining of safety fears, particularly in the north.
Fox has pledged a "mother of all battles" against the drug traffickers he says are openly challenging the government.
"We have taken on the challenge and we will do battle against all the cartels' criminals and against organized crime," Fox said in a speech Friday.
He sent hundreds of troops and federal agents to the states of Tamaulipas, Sinaloa and Baja California last week after suspected drug hit men killed the police chief of Nuevo Laredo.
Despite the move, drug gangs shot and killed at least 11 people across the three states during the week, prompting observers to declare the operation, dubbed "Mexico Secure," a failure.
Well, all of America would be the victim of course by the irresponsibility and related criminality of users and the people connected to providing the drugs.
The pro drug crowd, homosexual activists and communist party are all on the same page in politics. All want the worst for America and wish to violate the American citizens with their vice or anarchy.
Happy integration with Mexico.
I do not believe illegal drugs are good for anyone, but I also believe the War on Drugs should end. Then, Rather than making all drugs legal, they should just be, "not illegal", no law on the books at all.
Why?
1) The government has no business telling a free individual what they may or may not consume - no matter how harmful it is to the individual. (I believe this about seat belts too..children must, Adults can make their OWN, Adult, decision!)
2) If a person on drugs commits a crime, any crime, the crime itself is punishable. When a drunkard or druggie gets in a car and kills someone on the road..the person is just as dead no matter what was consumed. Crimes committed while under the influence are still crimes..no matter the intoxicant. The intoxicant SHOULD NOT be the crime!
3) The war on drugs has created a whole new class of "criminal" , people that are not a real criminal element, are not a threat to society..just weak. Is that worth ten years in prison? I think not.
I believe the war on drugs, terror, gangs should continue.
I don't think we should give into thugs, addicts or terrorists because they don't fold immediately.
America isn't for all the anarchist, terrorists or gangland thugs, so I have no problem if they use up to deadly force and confiscate all their wealth in the process of teaching them the word "NO"!
A Mexican paramilitary group trained by the U.S. in running the cocaine trade in the U.S. This group is expanding its influence every day. They are now operating in seven states and will be in your state very soon. NAFTA enables drug traffickers. The proof is in the pudding and the mixture is corrupt as hell. The corruption is wide and deep and extends to top Mexican and U.S. officials.
We Need the 'Minutemen' because of NAFTA and because neither Mexican or U.S. officials give a damn about open the border. Officials don't give a damn because they are getting rich off the drug trade. 'Nuff said.
Personal attacks instead of arguments. Typical pro-WOD zombie.
If you have your business out of your house and you have an employee, you legally can't be drunk either because that is an illegal work enjoyment under both the health code and under the rules of running a business.
So it makes sense to support those same limited restrictions for other drugs ... but it still makes no sense to support the stronger restrictions that are now in place.
You also know what you get with alcohol, but with various drugs there are no standards
That's entirely due to their illegality; when alcohol was illegal there were no standards for that drug.
Illegal drugs poison you
So does alcohol ... in fact, unlike marijuana, it can cause a fatal overdose.
and cause various medical conditions in various ways.
So does alcohol, for example, cirrhosis of the liver.
"I'm sure that good old reliable Bayourod will be posting to this thread soon! "
Is he still around? lol
Our California, incidentally, is called "Alta California" by many, with the implication that it is rightfully part of Mexico.
Well, all of America would be the victim of course by the irresponsibility and related criminality of users and the people connected to providing the drugs.
You didn't answer the question. The irresponsibility and related criminality would be illegal whether or not the drug transaction was illegal, and could be present whether or not a drug transaction even took place. One more time: Who is the identifiable victim in a drug transaction?
There was irresponsibility and related criminality by sellers and buyers of alcohol during Prohibition, but that was no argument for retaining Prohibition.
We do allow all drugs in homes that are regulated by the food and drug administration and used under the direction of a doctor. No problem, it's that way now.
The rest would be called criminal activity and should be dealt with accordingly.
I'm surprised since we don't like the anarchist, or homosexual agenda activists here, that somehow your pro adiction activists are allowed on a conservative site.
There is nothing conservative about a pro-illegal drug agenda.
Nor should we channel inflated profits into the hands of thugs and terrorists with a futile War On Drugs.
I did answer, all of America are the victims of illegal drug use. It is connected to violence, irresponsibility and a huge cost to society to handle these people medically.
Better they die of overdoses soon after they start their habits rather than living long enough to pass their addictions on to innocent children who deserve a recreational drug free life.
We don't have those restrictions for the deadly, addictive, violence-inducing drug alcohol, so it makes no sense to have them for other drugs ... especially the milder-than-alcohol drug marijuana.
INFLATED PROFITS????? What inflated profits are connected to illegal drugs?
The best we could really hope for is the major dealers and distributors put up a fight and get a bullet in their head to reduce the number of criminals that hurt our youth. They are the same to this country as the terrorists.
So was alcohol use when alcohol was illegal, but that was no argument for keeping alcohol illegal.
and a huge cost to society to handle these people medically.
There's a huge medical cost to handle overeaters, but that's no argument for government banning overeating.
Better they die of overdoses soon after they start their habits
Then stop interfering by imposing legal punishments, and let them get on with it.
You're kidding, right? One sticks a seed in the ground, later collects the plant's buds, and sells them for $100 an ounce ... and you think there are no inflated profits involved?!
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