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.
Do you support a return to Prohibition? If not, why not?
The 'Great Society' welfare programs, if that's what you're referring to, are one of the worst things ever to happen to this country outside of gun control.
The 'Great Society' welfare programs, if that's what you're referring to, are one of the worst things ever to happen to this country outside of gun control.
I'm referring to LBJ's expansive view of the general Welfare Clause as a grant of power for Federal programs. Do you support such a view?
What about Wickard?
I would not lump expansive welfare in with illegal drugs, except for the fact that illegal drug use drives a lot of people to get on welfare.
Wickard, as related to the commerce clause? I'm for anything that's against illegal drugs.
You may not, but the WOD does. From the 1984 CSA: "The illegal importation, manufacture, distribution, and possession and improper use of controlled substances have a substantial and detrimental effect on the health and general welfare of the American people."
From LBJ War On Poverty speech, March 16, 1964: "The Congress is charged by the Constitution to 'provide . . . for the general welfare of the United States.' Our present abundance is a measure of its success in fulfilling that duty. Now Congress is being asked to extend that welfare to all our people."
"Today we are asked to declare war on a domestic enemy which threatens the strength of our nation and the welfare of our people"
Wickard, as related to the commerce clause? I'm for anything that's against illegal drugs.
You have just outed yourself as a New Deal living, breathing constitutionalist. That's Liberal.
You can call me a liberal all you want. Perhaps compared to you I am.
Funny how the liberals are so pro drugs though. You'd think it would be a liberal cause.. You and Soros share the same side if you support drugs.
Yabbut theres no guarantee of purity when some dopah
manufactures a drug in the kitchen from some folk
recipe. There are by-products (such as strychnine)
that show up in home made LSD.
Only fools assume that any illegally manufactured
drug is harmless.
Your own statements designate you as a liberal constitutionalist.
You and Soros share the same side if you support drugs.
We have a worse drug problem now than we did in 1900, when there was no prohibition. We have a worse drug problem now than we did when the WOD was given cabinet level status. So perhaps you should point the pro-drug finger at yourself.
BTW, the UN has been waging a WOD for over 50 years. How does it feel to be on the same side as the UN?
Do you oppose the WOT?
The twin swords of political correctness and feminism have effectively neutered ths formerly great country. Batten down the hatches.
In case you didn't know, the first federal gun control law, NFA '34, was a direct result of alcohol prohibition. (The BATFE was a make-work program for revenue agents, put out of work by the end of Prohibition, and the gang warfare that erupted as a result of Prohibition I.) Furthermore, a lot of present gun control laws are offspring of the Prohibition II, the War On (some) Drugs. The illustrious Kennedy Family rose to political power on the coattails of illegal alcohol profits.
"The illustrious Kennedy Family rose to political power on the coattails of illegal alcohol profits."
Bash the criminals, not the law.
No.
Which brings up an interesting point. Do you agree that the underground nature of the illegal drug trade finances criminals and terrorists?
>> violate peoples' rights; drug sale and use do not<<
Tell that to the people in the ghettos that can't go outside or let their children out of their site for fear of violence.
Tell that to victims of DUI.
Tell that to the people who are victims of robbery used to support a habit.
Tell that to the companies that pay higher health insurance premiums as well as deal with employee leave issues due to drug abuse. (You want to fire them? Fine with me, but we had all sorts of people screaming bloody murder on here due to employees being fired because they refused to quit smoking).
Tell that to whoever has to keep paying for rehab that doesn't work: parents; family; friends; even the government.
The WOT is for the 'general welfare' of the citizens. I'm surprised you support it.
And absolutely I believe everyone that buys illegal drugs is supporting terrorism. Damn them.
KEEP REMINDING US!
I've linked them to all the drug threads at DU, especially Aunti Pinko!
"'Somebody 'splain to us again how the Drug War is a good thing."'
well using that logic I guess we should throw open the border and let all mexicans move here as well. After all legal drugs and one mexican/american nation would put these Zeta out of business real fast huh?
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