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.
baja californisa is in MEXICO not the USA
Hogwash. It is an issue of national defense, just like WWII.
And absolutely I believe everyone that buys illegal drugs is supporting terrorism.
You dodged my question, so let me try it a different way. Would a regulated drug market, similar to alcohol, result in less money for criminals and terrorists?
"Would a regulated drug market, similar to alcohol, result in less money for criminals and terrorists?"
Answer: Short answer: Maybe. Worth the cost? No.
Long answer:
Also, maybe they'd move into the bio/chem/nuclear weapons biz if they lost this market totally. Who knows?
I managled that post. Rewrite..
Short answer: Maybe. Worth the cost? No.
Long answer: Maybe they'd move into the bio/chem/nuclear weapons biz if they lost this market totally. Who knows?
"So who are all the violent people carrying all the illegal drugs across from Mexico to the United States?"
Jeez... Who are they- they're criminals. The question you should be asking is why- because drugs are illegal and there's a demand.
Having said that, I'll point out that I don't agree with the willy-nilly use of drugs as a means of instant gratification or simply to get high, I believe there's a difference between using and abusing. (Incidentally, I don't smoke, not even cigs, and rarely if ever drink- and I don't use drugs because they're illegal).
Further, I contend that the drug problem is primarily one of misuse, which stems from our terrible socialist education system and a society that ignores the subject of emotional health and intelligence, and a poor class with very little from which to derive happiness.
But like guns, knives and whatnot, the problem is not with the objects themselves, but the misuse and abuse of them.
So if we legalize rape, mutilations, beatings, shootings by law, it will all go away?
Just sign me "Disgusted".
Seems only one option. Another poster said it the other night, and it didn't involve voting.
I agree with you, it's a very alarming when those we pay to protect and defend our country don't.
What another person said was, why do we keep electing the same people over and over? It's a good question.
You mentioned American history. Many years ago American leaders didn't make careers out of politics. Now, they all do, and make life long careers out of it. Long ago, they served one term and went back to the farm or where ever.
This in my opinion is one of the biggest problems.
Look at those in Politics. That's all they know, and go from one office to another, riding the wave. Look at those in Congress and the Senate. Most have been there for many years. City counsel members go on to be county supervisors, then Mayors, and then any number of positions in state governments.
Lets face it. The longer they are in office the more the potential for corruption. It's no secret.
They cultivate friends and buddys over the years, and we know where all this goes from there.
One thing I find interesting..
Gun ownership is very high in the USA because they are legal. They are very low England where it's illegal.
Personally, I prefer an armed society. However, I strongly believe legality and ease of buying is directly correlated with how much of something is bought.
If the libertarians had their way, meth would be as easy to buy as a coke. hmmmmmmmm... Not that hard to figure out that people picking it up to give it a shot would skyrocket.
Why are illegal drug activists present at FR?
Addiction isn't a conservative behavior, so why is FR so connected with anarchist and liberal libertarians with this issue?
I suppose because conservativism is stuck with warped libertarianism which is a tiny step away from anarchism.
You're being silly and you know it.
This has become a circular argument- once again, those are activities- a drug, any drug, is merely an inanimate object. Are you afraid a steel pipe is going to sprout legs and jump up and hit you in the head?
Do you feel like going around this circle again? Because I don't. You have a mind designed for intelligent thought- use it.
Some people use drugs to indulge in self-destructive behaviours, certainly. Cocaine and morphine are used as anesthetics, but can be misused or abused- as I said, it's a result of behaviour, which stems from poor education and character development.
A lot of educated people use drugs. It's all poor judgement and character and disregard of the law as far as I am concerned.
Any law that causes reasonably forseeable, serious harms is a bad law. That was true of Prohibition I and is also true of Prohibition II. One would have to be stupid or blind to not bash bad laws. (In fact, your comment denies that bad laws could possibly even exist! Stupid or blind.)
During the AWB, I didn't put folding stocks on post-ban rifles. You follow the law and try to get it changed while you are under it.
At least, that's what adults do. What you do, who knows.
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