The Illegal Drug Trade is a $300 Billion dollar industry. I'm not surprised an unregulated market that big attracts unsavory types.
You'll be interested in this one.
Nuevo Laredo: "This used to be a good place." It was indeed. When, years ago, my wife and I lived in San Antonio, Texas, we would often drive the 150 miles to Nuevo Laredo to shop and eat in the restaurants. We still have some beautiful hand-made furniture she bought and had shipped from there. Now the place is a hell hole, rightfully compared to Baghdad. If the Administration doesn't secure the border (fat chance), there is going to be a big explosion on this side of it.
You'd think these people kept their billions under a mattress.
Once they deposit the money in a bank, it becomes traceable to front businesses.
http://www.narconews.com/Issue14/whitecollarterror1.html
http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2002/02april/april02interviewgiordano.html
http://www.gao.gov/archive/1999/os99001.pdf
...and for a chuckle...
http://www.citigroup.com/citigroup/citizen/summary.htm
"Men with automatic assault rifles stood stoic after the carnage. Then, one by one, they picked up the bodies of their victims, threw them into the back of pickup trucks and headed out of downtown."
That is reminiscent of the St Valentine's Day massacre. Funny, since Prohibition was discontinued, we haven't have any alcohol-related incidents like that. Just a coincidence, probably.
"The violence has also changed the lives of American citizens living in Laredo, on the Texas side of the border, where kidnappings, narcotics trafficking and corruption have become common"
This sentence is saying that Laredo, US city, has had kidnappings. I expect the other two to be true. Has Laredo had a lot of kidnappings?
And my wife wonders why I don't want to go to Mexico even though I have family there.