Posted on 01/15/2009 12:29:10 PM PST by AuntB
In December 2008, U.S. citizen, security expert, and hostage negotiator Felix Batista was kidnapped in Saltillo, in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, as he stood outside a local restaurant. Batista, who works for Houston-based ASI Global, has negotiated the release of hostages being held by Columbian terrorists. He has also been instrumental in gaining the safe return of many kidnap victims in Mexico.
Law enforcement officials on both sides of the border believe that the brutal enforcers known as the Zetas, working for the Gulf Cartel abducted Batista in a display of their power, and as an act of retaliation for the help which Batista has provided to Mexican law enforcement.
At the time of his abduction, Batista was in Mexico conducting security seminars for state police officers.
For the last few years, the U.S. State Department has annually renewed their travel advisory on Mexico, warning American tourists of the rampant kidnappings and murders, now crippling that country.
Travel warnings on Mexico are nothing new, and most Americans are aware that they may very well be targeted by organized crime while traveling in that country. However, what those same Americans may not know is that many of those same criminals are now moving north and abducting U.S. citizens right in their own homes.
In November 2008, three Mexican gang members disguised as police officers burst into a Las Vegas home, hogtied a woman and her boyfriend, and kidnapped the woman´s 6 year old son Cole Puffinburger.
Apparently, the boy´s grandfather Fred Tinnenmeyer, owed the cartel several thousand dollars. The little boy was released three days later.
Shortly after the kidnapping, Tinnenmeyer was arrested by federal authorities. The kidnappers are still at large.
In August 2008, Reuters reported on an American businesswoman identified only as "Veronica," who had been kidnapped a few months earlier. As she was exiting her car in California, two men forced her into the passenger seat at gunpoint, then shoved her teenage daughter into the back seat and took the pair to Mexico.
The kidnappers drove through the border checkpoint in San Diego, bringing the mother and daughter to Tijuana. The two were held captive for a month until their family paid the ransom of $100,000.
Veronica said of her experience: "We got an automatic green light to go through Mexican customs and then we were blindfolded and taken to a house in Tijuana. They held a pistol to my stomach all the time we were in the car."
Mexican intelligence officials claim that Veronica is only one of about 30 Americans abducted in southern California and taken to Tijuana since last November.
Mexican officials have been aware of the growing number U.S. abductions for some time. Baja California State Attorney General Rommel Moreno recently told Reuters news agency: "Transnational kidnappings are a new way of operating for these criminal groups, mainly in California, and so we are seeking collaboration with the United States."
In 2007, a chilling incident took place in Pearsall, Texas, just outside of San Antonio. A tow-truck driver was kidnapped and taken back to Mexico by enforcers working for drug traffickers.
Apparently, the traffickers were angry at the loss of drug proceeds they had hidden away in a spare tire of a car which had been towed from an accident on Interstate 35, the main road from San Antonio to the city of Laredo.
In April 2008, a federal grand jury indicted the five assailants for the kidnapping.
Prosecutors claim that the men were offered $15,000 to bring the tow-truck driver to Mexico. They lured the driver to Frio County Regional Park in Pearsall after phoning in a fake request for a tow, they then abducted and brought him across the border to Piedras Negras. The indictment describes the driver being "tortured and interrogated about the missing spare tire" for a week.
The driver´s boss was phoned by the kidnappers and told that if he did not return their money, that they would "cut the head off of the driver."
In 2002, members of Mexico´s Arellano Felix crime organization set up shop in the San Diego area, and began a kidnapping and extortion operation. Fearing reprisals, their victims failed to report the incidents to police, and went undetected for years. During that time, the gang used their profits to purchase weapons, police uniforms, badges, even police lights for their vehicles.
In 2007, Los Palillos were finally busted by local and federal law enforcement.
Police claim that the group, known as Los Palillos (the Toothpicks), murdered at least a dozen people, committed 20 kidnappings and transported huge amounts of methamphetamine to Kansas City, Mo., to help finance their organization´s ongoing war with the Tijuana Cartel in Tijuana, all of course, from San Diego County.
In August 2008, the FBI´s San Diego field office admitted that they were currently investigating the kidnapping of 16 U.S. residents who were held in Tijuana between October 2007 and May 2008, including many of whom were abducted in San Diego.
According to the Phoenix Police Department, as of mid November, there had been 266 kidnappings and 300 home invasions during 2008. However, police estimate the actual numbers to be closer to three times as high as the reported figures. Many victims fail to report such crimes, out of fear from further retribution from the notoriously violent cartels.
Phoenix Police Lt. Lori Burgett told CBS News: "It wasn´t uncommon to have a new kidnapping case coming into our offices on a daily basis."
On April 11, 2008, the U.S. Justice Department´s National Drug Intelligence Center released a situation report, illustrating just how widespread the activities of Mexican drug cartels have become throughout the U.S.
The sobering assessment read: "Mexican DTO´s (Drug Trafficking Organizations) are the most pervasive organizational threat to the United States. They are active in every region of the country and dominate the illicit drug trade in every area except the Northeast. Mexican DTO´s are expanding their operations in the Northeast and have developed cooperative relationships with DTO´s in that area in order to gain a larger share of the Northeastern drug market."
According to the report, Mexican drug traffickers are now operating in 195 U.S. cities. In 129 of those cities, law enforcement has determined that those traffickers are directly affiliated with one or more of the four major Mexican drug cartels.
The Justice Department has identified 82 U.S. cities with trafficking operations directed by the Federation Cartel; 43 cities with operations being directed by the Gulf Coast Cartel; 44 cities with operations being directed by the Juarez Cartel; and finally, operations in 20 cities under the control of the Tijuana Cartel.
What follows is a small sampling of the American cities in the report, and the identified cartels operating within those cities:
Phoenix, AZ…Federation, Juarez
Tucson, AZ…Federation, Juarez
Little Rock, AK…Federation
Los Angeles, CA…Federation, Tijuana
San Diego, CA…Federation, Tijuana
Colorado Springs, CO…Federation, Juarez
Jacksonville, FL…Gulf Coast
Orlando, FL…Federation, Gulf Coast
Atlanta, GA…Federation, Gulf Coast, Juarez
Chicago, IL…Federation, Gulf Coast, Juarez
Fort Wayne, IN…Federation
Witchita, KS…Juarez
Shreveport, LA…Federation
Boston, MA…Federation, Gulf Coast, Juarez, Tijuana
Hattiesburg, MS…Federation
Omaha, NE…Federation, Gulf Coast, Juarez, Tijuana
Buffalo, NY…Gulf Coast
New York City, NY…federation, Gulf Coast, Tijuana
Charlotte, NC…Federation, Juarez
Raleigh, NC…Federation, Gulf Coast, Juarez
Akron, OH…Federation
Cleveland, OH…Federation, Tijuana
Tulsa, OK…Federation
Philadelphia, PA…Federation, Gulf Coast, Juarez, Tijuana
Providence, RI…Federation
Sioux Falls, SD…Gulf Coast, Tijuana
El Paso, TX…Federation, Gulf Coast, Juarez
Fort Worth, TX…Federation, Gulf Coast
Waco, TX…Juarez
Arlington, VA…Federation
Rock Springs, WY…Juarez
Incidentally, the Justice Department report listed a total of 30 cities in Texas where cartel operations have been identified.
If the U.S. federal government does not soon take seriously, this threat from the drug cartels, it will not be 195 of our cities in which they operate, it will be all of them. If these criminal organizations are largely ignored, as they continue to exploit a largely unprotected border, kidnappings and gunfights will become a sad fact of life for every community in this country.
Swift and harsh action must be taken immediately against the drug cartels of Mexico, or life in both nations will become permanently untenable.
Not this one!
In 2007, a chilling incident took place in Pearsall, Texas, just outside of San Antonio. A tow-truck driver was kidnapped and taken back to Mexico by enforcers working for drug traffickers.
Apparently, the traffickers were angry at the loss of drug proceeds they had hidden away in a spare tire of a car which had been towed from an accident on Interstate 35, the main road from San Antonio to the city of Laredo.
In April 2008, a federal grand jury indicted the five assailants for the kidnapping.
Prosecutors claim that the men were offered $15,000 to bring the tow-truck driver to Mexico. They lured the driver to Frio County Regional Park in Pearsall after phoning in a fake request for a tow, they then abducted and brought him across the border to Piedras Negras. The indictment describes the driver being "tortured and interrogated about the missing spare tire" for a week.
The driver´s boss was phoned by the kidnappers and told that if he did not return their money, that they would "cut the head off of the driver."
According to the Phoenix Police Department, as of mid November, there had been 266 kidnappings and 300 home invasions during 2008. However, police estimate the actual numbers to be closer to three times as high as the reported figures. Many victims fail to report such crimes, out of fear from further retribution from the notoriously violent cartels.
Phoenix Police Lt. Lori Burgett told CBS News: “It wasn´t uncommon to have a new kidnapping case coming into our offices on a daily basis.”
This is one of the main reasons why it was so wise for Americans to buy so many guns after the usurper’s election.
"Only?"
"Only" thirty Americans abducted in SoCal since last November?
Are the joking?
Thanks for posting AuntB
Chilling to know that there are two Mexican Drug Cartels in Orlando. That is scary...and...if they get out of hand it could kill Orlando’s tourism big time
Which is more reason to fight Illegal Alien Amnesty at all costs. Illegal Alien Amnesty is nothing more than Anti-American Bigotry
read it again, it says “only ONE of about 30”...emphasizing the number 30 is large.
...we are protected by golly...
Our lesbo hispanic sheriff Lupe Valdez is on the job, night and day....
I feel safe every minute of the day.....
...she will run these miscreants right out of town...
Yet Ramos and Campean are still in jail? Somethings wrong with this picture, when are American’s going to wake-up?
Cartel money is propping up a significant portion of the American economy and an even more significant portion of political fundraising activity. Don’t expect any changes - the status quo suits the government just fine.
Yep. It's the smallest big city in the country.
Glad I don't live there any more.
Bush's legacy for us all...
U.S. Joint Forces Command released a report warning that “any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response.”
I think Mexico has been in collapse for quite a while. And it’s way past time for American action.
Remember Ramos and Compean?
Just doing jobs that lazy Americans won't do.
Lots of news on Mexico today:
Warning to Marines: Stay Out of Mexico!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28662592/
[snip]
San Diego and southern California troops are being warned to stay out of Mexico.
A new U.S. Marine Corps policy is in effect restricting travel south of the border without prior approval. Officials with the U.S. Marine Corps said with the escalating violence in Mexico it’s just too dangerous for Marines.
Mission Valley resident Jimmy Gonzalez said he’s heard enough.
“The cartels that are just killing people. It’s just like a war down there… I have no drive to go down to Mexico because its just crazy down there. So I don’t want anyone else to go down there. It’s just out of hand down there,” Gonzalez said.
Alvarez, the 1 MEF spokesman, said service members cleared to travel to Mexico will be trained in safety precautions. They’ll also be required to carry certain phone numbers with them so they know who to contact in an emergency.
__________________
Reality check for U.S.-Mexico relations
Obama may find Mexico and its drug war a compelling foreign policy issue.
[snip]Now it’s time to move beyond etiquette and face hard facts. Mexico is becoming a lawless country. More people died here in drug- related violence last year than were killed in Iraq. The government has been infiltrated by the mafias and drug cartels that it has vowed to combat.
U.S. not exempt from border violence
OUR OPINION: Mexican drug gangsters pose threat in this country
[snip]Last month, the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center reported that the same gangsters responsible for Mexico’s violence are taking root here. ‘’Mexican drug-trafficking organizations represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States,’’ the report said. ``The influence of Mexican drug-trafficking organizations over domestic-drug trafficking is unrivaled.’’
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/850258.html
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6212148.html
Chertoff: Military ready if drug gangs cross border Homeland Security plan also accounts for possible border surge by refugees fleeing the violence.
[snip] Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday that federal SWAT teams and military units are prepared to respond to Mexican drug gangs in the event they cross the Rio Grande and confront U.S. law officers.
The forces, another department official said, also stand ready to manage any surge to the border by Mexicans panicked by the cartels’ violence. The second department official said federal forces were prepared to respond to ``a number of different contingencies’’ ranging from cross-border raids or kidnappings by Mexican drug gangs to refugees storming the border. ``The plan can be scaled to the emergency,’’ the official said.
A friend of ours was looking for a specific shotgun for deer hunting. He began calling around the US. He finally found it in Texas. Some gun shop out there and he said the guy was really friendly and they began talking. He told him that Mexicans were buying pick up trucks full of ammo, guns, anything they could get their hands on. I asked him how they could do that, were they legal or illegal and he didn’t know. Now after reading this, makes me wonder what’s up.
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