Mexican drug cartels take over U.S. cities

WorldNetDaily ^ | June 18, 2006 | Joseph Farah

[seastay]

Mexican drug cartels operating in cities in the U.S. are buying up legitimate businesses to launder money and using some of the proceeds to win local mayoral and city council seats for politicians who can shape the policies and personnel decisions of their police forces, according to Rep. Tom Tancredo

"The Tijuana-based Felix drug cartel and the Juarez-based Fuentes cartel began buying legitimate business in small towns in Los Angeles County in the early 1990s,"

"They purchased restaurants, used-car lots, auto-body shops and other small businesses. One of their purposes was to use these businesses for money-laundering operations. Once established in their community, these cartel-financed business owners ran for city council and other local offices. Over time, they were able to buy votes and influence in an effort to take over the management of the town. They wanted to create a comfort zone from which they could operate without interference from local law enforcement."

...an example, L.A. County city of Bell Gardens – corrupt elected officials under the influence of drug lords actually tried to shut down the police department.

City officials who would not cooperate with the Mexican-born city manager were forced out of office," he writes. "Eventually, the L.A. County attorney's office moved in, and the city manager was prosecuted on charges of corruption. Unfortunately, Bell Gardens was only the tip of the iceberg. Other Los Angeles suburbs – including Huntington Park, Lynwood and Southgate – became targets for the cartels."

Tancredo reports he has had confidential briefings with top officials in big-city law enforcement who say there are entire cities under the virtual control of Mexican criminal street gangs and their associated businesses, in some cases, making it dangerous for county, state and national law enforcement officers to venture in and rendering any interdepartmental cooperation impossible.

[seemoAR]

The illegals are not the only people who buy stores and use them for money laundering. I live in a small town. Most of the downtown is owned by one family. Several local businesses seem to have very few customers. I have wondered how they can keep the doors open.

[Dane]

Any thoughts on the subject?

Yeah it's book pimping by farah and tancredo.

For some reason the below passage from farah's article was left out.

In his new book, "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security," Tancredo exposes what he has learned from meetings with law enforcement authorities regarding a concerted effort by the Mexican mafia and drug cartels to extend its corruptive influence in urban areas dominated by illegal alien populations.

I'll take good conservative James Sensenbrenner's advice.

Again, it's the new, detailed Cannon - a good thing, says House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. "What I can say is, in Congress there are workhorses and showhorses," Sensenbrenner says. "Chris Cannon is the workhorse. Workhorses get things done in Congress.

Link

JMO, Congressman Sensenbrenner knows who the workhorses are and who the showhorses are(IMO, tancredo).

[DumpsterDiver]

ping

[seastay]

If the Mexican illegals have successfully populated the area, why wouldn't they expect to govern it?

Buty They are not governing that is the problem, we would have no problem if the gangs disappeared, the graffiti gone, the arsons and gang shootings gone, and their kids in school learning how to read and write and do arithmetic, but instead we have anarchy, and people think that this is just a race topic and or personal liberty drug issue, but it is far grater, it is a threat to the stability of our own government as it gets out of hand,

[gubamyster]

ping

[jpl]

Maybe dealing drugs is now another one of those jobs that Americans won't do?

[after dark]

Terrible greed is fueling the destruction of this country.For now regular people are suffering. Drug pushers target poor people and children. Public schools are starting to look more like pharmacies for illegal drugs. This is one of the big reasons homeschooling is growing in the face of bitter opposition from teacher groups. Those who enjoy watching the drug poisoning of middle and lower class kids are not prepared for the day they will reap the consequences of their actions.

[TheLion]

Bump!

[Liz]

Comes as no surprise----their signage and shouts at the
recent street protests indicated they are ready to
takover the US with the vote, or with violence, if necessary.

Did anybody doubt the rampaging thugs waving Mexican flags in our
faces were organized drug cartels ready for war against Americans?

[Liz]

ping

[panthermom]

I live in Georgia, everyone has heard of Atlanta, but it's the small towns that are being destroyed; Gainesville and Dalton to name 2. Towns that most people have never heard of, now they are over run with gangs and drugs. So much for sleepy southern towns.

[Zon]

These penalties sheem harsh, but they would quickly stop or seriously reduce drug use in America.

Singapore has the death penalty for illicit drugs and it hasn't reduced drug use.

When Lt Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ( LEAP) gives presentations at colleges he asks the audience, "How many of you don't do drugs because they're against the law?", seldom does even one person raise their hand.

- -

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition -- LEAP. Their member ship is strictly persons that are or have careers in the justice system and fought the war on drugs. Judges, prosecutors, LEOS, DEA, etc.

[Liz]

An outrage----somebody was asleep at the switch to let this happen. Didn't happen overnight---took organization. Someody knew and did nothing.

[mthom]

"I'll take good conservative James Sensenbrenner's advice."

Sensenbrenner says citizenship for illegals will kill any compromise and the Senate should back off. Sooner or later youll draw your long knives for him too.

[after dark]

To think hundred years ago foreign born citizens could be deported and stripped of citizenship if they became criminals. What a crinkle such a law would put into the plans of the Mexican drug cartels. I wonder if it is still on the books.

[Joan Kerrey]

Mexican drug cartels operating in cities in the U.S. are buying up legitimate businesses to launder money and using some of the proceeds to win local mayoral and city council seats for politicians who can shape the policies and personnel decisions of their police forces, according to Rep. Tom Tancredo

A closer look might focus on more than just local politics. They're much further along than that.

[TKDietz]

The main reason why that wouldn't work is that the level of deterrent effect of a law is directly proportional to the perceived risk of getting caught. Something like 67% of all murders result in an arrest. What percentage of "pot smokings" do you think result in an arrest? It has to be one in several thousand. The risk of getting caught for crimes where there are actual victims each time the law is broken is much higher than the risk of getting caught using drugs. Drug users tend to think that as long as they are just a little careful they'll never get caught, and for the most part that's a pretty reasonable assessment of the situation. Most won't ever get caught, and most are young and feeling invincible anyway when they start messing with drugs, making it even less likely they'll worry too much about the remote possibility that they'll get caught.

Another problem is that you are advocating ridiculously high fines that will never be paid by the small percentage of users who do get caught. I work in the criminal justice system. The higher the fines the less likely they'll ever be paid. My county and city actually spend a lot of money trying to collect fines, as does the state, when you factor in all the people sent to prison for not paying their fines, not to mention state services to their children when they are away. Most people don't have the funds to pay even a few hundred dollars up front, and then they are always missing payments and the prosecutors have to get warrants and get these people picked up on contempt charges or petitions to revoke probation or suspended sentences. They have to find these people and rearrest them, often over and over again. More often than you would think it takes years and years and lots of effort to just to collect a few hundred bucks from someone.

Our fines aren't that high around here but a substantial portion of are criminal dockets are taken up by what are basically fine collection hearings, and we end up putting a lot of people in jail and prison for not paying. Fines as high as you are advocating are exceedingly rare, but when they are handed out they are rarely ever paid in full, even after years and years of efforts to get them paid. In most cases though the only people who ever get super high fines like that are folks with lots of money who basically buy their way out of trouble by agreeing to pay a huge fine up front in exchange for no prison time and a conviction they'll be able to get off their records, or they'll just pay a large sum as an "asset forfeiture" and either plead to severely reduced charges or in some cases get their charges dropped altogether. But people like that only account for a tiny fraction of the people arrested.

For various reasons, most people arrested don't have much money. Around here at least about eighty percent of those arrested qualify for public defenders, and if you just looked at drug offenders the percentage would be higher, and I know the numbers are similar most everywhere else. These people, especially those really into drugs, would never be able to pay the kind of fines you propose. We'd spend more money trying to cloect them than we'd ever collect.

[TKDietz]

cloect = collect

[kellynla]

bttt