Think it's just about drugs? Think again.
Posted on 02/14/2009 3:59:00 PM PST by AuntB
Headline: Grenades that were used in three attacks -- the first two in northern Mexico, the last in Texas -- over the past four months all trace back to the same source, the paramilitary group known as Los Zetas. The attempted bombing in Texas occurred in January in a small town named Pharr, just outside of McAllen and Brownsville, and not all that far from the Mexican border and places like Matamoros and Monterrey. It so happens that another grenade failed to detonate in a January attack in Pharr. Three men, members of two gangs, Tri-City Bombers and the Texas Chicano Brotherhood, were arrested this week and charged with felony drug charges.
Focus remains on the drug violence, the murders and the cartels in Mexico. Concern over whether Mexico is on the verge of being a failed state was expressed in January when the Joint Operating Environment (aka J.O.E.) report from the United States Joint Forces Command was finally released and the comment that the potential for failed states in Mexico and Pakistan represented significant security issues for the United States. However, it could be argued that the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mexican state should come as no surprise. It is also arguable that the outright failure of the Mexican government is the not only threat to U.S. security. Mexico is a country of great instability, widely separate economic classes, and corruption.
Of course, by now, this is not the first of the many commentaries on this subject, but "day job" circumstances and deadlines delayed this writing. Often, and perhaps too often, I've focused on the constant and persistent rise of violence across our border with Mexico. But it hasn't just been my move to the "Republic" that prompted my concern over the instability in Mexico affecting us here in the United States.
The question of How Seriously Should we Take The Mexican Crisis? was covered earlier by Doug Farah on his own blog and on the Counterterrorism Blog. He makes a few important observations including the continuing violence and bloodshed attributable to the drug cartels and their turf battles. Also noted is perhaps a 21st Century, North American version of the domino theory in raising the point that instability in Mexico might also lead to unrest in neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, as well as the potential for opening a door for either or both of Venezuela and Nicaragua to step in (with neither of these countries being friendly with the U.S., and both being connected with Iran and Russia to name just two.
But recognizing that a grenade connected to Los Zetas was found in Pharr is more than troubling because it shows that the reach of the cartels has extended beyond the border. Also, when you realize that so-called incursions into the United States by Mexican military and paramilitary troops has been occurring for a while and attracted the attention of Rep. Peter King in early 2006 who at the time was the Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. In a letter to his constituents he wrote:
Dear Mr. Fraser: It is bad enough that millions of illegal aliens have crossed our borders in recent years. Even more disgraceful are reports that Mexican military personnel - or those posing as Mexican military personnel - have illegally penetrated our southern border hundreds of times while assisting Mexican drug runners. There have even been reports of Mexican troops firing on American Border Patrol agents.
If true, this is one more example of inexcusable conduct by the Mexican government. That is why I have joined with other members of the Homeland Security Committee in demanding that the Mexican government and our own government provides us with all the details of these incursions.
Additionally, as Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, I am scheduling hearings to make sure that we get the complete truth and nothing but the truth about the actions of the Mexican military. We cannot allow the Mexican government to get away with this violation of American sovereignty.
I would be interested in your thoughts on this issue.
All the best.
Sincerely,
PETER T. KING Member of Congress
The Incursion Report for FY2006 can be found here.
Might it come as a surprise to anyone that those of us familiar with the counter-narcotics technology arena have known of and been dealing with these drug cartel tunnels since long before Sept. 11th? Frankly, going back to my first presentation at an ONDCP Conference in the early 90's, I've heard discussions of the multiplicity of tunnels running under the borders of Arizona and Texas (Nogales, Tucson with El Paso being most prevalent). Some of these tunnels have been especially elaborate, not too different from the one discussed in this thread. But IMO, this is an issue that now goes far beyond drug runners and drug cartels...its an issue of National Security.
In May of 2002 I was interviewed by the MIT Technology Review about the convergence of Counter-narcotic and Counterterrorism. I commented about the similarity of border issues when it came to fighting drug traffic and blocking terrorism. Perhaps not surprisingly back then Brian Houghton, director of research for the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism said, "Terrorists and people in the drug industry are constantly searching for the weak link." He further stated, "There are similarities, but [drug trafficking and terrorism] are two different things," he says. "Where they start to go apart is that drugs are such an epidemic. If all drug dealers and cartels were terrorist organizations we'd be in big trouble."
America is at war, not a War on Drugs, and not the War on Terrorism. We, as our neighbors to the South of the border, are at war with the drug cartels. And maybe more specifically, we are at war with Los Zetas. The Zetas are a paramilitary operation that was originally based on renegade Mexican special forces elements trained and armed by the U.S. The multiple and continuing incursions of Mexican military and Mexican nationals across our border, and the infrequently reported engagements of our Border Patrol with such factions, raises serious questions. At one point recently, it was posed that Los Zetas were acting more independently of the cartels. So, also raised is the question of whether Los Zetas should be designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization and dealt with as such. Perhaps this is a "radical" idea right now, but how long is it before it becomes an idea whose time has come?
I mean the only people coming to America from Mexico are "hard working" gardeners, restaurant help, baby-sitters, and tomato-pickers...
Oh - and they bring with then "family values" because I believe every word President George W. Bush has ever said about them and other Third World Illegal Invaders...er I mean immigrants - including, the phrase, "Islam is a Religion of Peace."
Wooo Hooo.... the last time prohibition gave us the Kenedies, and the Capones.
This time it looks like MS13 backed by AQ.
It's legal under state law in Alaska to possess up to 3 or 4 ounces in your home, and they were clear headed enough to elect a decent governor.
What say you drug warriors?
And borders give us coyotes
Breathing gives us murder
Genitalia gives us rape
Without drugs they’ll just find another means of funding their brutality. In fact, smuggling terrorists sounds extremely lucrative.
The cartels are slaughtering each other over market share in the drug trade, so clearly there is the incentive to seek new markets. If smuggling terrorists were extremely lucrative, they would already be doing it.
There is simply nothing as profitable for them as contraband marijuana. Why not deprive them of it?
You really don’t pay much attention to what’s going on in the world do you. For one thing, they’re already smuggling islamic illegals into the country at many times the price they can get for a gardener.
any time you take one product out of black market control, another pops up. In west Africa as the UN gets control of the illegal diamond market, they have simply moved into smuggling other things. Charcoal has been surprisingly lucurative. Poaching is another old standby for africa.
Making things legal doesn’t make problems go away and I support decriminalization of Marijuana. However I don’t live with the fantasy that it will fix anything other than to stop filling prisons with nonviolent offenders.
Think it's just about drugs? Think again.
Works for me. Makes more sense than what we’re doing.
And money is what makes these people powerful enough to wage the kind of war with one another and the government that they are waging now in order to get more money and more power.
Nothing is as profitable to these people as the drugs. The drug money, or the ability to keep what they have coming in and make more of it, is what they are fighting over, with each other and with the government. Without the drug money, they’d be street gangs, nowhere near as powerful than they are now. Taking a huge chunk of the money would make them much smaller and much less powerful.
You're correct, of course. Here's the point I meant to make. Since the cartels are in a deadly war with each other over market share, I see no reason why they would not already be maximizing their profits from smuggling terrorists.
As I understand your argument, you're saying that if drug profits were removed, there would be an increase in terrorist smuggling by the cartels. Is that your position?
any time you take one product out of black market control, another pops up. In west Africa as the UN gets control of the illegal diamond market, they have simply moved into smuggling other things. Charcoal has been surprisingly lucurative. Poaching is another old standby for africa.
During the years of the illegal diamond trade, did poaching go down significantly? Afterward, was there a significant rise? As I understand your argument, that should have been the case.
Making things legal doesn't make problems go away and I support decriminalization of Marijuana. However I don't live with the fantasy that it will fix anything other than to stop filling prisons with nonviolent offenders.
Agree that decriminalization would do little to the drug cartels. However, a well regulated legal mj market would deprive the cartels of their most profitable market. Do you agree or disagree with that assertion?
Do you agree that a legal market in the US would deprive the cartels of that portion of their funding which comes from marijuana?
And I also wanted to clarify whether or not you are contending that denying drug profits to the cartels would increase the smuggling of terrorists into this country.
Thanks for posting this.
Nope. According to the ONDCP Mexican cartels bringing in about $13.8 billion a year selling Americans drugs, $8.6 billion from marijuana alone. That's about 62% of their their gross proceeds from drug sales to Americans. The second most popular drug is cocaine. The ONDCP estimates that the cartels bring in about $3.9 billion a year from that, about a billion from meth, and around $270 million from heroin.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022208dnintdrugs.3a98bb0.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-02-21-2221217072_x.htm
According to the USDOJ’s National Drug Threat Assessment for 2009 these Mexican drug trafficking organizations produced 15,500 metric tons of marijuana in 2007, with most of it coming here. The last government estimate I saw on total supply here was that between 12,000 and 25,000 metric tons are available on the market in a given year. It is probable that most of the marijuana on the market in the US comes from Mexico. In the part of the South where I live I am sure that is the case. I have handled thousands of pounds worth of marijuana mule cases and more marijuana possession cases than I can count. About all I ever see in the little evidence bags the police bring in is compressed Mexican pot.
2009 National Drug Threat Assessment:
http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs31/31379/marijuan.htm#Top
In the same drug threat assessment you will estimates for Canadian production are much lower, about 1,300 metric tons or so and their government at least believes most is consumed in Canada. Many tons will come in from Canada but it is still only a small amount of what is on the market in the states. Most of the Canadian pot that comes in is sold to end consumers in states on the Canadian border.
Also, just FYI, Mexican pot smuggled into this country is increasing in potency too, according to the government's potency reports and everything I've been hearing. It's still nothing like indoor grown bud but they're using better seeds to begin with and doing a better job of removing the male plants so that it is not always so seedy like it used to be.
Zetas ping!
Even more specifically, we are at war with Satan.
My solution is that all the potheads can move to mexico and create utopia.
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