Mexican senator calls for death penalty for B P Agent-JUAREZ GRAFFITI THREATENS BORDER PATROL

“Your death will be avenged” “Your death will be avenged by the organized and mad people” “F—ing Border Patrol in the gun sights.” These are some of the graffiti messages on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande levee area where the shooting of a youth took place some days ago. (The photo below accompanied the article. The caption reads: “Demonstrators with rocks in hand shouted their repudiation at the agents.”)

Luis Alberto Villarreal Garcia, President of the Foreign Relations Commission for North America of the Mexican Senate, said “Criminal or penal justice in Texas would give capital punishment to a Mexican in a similar case of the type of close range, cold blood homicide, and it seems to me that this is what should be imposed on the border agent.” He also stated that the same sanction must apply to the ones responsible for the assassination of Anastacio Hernandez. (The taser gun case at the San Ysidro port of entry.)

Shortly after Colombian police detained five Somalis traveling in a bus in southwestern Colombia (M3 Report of 6/14/10), officers at the same highway checkpoint detained six men from Bangladesh, all illegally in Colombia, traveling northbound in two taxis from Ipiales (a town on Colombia’s border with Ecuador) toward Cali, a trip of some 200 miles.

http://www.elliberal.com.co/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28697&Itemid=47

Mexican police leaving Zitacuaro, Michoacan, in several vehicles suddenly found the highway exits blocked this morning (Mon.); at that time unknown assailants opened fire and ten members of the police died and others were wounded. An unknown number of the killers was also believed to be dead or wounded. A land and air operation was undergoing at press time and data on other dead and wounded was not available.

And near Los Aldama, Nuevo Leon, thugs fired on vehicles with military passengers. The eventual result: seven thugs dead.

a.b.c. (Mexico City) 6/14/10 Portions of an op/col. by Arturo Cid del Prado, titled as shown

From the time that the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande River) has been the border between both nations, perhaps only Villa’s intrusion into American territory, 94 years ago, has provoked a moment as difficult as the one being experienced today. The two assassinations of migrants in less than 15 days at the hands of border police demonstrate the level of tension and hatred which is developing. The attack, literally in bunches, by 20 border police on a detainee who resisted being deported, and the shooting of a youth, almost a boy, for throwing rocks at the police while they were arresting his friends for trying to cross illegally, added streams of water to a glass that is overflowing by itself.

Murders are not justifiable, but if we don’t understand them in the context of a hot border it will be difficult to advance in search of a solution. Indignation is justified and justifiable, but not enough to understand, even less resolve, what takes place there. The border is no longer just a crossing by “wet backs,” (sic) it is also a zone of extreme violence, gangs, and mafias which generate an accelerated social disintegration. Mexico must go from indignation and racism toward intelligent public policies and efficient diplomatic actions, without having this imply an abandonment of the judicial process against the guilty.

As strange and out of place as it may sound, the most important thing now is to remain calm to cool things down. The issue of the hot border is not going to be resolved with strong declarations, anti-immigrant laws or presidential handshakes. It requires a different and joint way of looking at the problem on both sides and that, for now, is something that isn’t seen.

* Last Friday : 11 assassinations * Saturday: 8 assassinations * Sunday: another 11 assassinations

“More than 2,682 packages” with cocaine and ephedrine were found and seized by Mexican officials last week at the port of Manzanillo, state of Colima. The drug was in a container of wooden floorboards aboard the SS Charlotte C. Rickmers.

A spokesperson for the Joint Operation Culiacan-Navolato reported that, in the state of Sinaloa, 14 tons of marihuana, $267,000 in counterfeit U.S. currency, 7,000 rounds of ammo, 125 firearms, 45 vehicles and 17 houses were seized from May 31st to June 11th.

A “safe house” near the Sinaloa township of Ranchito was found to have 6.258 tons of marihuana, five “automatic rifles” and 2,684 rounds of ammo. And in Culiacan, a couple of men were arrested in possession of drugs, firearms and ammo; one of them, Alberto Cervantes Cota, happens to be a state police officer.

Among the routine northbound vehicle crossings from Mexicali, Baja Calif., to Calexico, Calif., port inspectors found that four were being used to smuggle cocaine into the United States. Seven persons were arrested, five of them residents of Mexicali. The cocaine haul added up to over 100 kilos.

Another good article today, sent by Nafbpo.

From POLICE Magazine. The author is an accepted gang expert, and after retiring from the LA Sheriff’s gang unit, he left Los Angeles for Arizona as he says the gangs have taken control of LA.

The Border War With Mexican Cartels
Trafficking of guns, drugs, people and money is fueling unprecedented violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

by Valdemar, Richard - Also by this author

http://www.policemag.com/Blog/Gangs/Story/2010/06/No-Man-s-Land-Along-Our-Border.aspx

On April 23, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a much publicized speech in Juarez, Mexico addressing the murder of a U.S. consulate worker and her husband in that city. These two were the most recent victims of the Mexican drug war declared by President Felipe Calderon in 2006. As many as 23,000 victims have been killed on the Mexican side, including 5,000 who died in drug violence in the city of Juarez in the last two years. This war affects us all.

The word “war” is not just hyperbole; it correctly describes what is going on. It’s estimated that the violence—kidnapping and murder—has driven 400,000 locals out of the Juarez area with an estimated 30,000 fleeing to El Paso and the U.S. side. The U.S. border sheriff’s claim that the cartels printed fliers ordering this residence to evacuate their homes in the border area or they would be murdered.

The Guns

In keeping with the Obama administration’s past rhetoric, Hillary Clinton blamed Mexico’s problems on the U.S. She quoted the infamous statistic—90 percent of the guns recovered from Mexican cartels came from the U.S. This has been proven to be another false statistic used by U.S. and Mexican politicians opposed to the Second Amendment. The statistic was derived from a number of confiscated weapons in Mexico, a portion of which were checked through ATF. Of those, only about a third had serial numbers that might be traceable. Of that small remaining number, 90 percent could be traced to the U.S. We know this to be true, because we keep good data, and this information is closely regulated.

However, the favorite weapon of the Mexican cartel is the “cuernos de chiva” (horns of the goat)—the Sino-Soviet AK-47. But the Chinese and Russian weapons are not easily traced. The hand grenades and rocket propelled grenades used by the drug cartels are not purchased in American gun shows or gun stores either.

The Drugs

There are some U.S. systems that do contribute to the Mexican drug-gang violence. The greatest of our contributions is the American appetite for mind-numbing, mind-altering intoxicants. We are about 5 percent of the world’s population, but we consume 50 percent of the world’s drugs. We are a drug culture. Drug abuse is the symptom of our dysfunctional society. America needs an intervention; the U.S. needs to go through rehab.

Whether it’s the heroin addicted prostitute in the alley or beer-guzzling jocks who watch the Super Bowl on a wide-screen TV, we can’t seem to work or enjoy ourselves sober. I have seen and heard many excuses for our need to blur our minds, but imagine how the rest of the world sees us. In our society, 43 percent of American children are born outside of marriage. To other cultures, we appear weak and immoral—hypocrites preaching American ideals while we are drunk or high. This is the corrupt U.S. image described by Muslim extremists as “the great Satan.”

In my opinion, this need for speed and other drugs does not originate in our ghettos and barrios. It is not poverty that causes the addiction, although this is where the addiction takes her victims. America’s dysfunction and abuse problem stems from its bored and spoiled children. Maybe even our poor have too much. Yes, too much, too soon, and too easily obtained “disposable income.” I have seen this even in the homes of “poor” gang members. The children in these homes suffer from a lack of nutrition, poor health and dental care, hygiene and proper clothing, yet they seem to have the latest cell phone, iPod, video games and hottest new name-brand tennis shoes. They start using drugs at an early age.

The Money

America spent $11 billion securing our borders; $1.3 billion went to the city of Juarez in 2009 as U.S. aid. However, Mexican cartels make as much as $35 billion a year from the illicit drug trade (a conservative estimate), and additional untold billions in human trafficking.

Cartels may spend as much as 60 percent of that income in bribes known as “la mordida” (the bite). This corruption occurs on both sides of the border. Last year, Homeland Security reported 839 allegations of public corruption among U.S. officials. This is one of the greatest dangers threatening this country. Unless the corrupting drug money is stopped, our system will soon resemble our Mexican neighbor’s.

American banks launder this illicit money. Why? Because it is just too tempting. The multiple billions of unregulated cash and electronic transfers have already corrupted Wells Fargo, Wachovia, Bank of America, and many others. These banks know where this blood money comes from, but cooperate with the cartels anyway. Without this cooperation, the drug wars and violence on the border would be significantly reduced. This is where the federal government should be doing more. Follow the money.

The People

Of all the American contributions to the Mexican drug wars, the American street gangs are the most lethal. The American Latino street gang culture was born here in the Juarez-El Paso border area. But the Pachuco culture flourished in America. The U.S. gangs have become the transportation and distribution system facilitators in the U.S. Recently they have aligned more closely to the Mexican drug cartels and some of the major U.S. gangs have become directly involved with cartels in Mexico trafficking in drugs and human cargo.

As it turns out, it was not the U.S. consulate worker that was the target of the drug cartels. Despite the grenade attacks recently against U.S. consulates in Mexico; it was her husband that the assassins wanted. The suspects were members of the street and also the prison gang known as Barrio Azteca. The husband worked on the Texas side in a custody facility. Allegedly he had offended the Barrio Azteca gang while on duty, and the gang targeted him and his wife while off duty.

Mexico has begun extraditing some of these gang members back to the U.S. for prosecution. This is a promising development.

This targeting of American law enforcement by cross-border gangs will continue and escalate unless both governments turn up the heat. The U.S. government can assist Mexico by sharing intelligence about the gangs and the identity of the members. I know there are several organizations who are now sharing training and intelligence with the Mexican police and military. But more of this must be done, even at the risk of exposing some intelligence to compromised authorities.

This is best done not at the federal level, but by leveraging working relationships between local officers. Instead of spending billions on federal law enforcement, the poor local county law enforcement on the front line should be assisted with vehicles, weapons, ballistic vests, night-vision equipment, training and discretionary funds.

If mutual trust can be established between two law enforcement entities, the nucleus for a cross-border multinational task force might be established. This might be under the sponsorship of Interpol or some other neutral third party. This unit could begin by targeting “Chapo” Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel and his drug sources, money laundering systems and gang enforcement on both sides of the border.

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