Posted on 08/19/2006 12:13:22 PM PDT by Bangupjob
War On Drugs: While not the end of the tale, the crushing of the Javier Arellano Felix drug cartel is a victory that should be played up. By itself, the arrest is satisfying. Better still, it shows the U.S. can work with Mexico.
That wasn't the case when Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, an agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was murdered by drug traffickers in Guadalajara in 1985.
Back then, Mexican authorities threw roadblocks at apprehending drug lord Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, who was a leading member of the group that kidnapped, tortured and killed the agent.
Mexican police told U.S. agents to quit looking for Camarena because he was "probably sunning himself in Guadalajara." Sure enough, the more the U.S. agents probed, the more they realized the depth of the corruption inside Mexico's government.
That was then. When Felix Gallardo's nephew, Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, kingpin of the Tijuana cartel, was caught last week, it was almost a different country.
Quietly, U.S and Mexican forces perfectly coordinated their intelligence, planning, technology and operational know-how over 14 months to capture the secretive drug lord on his yacht off Baja and spirit him to justice in San Diego.
It all went off without a hitch. Unlike 20 years ago, no one compromised the operation, got bought off or was too afraid to do it. The cartel used to pay $1 million a week in bribes to Mexican officials. Apparently, there were no takers this time.
The takedown of Mexico's most violent cartel, which smuggled as much
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
And if you believe that, I've got a bridge in Arizona I can sell you...
If they took bribes, how come the kingpin still came down?
Hang on buddy, not ALL Mexicans are bought off. We just lost a GREAT Judge in Toluca, who handed tough sentences, 100 to narco offense crimes. Let's believe the whole world can change. How about it? Cheers.
...Chalk me up on the skeptical side. More than likely, IMO, 'ol Javier proposed a reduction in the payments to the "officials". Dogs do not change their spots.
There is probably another cartel already working...and paying the proper price.
Back in the late 80s, Senator Jesse Helms was making serious moves to cut off funding to Mexico due to its failure to do anything about drugs.
The week before the Senate vote, Mexico suddenly discovered and arrested its most wanted drug kingpin in Guadalajara. I was living in that city at the time.
The guy was apparently hard to find...he only owned a couple car dealerships, malls, and 30+ houses in the area and drove everywhere with a pack of bodyguards.
Mexico tossed him overboard to get more of our tax dollars.
Any time a drug kingpin gets given up to us by Mexico, follow the money.
Mexico has matured only in its level of duplicity on the issue.
Let's just say it's a process. Mexico just elected the son of a Cristero (Catholic resistance fighter) over a Communist as president. To say that's huge is a deafening understatement. And he's an actual capitalist with an MBA. Fox's win itself was huge. He's been a pain in the neck on immigration, but he has built the roads and beefed up the air-travel service you need to have a genuine economy.
Mexico's young people in the middle class are very smart, capable, technologically up-to-date, and in touch with the rest of the world, in this tourist's observation. Yes, Mexico City is another (Communist) country. But a new generation is taking over the country. Let's pray that the electoral takeover continues without civil war. I think it will. The courts don't seem afraid of Obrador and his rent-a-mob, and he hasn't been making any friends with his tantrums.
"There is probably another cartel already working...and paying the proper price."
DING, DING, DING! We have a winner!
You got the scoop, thanks for your well-informed thoughts. They correspond to everything I've seen recently in Mexico.
Thanks Scot. I agreed with the editorial and am kind of saddened by the cynicism. But I read the DEA Web site closely, compared it to all the books on the drug-world I have read in the past and I am sure it is the story of what's going on. It's really a big victory we can savor, and I hope it'll lead to more takedowns of these barbarians - that's why it's important to keep encouraging these guys who are doing good work together. Against Chavez & Castro, Mexico is the critical ally and we need that country bad to destroy the hemisphere's predators, we can't do it without them. I guess it's hard to convey all of this.
True about the families. But what Fox did with the infrastructure is going to make a huge difference—which it would do, whether or not he intended it to. Everything is done through a glass darkly (through politics), but certain events do happen that make a difference anyway.
The new Prez will be operating in a different environment. It will be interesting to see what follows.
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