Cannabis News Students for Sensible Drug Policy
  Border Drug Crackdown a Waste?
Posted by FoM on August 03, 2001 at 06:17:05 PT
Stratfor Global Intelligence Update 
Source: WorldNetDaily 

justice The Bush administration is strengthening ties between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies after years of mutual distrust and suspicion. The effort may lead to better statistics for drug seizures, arrests and deportations, but it will not slow organized criminal activity on the border. Cartels are thriving and exploring alliances with each other and with international criminal outfits.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and his Mexican counterpart Rafael Macedo de la Concha announced on July 26 a new bilateral initiative to fight drug trafficking, arms smuggling and illegal immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The agreement signals a new phase in relations between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies, characterized for many years by mutual distrust and suspicion.

The new accord may lead to more narcotics seizures and the occasional drug kingpin's fall. But Mexico's top drug cartels will continue to thrive, exploring new strategic alliances with each other and with organized criminal enterprises in the United States, Latin America and Europe. Forming such alliances will make it easier to stay ahead of the law.

Drug trafficking earns Mexico $30 billion a year and accounts for about 10 percent of the country's wealth, according to Mexican journalist Carlos Loret de Mola. Two-thirds of the cocaine smuggled into the United States comes through Mexico. Moreover, Mexico's increasingly sophisticated drug cartels are continually adapting their operations to changes in policing tactics on both sides of the border.

Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, national security adviser to President Vicente Fox, says Mexico's war on drugs is not winnable. Fox has nevertheless launched an aggressive effort to capture the country's increasingly powerful drug traffickers and disrupt their operations.

For instance, Fox expanded the Mexican military's role in counternarcotics efforts, assigning 30,000 soldiers to combat drug trafficking. He also purged hundreds of corrupt federal and local police officials and prosecutors, and he facilitated the extradition of Mexican nationals wanted on drug charges in the United States.

Drug seizures by Mexican police and military units have increased in the past year as a result, and several drug kingpins have been arrested, including Alcides Ramon Magana, a top leader of the Gulf Coast cartel, and Adam Amezcua, leader of the Colima cartel and known in Mexico as the king of amphetamines.

Corrupt politicians and military officers also have been arrested in Mexico recently on drug-related charges, including Mario Villanueva, a former state governor, and Army Brig. Gen. Ricardo Martinez, commander of the 21st Motorized Cavalry Regiment in Nuevo Laredo, who was charged with protecting drug traffickers operating on Mexico's Gulf Coast.

He is the sixth Mexican general imprisoned on drug-related charges since the 1997 arrest of Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, who at the time was the chief of all Mexican anti-drug efforts.

Mexico's top drug lords have responded to the government's cleanup effort by exploring new strategic alliances with each other and with criminal organizations internationally.

Last April, for instance, according to an Associated Press report, 60 Mexican drug traffickers held a three-day meeting in Apodaca, an industrial town in northeastern Mexico, to discuss ways of creating a new mega-cartel after 12 years of warfare between rival gangs.

The report said the meeting was called in response to the Fox government's tough new anti-drug policies. Besides the Mexican drug lords and their bodyguards, two men in Mexican military uniforms bearing general's stars and a group of Colombians also participated in the summit.

The only major drug-trafficking group that did not send representatives was the Tijuana cartel, led by the Arellano Felix brothers, which accounts for about 20 percent of the illegal narcotics smuggled annually into the United States from Mexico.

Instead of merging its operations with other Mexican cartels, the Tijuana gang has opted for developing strategic alliances with Russian, Colombian and Peruvian criminal enterprises.

Evidence of the Tijuana cartel's overseas associations has been accumulating since the end of last year.

On May 3 the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted the Belize-flagged Svesda Maru, a fishing vessel carrying 13 tons of cocaine about 1,500 miles south of San Diego. The crew comprised eight Ukrainians and two Russians, and U.S. authorities believe they must have had the permission of the Tijuana cartel to ship this much cocaine to the U.S. West Coast, according to AP.

U.S. officials in southern California reportedly suspect the Russian and Ukrainian crew of belonging to a Russian organized crime syndicate in Los Angeles, where between 600 to 800 known Russian crime figures live, mostly in the North and West Hollywood areas.

A 1999 California Department of Justice report found that Russian crime groups based in Los Angeles also had formed alliances with La Cosa Nostra in North America, Colombian cartels in Latin America and with the Sicilian mafia in Europe.

The Tijuana cartel also did business with former Peruvian spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos, who is now jailed in Lima on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering, arms smuggling, bribery and murder. The Mexico City daily El Universal reported July 8, based on Peruvian intelligence documents, that the Tijuana cartel purchased 18 tons of cocaine from Montesinos between 1995 and 1999. Peruvian government officials in Lima confirmed the report's accuracy.

The new alliances give Mexico's cartels more resources and influence, new drug shipment and transportation routes, and allow them to disperse shipments to reduce seizures and lost revenue.

The cartels also gain access to more markets, including expansion in the United States, where 57 Mexican drug enterprises are operating in North Texas alone. The additional revenues can go toward the $500 million the cartels already spend to bribe officials to avoid the law.

It was not a coincidence that the new U.S.-Mexico initiative was announced officially in San Diego, across the border from Tijuana where the Arellano Felix brothers have operated freely for more than 15 years, longer than any other drug cartel in Mexico.

Ashcroft pledged a tough crackdown on weapons smuggling from the United States to Mexico. In return, de la Concha declared the Fox government was "determined to capture" the Arellano Felix brothers.

It will take far more than emphatic rhetoric, however, to capture the Tijuana cartel's chieftains. The Arellano Felix brothers' cartel is one of Mexico's bloodiest. Law enforcement officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border estimate conservatively that the brothers are directly responsible for more than 500 murders.

If the Fox government targets the Tijuana cartel for annihilation, the Arellano Felix brothers will very likely retaliate by murdering more police and government officials.

The campaign won't just be limited to Mexican personnel though. The increase in U.S.-Mexico cooperation will lead to even more U.S. officials operating in Mexico, where it's likely that the Tijuana cartel will seek to kidnap and kill U.S. counter-drug agents.

Note: U.S.- Mexico agreement will not likely slow thriving cartels.

Editor's note: In partnership with Stratfor, the global intelligence company, WorldNetDaily publishes daily updates on international affairs provided by the respected private research and analysis firm. Look for fresh updates each afternoon, Monday through Friday. In addition, WorldNetDaily invites you to consider STRATFOR membership, entitling you to a wealth of international intelligence reports usually available only to top executives, scholars, academic institutions and press agencies.

Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web)
Published: August 3, 2001
Copyright: 2001 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
Contact: letters@worldnetdaily.com
Website: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/

Related Articles:

Mexico's New Anti-Drug Team Wins the Trust of U.S.
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Ashcroft Meets Mexican Counterpart
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8909.shtml

Analysts Debate Mexico President's Open Border
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6806.shtml


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Comment #5 posted by freedom fighter on August 03, 2001 at 20:45:20 PT
dang man
would not be surprised if dea, fbi and cia and the WARshington dc be even involved with this...

With all the tools they already have and they cannot catch a mule??

shit..

Sorry FoM for cussing about!

\/
ff


[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #4 posted by FoM on August 03, 2001 at 11:44:22 PT
Narco News Articles
Hi Dude,
These are the articles that came up when I did this search. I hope you find the one you are looking for.

http://www.cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=NarcoNews

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by dude on August 03, 2001 at 11:38:02 PT
NarcoNews
Has anyone seen the new Article up at www.narconews.com? An ex-customs agent is sueing the customs department because he exposed all of the corruption, and they demoted, fired, and had him harrassed by police officers.

They say that customs was accepting $250,000 for allowing EACH 18 wheeler cross the border.(This agent even saw a dog "hit" on a truck, but his boss forced him to let them go)

It is good to see that mexico isn't the only corrupt country, contrary to what the US gov't wants you to think.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by Doug on August 03, 2001 at 09:37:27 PT
Overuse of Antibiotics
This reminds me of a current problem in public health. We are overusing antibiotics and as a result some bacteria die, but the ones that survive have resistance to that antibiotic. Thus we a creating a strain of bacteria that are resistant to all known antibiotics, whih means our weapons no longer have any ammunition. A similar argument can be applied to pesticides.

So what we have here is an experiment to create a race of "Super-Traffickers" that are resistant to our weapons. This MAY not be what is wanted, but it should have been expected, considering the incidents indicated in the first paragraph. This is just further evidence that the people runing the War on Drugs don't know what they are doing.




[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on August 03, 2001 at 08:30:20 PT:

We are witnessing history, of the worst kind
Any one familiar with Mob history knows what happened when law enforcement caused the Five Families to consolidate; things just got immeasurably worse. The Mob became more sophisticated, more subtle, more dangerous and harder to take down. They branched out into things as widely divergent as banks, pension funds and waste disposal. Where their influence remains, to this day.

As a quote from a sci-fi novel went, "Think of it as evolution in action". The gangs have been forced to evolve from loosely organized, vulnerable groups, to well-oiled machines with discipline that would make a Roman Centurion green with envy. All backed up with a surety of violence that makes a law enforcement career in Mexico seem like nothing more than a death-wish. Forcing them to consolidate further is to place them on par with the Mexican government. And with their resources and lack of normal human restraint, there's no telling what may arise from this increased pressure. Save that it can be safely said it will be more dangerous than ever.

The antis still haven't learned a thing; they still think any liquid will put out a fire, so they grab a pterol can to douse the flames they started by playing with matches in the first place. Bloody idiots.

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