Thread: American agents shot in Mexico, UPDATE 1 Dead

Mexico is fighting heavily armed and powerful drug cartels that supply the U.S. market. Since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown against drug trafficking shortly after taking office in December 2006, almost 35,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence.

Worst than Iraq and Afghanistan both combind.

U.S. agents attacked in Mexico
By DANE SCHILLER and DUDLEY ALTHAUS
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 15, 2011, 10:20PM


MEXICO CITY — Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were shot Tuesday afternoon, one fatally, in an apparent assault on a highway near the northern Mexican city of San Luis Potosi.

ICE Director John Morton late Tuesday identified the slain agent as Jaime Zapata, who was on assignment from the office in Laredo, where he served on the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit as well as the Border Enforcement Security Task Force. The injured agent was not identified.

The agents were travelling in a sports utility vehicle when forced to a stop by suspected gangsters in other vehicles. The agents apparently were identifying themselves when the assailants opened fire with assault weapons.

"They were moving when they were cut off," said Alonso Pena, the recently retired deputy chief of the immigration agency, who was informed of the details of the attack. "I think we will see an unprecedented response by the United States if it turns out to be a cold blooded murder of a U.S. federal agent."

"The first response is to work with the government of Mexico to insure that those responsible are brought to justice," Pena said. "There will be no stone unturned, no effort not taken, to bring those responsible to justice."

U.S. officials in Washington and at the embassy in Mexico City did not immediately divulge the names of the agents, pending notification of families.

Memories of 1985 case
Tuesday's attack is the first killing of a U.S. agent in the line of duty in Mexico since the 1985 torture murder of Drug Enforcement Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena by drug traffickers in Guadalajara.

Camarena's killing, and the apparent collusion cover-up by Mexican officials in it, brought U.S.-Mexico relations to the near breaking point.

The Mexican highways below the South Texas border have become increasingly treacherous in recent months as gangsters have assaulted motorists, especially those travelling in sport utility vehicles.

It's not immediately clear what the U.S. agents were doing on the highway. But U.S. officials and contractors serve as instructors at a training facility for Mexican federal police in San Luis Potosi.

Mexican federal officers have been ambushed and killed upon leaving the facility in recent years.

The U.S. embassy has forbidden its officials from driving many Mexican highways because of insecurity. Among the off limit roads are the toll highways between the city of Monterrey and the South Texas border.

dudley.althaus@chron.com
dane.schiller@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 28938.html

Sadly added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-6087--0-0.html

What? We have ICE offices in 44 countries. Wait a minute. Does this mean ICE is providing law enforcement for other countries? I am afraid to ask who is paying for all of these offices in 44 countries. Who is paying for this? Is this all paid for by the American taxpayer?

Originally Posted by redpony353

What? We have ICE offices in 44 countries. Wait a minute. Does this mean ICE is providing law enforcement for other countries? I am afraid to ask who is paying for all of these offices in 44 countries. Who is paying for this? Is this all paid for by the American taxpayer?

International Affairs

ICE International Affairs (IA) enhances national security by conducting and coordinating investigations involving transnational criminal organizations and serving as the agency’s liaison to counterparts in local government and law enforcement.

ICE has 63 offices in 44 countries around the world with more than 380 government and contract personnel committed to the OIA mission. IA operations are directed by ICE attachés, whose responsibilities include:

Coordinating investigations with foreign law enforcement counterparts;

Providing domestic and international ICE offices with investigative case support and information related to cross-border criminal activities involving people, goods and technology;

Providing training and capacity building to foreign law enforcement counterparts;

Assisting in removal operations by facilitating ICE efforts to repatriate removable aliens; and

Referring requests from host country agencies to ICE domestic investigative offices.

http://www.ice.gov/about/offices/homela ... tions/oia/

Mexican federal police and army soldiers guard a U.S. Embassy vehicle after it came under attack by unknown gunmen on Highway 57 between Mexico City and Monterrey, near the town of Santa Maria Del Rio, San Luis Potosi state, Mexico, Tuesday Feb. 15, 2011. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed and another wounded in the attack. ((AP Photo/Pulso Diario de San Luis-Teodoro Blanco Vazquez))



http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_17395236

Janet Napolitano and Eric Holder will get right on this ..

The clock is ticking. Pay close attention. The drug cartels have ALREADY BROUGHT THEIR MURDERING RAMPAGE to (fill in the blanks) every county in the United States.

We are at war. Or are we?

Is Calderon about due another prime-time standing ovation in our U.S. Congress?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6nP5dPgC5Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg0T7iYk87I


The lawlessness in Mexico, blamed on the drug cartels, appears to leave the US with two alternatives.

1. End the cartels by legalizing street drugs in the US. This would eliminates the profit motive in smuggling drugs and, thus, the cartel's reason for existing.
2. Wage war by putting US troops on the Mexican-US border and forbidding all traffic. This would entail deporting illegal aliens and detaining other Mexican nationals, who might be deemed agents for an enemy power.

Third alternative anyone?

Calderon is a front man and a poser!

http://video.foxnews.com/#/v/4540689/2- ... t_id=87937

Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME

The clock is ticking. Pay close attention. The drug cartels have ALREADY BROUGHT THEIR MURDERING RAMPAGE to (fill in the blanks) every county in the United States.

We are at war. Or are we?

Is Calderon about due another prime-time standing ovation in our U.S. Congress?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6nP5dPgC5Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg0T7iYk87I


The lawlessness in Mexico, blamed on the drug cartels, appears to leave the US with two alternatives.

1. End the cartels by legalizing street drugs in the US. This would eliminates the profit motive in smuggling drugs and, thus, the cartel's reason for existing.
2. Wage war by putting US troops on the Mexican-US border and forbidding all traffic. This would entail deporting illegal aliens and detaining other Mexican nationals, who might be deemed agents for an enemy power.

Third alternative anyone?

1. End the cartels by legalizing street drugs in the US. This would eliminates the profit motive in smuggling drugs and, thus, the cartel's reason for existing.[/b]

You don't honestly think the cartels will just go quietly into the night if we suddenly legalize drugs? This is a fantasy that I have seen repeated in these discussion groups. These cartels are multi-billion dollar enterprises with their hands in everything. Their MO is violence and to take by force what they want. If we were insane enough to legalize one drug they would simply produce more of another or come up with hybrids or variants that aren't legalized. It's all about power.