Thread: Drug cartels infiltrating as U.S. agents face shortage

Tucson Citizen Our Opinion: Drug cartels infiltrating as U.S. agents face shortage

Tucson Citizen
letters@tucsoncitizen.com

Unprecedented violence by increasingly sophisticated and well-armed smugglers from Mexico calls for a new approach in border security.

The Border Patrol does its best, but its agents are ill-equipped to combat drug cartel runners wielding bazookas, grenades, assault rifles, sniper scopes, high-powered binoculars and encrypted radios.

The agency also is terribly understaffed, yet will get only 20,000 more agents through the end of 2009.

Worse, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which has expertise in apprehending drug smugglers, is under a hiring freeze.
The freeze comes as the DEA in Arizona is likely to double its cocaine and heroin seizures this year and is battling huge methamphetamine imports from Mexico.

Inadequate staffing of the DEA and Border Patrol coincides with a surge of lawlessness in our border region.

As Mexico tries to crack down on drug cartels, broad-daylight shootouts have erupted between rival drug rings in Arizona and elsewhere.
Illegal immigrants are being killed, assaulted, robbed or kidnapped and held for ransom in Phoenix stash houses.

As the Southwest becomes a veritable war zone, the usual enforcement is not enough.

Given the sophistication and determination of these criminals, the federal government needs to fortify its DEA forces in border states.
It also needs to craft new strategies, coordinating efforts by all law enforcement agencies in the border states.

City, county, state and federal agencies must have seamless communication and the ability to cooperate on investigations and apprehensions of these criminals.

Mexican smugglers have pushed far north of the border, bringing open dealing of heroin to high school kids in Scottsdale, plus the deaths of 21 Dallas teens from Mexican "cheese heroin" and the kidnapping of 50 to 100 immigrants in Phoenix.

Efforts to batten down the border exclusively no longer are sufficient.
The federal government must supply the DEA with the tools and manpower it needs to hunt down drug rings throughout the Southwest, not only on the border.

Likewise, the Border Patrol must be strengthened and equipped to ensure agents' safety and efficiency against the professional smugglers of today.
The chief threat we face these days is not from Mexican immigrants seeking to work here illegally.

It is from dangerous drug and human smugglers wielding high-tech weaponry and reaping huge profits.

The federal government must protect its citizens and win this battle in the Southwest before it spreads even farther from our border.

Sad that these agency's can't even do there jobs because of inadequate supplies and man power! The president should be responsible for this but I just know he won't be..... Americans lives are on the line both in uniform and on the streets! Our children and our future too!!! Enforce the damn laws and support these agencies!!!!

And the Mexican trucks haven't even arrived yet. Wait until they start rolling over our borders with large amounts of drugs and MEXICAN DRUGGIES.