Thread: Drug Cartels Operating In The U.S., Following The Trail Of Mexican Immigrants Into U

Drug Cartels Operating In The U.S., Following The Trail Of Mexican Immigrants Into Middle America

The Huffington Post By Victoria Infante
Posted: 08/30/2012 5:34 pm

Hidden on private property in Wilmington, North Carolina, Federal agents found a plot of 2,400 marijuana plants in June 2009. The growers, who had trespassed onto the property, had set up a camp to harvest the plants; the site had a gasoline-powered generator and an irrigation system that brought in water from a nearby river.

Federal agents also found camping accessories like drinking water, a tent, personal toiletries and scattered pieces of used clothing.As reported by CNN, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents staked out the camp, but after two days grew tired of waiting for the "owners" of the operation, individuals believed to have been linked to the Mexican drug cartel known as "La Familia Michoacana."

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) lists the cartel, the "Michoacan Family" in Spanish, as one of the principal traffickers of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines in the Southeast and Southwest United States.In June of this year, the DEA and the DOJ concluded a two-year investigation by jointly dismantling a money-laundering scheme operated by Los Zetas, another powerful and bloodthirsty drug cartel that operates in the northeastern part of Mexico.

Charges were filed against the reputed new leader of the cartel, Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, also known as "Z-40," in an Austin, Texas court. Charges were also filed against his brothers Oscar Omar Treviño Morales and Jose Treviño Morales, a resident of the United States, as well as 12 other alleged members of the cartel, for taking part in a conspiracy to launder money earned from the trafficking of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs into the United States.

The Zetas had settled into Oklahoma and New Mexico by using horse breeding and racing to cover up their illegal activities. Through an established company, Tremor Enterprises, the cartel had placed horses -- including one named Cartel Número Uno (Number One Cartel) -- in some of the most important races in the U.S. according to the Mexican newspaper El Universal.

These arrests were just the latest in an ever-growing list of criminal cases against Mexican drug cartels which are finding their way into middle America.

"While a majority of [Latino residents in the area] are hard-working people like anyone else, it's an opportunity for cartels to have their foot soldiers do their thing, too," DEA agent Franklin told CNN, after finding the marijuana plants in North Carolina.Over the last few years, there have been various reports on the operation of the cartels in U.S.-Mexico border states and large urban areas -- like Chicago -- which are quite distant from the border.

But evidence now points to no place in the U.S. being too remote for the cartels. Drugs, firearms and money tied to Mexican drug organizations have been found in small rural towns as well as lucrative suburbs. And the number of these cases is growing. The National Drug Intelligence Center of the Department of Justice estimates that Mexican drug cartels control the majority of the methamphetamine, heroin and marjiuana that is distributed in the nation.

Roberta Jacobson, the current assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said in April 2011 that Mexican drug cartels were operating in 230 cities in the United States. "(Drug trafficking) is not a crisis that affects only the border," Jacobson said.

" It's a crisis in our cities across the country."However, the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center estimates that in "2009 and 2010, cartels operated in 1,286 U.S. cities.


The center named only 50 cities in 2006.""All the cartels are still here, the Gulf cartel, the Beltran-Leyvas, the Sinaloa cartel, Los Zetas, the de Arellano Felix, the Familia Michoacana," said Sylvia Longmire, a former special agent in the Air Force and an ex-analyst of California border security.

The problem will not go away and it won't decrease while drugs remain illegal and demand is high," Longmire said. Charles Bowden, "noted author on the Mexican drug war," explained to CNN that the cartels seek out communities with an existing Hispanic population and proximity to highways through which drugs and proceeds can be moved.

"I'm not saying Mexicans come here to do crime, but Mexicans who move drugs choose to do it through areas where there are already Mexicans," he said.

Drug Cartels Operating In The U.S., Following The Trail Of Mexican Immigrants Into Middle America

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Expert: Mexican Drug Cartels Infesting US, Even Our National Parks


AOLNEWS.COM
Dana Kennedy
Apr 22, 2011

Lost in the rhetoric about illegal immigration are new reports that Mexican drug cartels have moved into the United States, gaining a major foothold here that may be the start of a permanent expansion onto this side of the border. They're even growing marijuana in our national parks, one expert says.

Mexico's cartel families and their associates have moved into cities in the southwestern U.S. as part of their ongoing drug selling and distribution operations, according to an alert from the U.S. Justice Department's Drug Intelligence Center, first reported April 11 by Mexican media.


Alexandre Meneghini, AP
Morgue employees take a body, found in a mass grave, into the local morgue in Matamoros, Mexico, on April 8. Investigators have uncovered at least 116 bodies in mass graves in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

Roberta Jacobson, deputy secretary of state for Mexico and Canada, said on April 12 that Mexican drug cartels are now operating in 230 American cities. Drug trafficking "is not a crisis that affects only the border," Jacobson said. ""It's a crisis in our cities across the country."

The Los Angeles Times reported this week about a member of Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel who operated a cocaine operation in South Carolina and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The report said there are similar rings run by cartel members living and working in Seattle, Minneapolis and Anchorage, Alaska.

The new warnings coincide with the discovery of mass graves in the state of Tamaulipas, just south of Texas, with at least 116 bodies in them earlier this week, and a discovery late Wednesday of 26 bodies in a mass grave in Durango.

The Mexican government says the Los Zetas drug cartel is responsible for the Tamaulipas murders. So far, about 35,000 people have died in the Mexican drug wars since 2006.

The cartel-related violence is spreading to the U.S., law enforcement officials say. And it all starts at the border.

AOL News spoke with Sylvia Longmire, 36, former Air Force Special Agent, former senior border security analyst for the State of California and author of the upcoming book "Cartel: The Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars," about what's at stake for the U.S.

AOL News: What happened to turn Mexico into such a war zone?

Longmire: Colombia had a stranglehold on the cocaine trade until we cracked down on them in the 1980s. Then Mexicans took over, and they were really good at it. It was just a couple of crime families, and it was fairly peaceful. They didn't touch kids or family members. After President Calderone was elected in 2006, he tried to fight them, and it all blew up in his face.

Paint a picture of what Mexico is like now.

There are six or seven main cartels and a dozen or so tiny organizations. It's hard to find a patch of soil in Mexico that's not somehow touched or controlled by the drug traffickers. The most brutal are the Los Zetas, who were originally Mexican Army special forces soldiers. To uphold their reputation, they have gotten unspeakably violent. They routinely behead people and put their heads on spikes, stuff like that. They want to be known as the most brutal. In some areas, the police have no power or have been forced to work with the cartels.

Could the cartels really bring this lawlessness and violence into the U.S.?

They already have, and most Americans don't know it. The drug war is here, and there's the potential for much more to come. Not only do the cartels have a widespread system in place in our cities and on our highways to transport and sell drugs; we're seeing more cross-border kidnappings and ransom. The original cartel hit men have been killed or arrested, and they're hiring teenagers in the U.S. who don't have the same level of expertise and leave a lot of collateral damage.

There was a beheading in Chandler, Arizona, last year that was the first confirmed drug war beheading in the U.S. A San Diego gang tied to a Mexican cartel killed people by dissolving their bodies in acid. The cartels are running meth labs here that compete directly with American meth labs. And they're growing marijuana in our national parks right under our noses.

Which parks?

The cartels are growing vast expanses of marijuana in remote forests of many national parks, like Mount Shasta National Forest and Sequoia National Park in California, to name just a couple. The cartels are also growing marijuana in Kentucky, Tennessee, even Michigan. We're talking millions of acres. To defend their crops, they're armed to the teeth with assault weapons. There have been law enforcement personnel in the parks shot and killed by Mexican nationals.

Why don't most Americans know the extent of the Mexican drug cartels' influence in the U.S.?


Francisco Vega, AFP / Getty Images
Juan Miguel Valle Beltran, aka "El Boxer," an alleged member of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, is presented at a press conference at Tijuana State Police headquarters in January.

Americans have confused the issue of immigration with what is a serious national security issue at the border -- and drug traffickers have capitalized on the confusion. Illegal immigration is controversial, but worrying about Juan and Maria is totally separate from the issue of criminal drug trafficking. The cartels have been able to hide behind the immigration issue. It's perfect for them that the attention is on illegal aliens, not them.

U.S. drug intelligence says Mexican cartels are "operating" in 230 cities in nine regions of the U.S. What does that mean?

They move the drugs up here into major hubs like Chicago, and they control the transport into smaller communities. They make extensive use of local gangs. The Juarez cartel in Chicago hires local gangs like the Latin Kings to help with distribution.

Who's growing marijuana for the cartels in the national parks?

It works like a terrorist cell structure. The cartels hire Mexicans often by coercion and bring them to the U.S. They provide them with irrigation tools and camping equipment, leave them in a park and tell them they'll be there for four to five months during the growing season. The Mexicans employed by the cartels don't know each other or know who they're working for. If they get arrested by the U.S., they can't spill anything because they have no information.

Some of the more outspoken sheriffs on the U.S. border say that illegal aliens are being threatened by the cartels more than anyone. True?

In some cases, yes. Immigrants are becoming increasingly victimized by cartels forcing them to take drugs and guns across the border by threatening to kill them or kill their families who are already in the U.S. They're scared enough as it is and don't have much choice [but] to go along with it.

Are the reports that the U.S. exports as many weapons down to Mexico as the cartels bring drugs into the U.S. true?

This is a very delicate political issue. Nobody knows for sure where the cartels' weapons come from because they can't all be traced. They do use military-grade weapons, but their weapons of choice are pistols and AK-47s. Most of the weapons that have been successfully traced have been traced back to the U.S.

Why is it such a delicate issue?

The NRA will argue to the death that's it not true that the cartels' drug weapons come from the U.S. I'm former military and law enforcement, and I have guns in my house. I'm very pro-gun. I love the Second Amendment. I don't like it, though, when it's used for political reasons and to prevent the effective pursuit of policies to address weapons trafficking.

But it's hard to comprehend the insane amount of influence the NRA wields. The NRA says the cartels' weapons are not coming from the U.S., and nobody goes against them because of the number of votes they get politicians. It's sad. The Mexican government is very angry about it.

What does the immediate future hold?

The cartels are testing us. If they find out they can overwhelm us and continue to get away with murders and kidnappings, they'll spread even deeper in the U.S. Drug interdiction is not working. There is no strategy in place to separate the issue of illegals from criminal traffickers. Both the U.S. and Mexican government need to do some rethinking, because the situation is only getting worse.

source: Expert Sylvia Longmire: Mexican Drug Cartels Infesting US, Even Our National Parks