Thread: Drug War Threat in Monterrey MX

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 695933.htm

Posted on Wed, Feb. 14,
Drug turf war advances into `safest city in Mexico'
By Alfredo Corchado

The Dallas Morning News

(MCT)

SAN PEDRO GARZA GARCIA, Mexico - From the shopping malls and the fashionable clothes of its residents, this could be any affluent U.S. suburb. Residents pride themselves on their American-style prosperity.

But in recent weeks, drug-related violence has shattered the tranquility, and the main targets are police. Seven police officers have been gunned down in Monterrey and its suburbs this year. Men with assault weapons killed two former police officers over the weekend.

Last year, 10 law enforcement officials were killed in the area, including five police chiefs. Among them was San Pedro's chief, Hector Ayala Moreno. A top state investigator, Marcelo Garza Y Garza, was shot and killed as he walked out of church in San Pedro.

"One day you wake up and realize that your neighbors are not who you thought they were," said Denise Colyer, 22, a waitress at a Chili's here. "We thought we were immune from the violence, but we're surrounded by fear and drug traffickers."

Law enforcement officials on both sides of the border says that the killings represent an attempt on part of a drug cartel - in this case, the Gulf cartel and its enforcement arm, the Zetas - to gain control of police through intimidation and corruption.

Nuevo Leon Gov. Natividad Gonzalez Paras, whose state is hosting a worldwide Cultural Forum this September, said in an interview that Monterrey and its suburbs remain safe.

"Monterrey is still - and we're working at keeping it - the safest city in Mexico," Gonzalez Paras said. "For us and for Mexico, organized crime is the number one problem we face."

About two hours by car from the Texas border, San Pedro Garza Garcia, population 120,000, is one of Latin America's wealthiest suburbs - and one with strong economic and cultural ties to Texas. It is home to about 1,500 Dallas Cowboys season-ticket holders, and it is a sister city to Plano.

But the same opulence that attracts Mexico's elite families is also a magnet for the nation's warring drug lords, authorities say. According to two U.S. officials, at least five small cells working for the Gulf cartel now exert substantial control in Monterrey and its affluent suburbs. The assassins number about 15 gunmen per cell, said a U.S. law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

They are some of the same hired guns that for years have terrorized Nuevo Laredo and other border communities, the officials said. The mastermind is the Gulf cartel's alleged regional leader, or gatekeeper, Miguel Trevino Morales, the U.S. officials said. Last month, Laredo issued an arrest warrant for Trevino in connection with a 2006 double homicide in Texas.

The Gulf and Sinaloa cartels have been battling over control of routes into Texas, particularly Interstate 35, authorities say.

The killings in the Monterrey area are eerily similar to those Nuevo Laredo, which for the past three years has been the center of a fierce turf war that has left hundreds dead, including law enforcement officials and several U.S. citizens. In addition, about 140 Nuevo Laredo police officers have been fired for corruption.

Law enforcement officials in the Monterrey area, in the face of police killings, are resigning in waves, including more than 40 in recent days. Last week, Monterrey Mayor Adalberto Madero fired 52 police officers suspected of corruption and collusion with drug traffickers.

Some of the slain policemen were gunned down in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a suburb with the reputation of once having the best and most honest and professional police force nationwide. But two dozen police officers have resigned this year out of fear for their lives, Mexican and U.S. officials said.

Carlos Castresana, a United Nations representative and expert on drug traffickers, compared the killing of law enforcement officials in the Monterrey area to the situation in Medellin, Colombia, where a wave of police killings in the 1980s sent shock waves through the city and intimidated the police force.

Law enforcement authorities and government officials in Nuevo Leon downplay the Medellin comparison and deny that their city is under control of the Gulf cartel.

"We are working with the federal government (to develop) a new model, a more efficient model, to fight and win the war, which is as important to our country as it is to the state," said Gonzalez, the governor.

He applauded President Felipe Calderon for sending federal troops to Nuevo Leon, including some manning checkpoints in San Pedro Garza Garcia.

Since taking office Dec. 1, Calderon has taken strong measures against the traffickers, ordering a total of 25,000 troops and federal police to several Mexican states where most of last year's 2,200 gangland-style killings occurred.

But a senior U.S. official said corruption among police agencies is widespread. The official blamed low pay as a reason many police officers end up working for cartels.

"If that isn't a crisis, I don't know what qualifies as a crisis," the official said. "The cops serve as paid security forces to provide protection for drug traffickers."

Over the weekend, Archbishop Francisco Robles Ortega called on local and state authorities to provide better pay for police.

Gonzalez acknowledged that police corruption, along with U.S. demand for illegal drugs, is at the root of the problem. He said efforts were under way to make the police forces more professional and clean.

"This is a binational problem, one that requires a binational solution," Gonzalez said. "Pointing fingers will not help anyone."

Some business executives say privately that the violence has raised their costs because of the need for added security. And that hurts Mexico's competitiveness at a time when China has unseated Mexico as the United States' No. 2 trading partner.

"Visitors are urged to remain vigilant" while in Monterrey, said a report by the Overseas Security Advisory Council, an advisory body to the U.S. State Department. The region is home to more than 50,000 Americans, plus some 1,200 U.S. companies, many of them based in Texas.

"The escalation of violence in the Monterrey area is forcing companies to ask: `How much more does it cost to protect my personnel and facilities?'" said Fred Burton, vice president for Austin - based Stratfor, a private intelligence gathering group. "Security costs are rising so that facilities and personnel are protected adequately."

Monterrey is a powerful economic engine, accounting for more than 4 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product.

Its relative prosperity has given Monterrey and especially its suburb of San Pedro Garza Garcia a U.S. lifestyle like few Mexican cities. On weekends, residents flock to Texas malls, and some head to vacation homes on South Padre Island.

But residents say their sense of security is fraying.

"This was supposed to be the most honest police force, the safest place, and that just isn't so," said Gabriela Barragan, a 35-year-old mother of two sipping Starbucks coffee at an upscale shopping center. "Our tranquility has been shattered."

thanks to open border supports this will be America in a couple of years.

Beckyal"]thanks to open border supports this will be America in a couple of years

It already is in alot of U.S. cities, like Los Angeles for example.
What we need is for drug cartel to move into more affluent neighborhoods. watch the S____T hit the fan then!!!