Thread: FBI warns of looming drug cartel violence in South Texas

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6083652.html

FBI warns of looming drug cartel violence in South Texas
Associated Press


McALLEN — Frustrated by a crackdown on South Texas drug smuggling routes, the Mexican Gulf Cartel is stockpiling high-powered weapons and recruiting local gang members on both sides of the border to prepare for possible confrontations with U.S. law enforcement, according to an FBI intelligence report.

The regional leader of the cartel's enforcer group, the Zetas, Jaime "El Hummer" Gonzalez Duran ordered dozens of reinforcements to Reynosa, Mexico, across the river from McAllen, the report said.

"These replacements are believed to be armed with assault rifles, bulletproof vests and grenades and are occupying safe houses throughout the McAllen area," the report obtained by The McAllen Monitor said.

The Monitor reported in today's editions that the local FBI office refused to comment on the report.

Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman in San Antonio, refused to discuss the details of the report but told The Associated Press "we acknowledge the Zetas are a significant problem in Mexico and they have the potential to pose a significant problem to law enforcement on this side of the border."

Less than two weeks ago, the Border Patrol, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Hidalgo County sheriff announced that they would not be intimidated by cartel violence. At the time, they would only say that they felt the smugglers had become increasingly confrontational and the agencies planned to increase their coordination.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said at the time that his deputies patrolling near the Rio Grande would be issued high-powered rifles and authorized to return fire.

U.S. law enforcement has had several recent successes that have likely frustrated the cartel.

In September, "Project Reckoning" nabbed more than 175 cartel members and affiliates in the U.S.

The sheriff of neighboring Starr County was indicted and is being held without bond on conspiracy charges alleging that he shared intelligence with the head of a cartel cell operating in his county.

The Rio Grande Valley and its Mexican sister cities have largely avoided the drug war massacre that has plagued Ciudad Juarez, Mexico across the border from El Paso. More than 1,100 people have died in the violence there this year.

What do you expect when our govenment has been inviting the neighbors over for welfare, instead of making them good neighbors with a fence.

Dixie

http://www.themonitor.com/articles/auth ... rande.html

FBI: Zetas arming for confrontation with U.S. authorities
Comments 15 | Recommend 2
October 28, 2008 - 10:53PM
Jeremy Roebuck
The Monitor

McALLEN -- Recent U.S. efforts to disrupt drug smuggling routes through the Rio Grande Valley have prompted threats of retaliation against authorities on this side of the river, according to an FBI intelligence report.

Vowing to maintain control over valuable trafficking corridors such as those in Reynosa, Matamoros and Miguel Alemán, the Gulf Cartel and its paramilitary enforcement wing, Los Zetas, have begun stockpiling weapons, reaching out to Texas gangs and issuing orders to "confront U.S. law enforcement agencies to zealously protect their criminal interests," the report states.

The organizations' encroachment north of the border marks a troubling shift in strategies, federal and local authorities say.

Prior to now, smugglers largely maintained a non-engagement policy with law enforcement here, even as they carried out hundreds of assassinations and violent attacks on authorities in Mexico.

"It's finally coming together - the cartels, the violence, the gangs," said one local law enforcement official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about recent cartel intelligence. "It's going to get worse here before it gets any better."

DISTURBING INTELLIGENCE

An Oct. 17 FBI intelligence report obtained by The Monitor charts the development of this more brazen strategy for the Zetas.

In direct response to recent arrests and seizures in Texas, regional leader Jaime "El Hummer" González Durán has ordered dozens of reinforcements to Reynosa and urged his operatives to protect their turf at all cost.

"These replacements are believed to be armed with assault rifles, bulletproof vests and grenades and are occupying safe houses throughout the McAllen area," says the document, which was distributed to local law enforcement officials late last month.

The FBI's McAllen office refused to confirm the report's details Tuesday. But recent law enforcement actions seem to address many of its findings.

Following an attack from across the Rio Grande on U.S. Border Patrol agents near Mission earlier this month, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño announced his deputies would return any fire that came from the other side of the border.

Last week, the FBI joined dozens of Valley police chiefs to discuss the growing threat of gangs in the region and their connection to Mexico's criminal organizations.

"Let's face it," Laredo police Chief Carlos Maldonado said at a news conference after the meeting. "The only people that recognize jurisdictional and international boundaries are us."


LAW ENFORCEMENT CRACKDOWN

This latest intelligence on the Zetas comes as a direct result of the recent successful U.S. and Mexican efforts.

Just last month, U.S. federal authorities swept up more than 175 cartel operatives and associates working in the United States. The long-term investigation - dubbed "Project Reckoning" - netted several key players in cartel smuggling networks reaching from the Valley to states such as Georgia, New York and North Carolina.

In Starr County, 22 alleged members of a Roma-based cell - including its purported leader, Juan Carlos Hinojosa, and Sheriff Reymundo "Rey" Guerra - have been arrested since last month.

Other key operatives such as the purported top Zeta, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, and the alleged head of the Gulf Cartel, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sánchez, were indicted on conspiracy and drug trafficking charges in a Washington, D.C., federal court. Both men remain at large.

These efforts north of the border come while Mexican President Felipe Calderon continues his two-year crackdown on his country's entrenched criminal organizations whose tentacles reach into local and federal law enforcement there.

Since taking office, his administration has extradited the former Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cárdenas Guillen to face criminal charges in the United States and has arrested or killed several of the organization's major players

The Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, who control the country's northeast smuggling routes stretching from Matamoros to Nuevo Laredo, have sustained particular damage under the current campaign - so much so that Zetas like González have reportedly taken over cartel operations. His sphere of control is now believed to stretch from Rio Bravo to Miguel Alemán.

FUTURE THREAT?

So far, the Gulf Cartel's dominance along Mexico's northeastern border has largely spared cities like Reynosa and Matamoros from the daily brutality suffered in places such as Ciudad Juarez - across the river from El Paso.

There, clashes between feuding cartels and with federal authorities have left a body count stretching into the thousands this year.

But law enforcement officials fear their success in thwarting smugglers in the Valley has already resulted in smaller - but still significant - forms of reprisal.

"Once we catch on to certain techniques, they get frustrated and adopt more aggressive ones," said Will Glaspy, a local spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Recent federal intelligence suggests González, the Zeta member purportedly running operations in Reynosa, may have recently planned an attack - ultimately thwarted - on the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo.

And as recently as last month, he and several alleged accomplices were implicated in the kidnapping of two men in Mission for debts owed to the cartel. Search warrants executed this month uncovered assault rifles, bulletproof vests and several paintball weapons at an alleged cartel stash house outside of the city.

To combat this threat, local and federal authorities must work together like never before, said Treviño, the Hidalgo County sheriff. And so far, he is encouraged by what he has seen.

"Ten years ago this kind of collaboration would not have happened," he said. "We may never have a complete victory, but I believe with continued cooperation we can really get a handle on the problem."
___

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.

Why did our government pull the National Guard from the border? It appears we need troops there more than ever. Does anyone think our government will protect US citizens against Mexican criminals?

They never have. The Border Patrol needs tanks, hummers with machine guns and bullet proof trucks. It does not matter who is president, or how bad the Mexican violence gets,government does not have the will to stop this.

So I guess technically we are at war with Mexico. And though Congress has not declared war, this administration's actions attacking preemptively (recently Pakistan and Syria) into any country have been taken as a model by the drug cartels. And it all makes it easier with no secure border fence, and who knows who is here already, not necessarily for honest work.
I think Bush pulled back the National Guard from the border to fight his other wars all over the world, as in his thinking, the mighty US has the right to use its military anywhere it wants in the war on terror, including countries friendly to us.

"A War is Raging on our Southern Border with Mexico"

Perry blasts federal inaction, announces new programs to fight Mexican drug gangs in Texas

By Jim Forsyth
Wednesday, October 29, 2008

(SAN ANTONIO) -- Saying there is a 'war raging along our southern border with Mexico,' 1200 WOAI nws reports Texas Gov. Rick Perry today announced a major effort to fight Mexican drug cartels and 'transnational' criminal gangs which have been stepping up their increasingly brazen assaults and kidnappings in the southwestern United States.




"All too often these gangs are better armed, they are highly organized, they are better funded than ever before, but we are going to start fighting back," Perry said.




Perry cited the threat from Mexico's Gulf drug cartel and criminal gangs like Barrio Azteca, MS-13, and the Mexican Mafia.




"The threat that is posed by these trans national gangs is very very real," Perry said. "These people don't hesitate to kill, to kidnap, to torture. as a means of eliminating their criminal competition, or, for that matter, terrorizing citizens into silence. Mexican drug cartels are using stolen vehicles, weapons, there is human cargo involved here."




Perry's initiative comes as the FBI in San Antonio issued what it calls a 'Joint Assessment Bulletin' to law enforcement agencies statewide, warning that the Gulf Cartel is attempting of gain control of major drug trafficking routes through Texas, including Interstate 35.




"We are talking about a very specific group called Los Zetas, which are a paramilitary drug trafficking group operating in Mexico, which have been known to conduct some activity in the United States," Special Agent Erik Vasys told 1200 WOAI's Michael Board today.




Los Zetas are mainly former Mexican Army special forces soldiers, many of whom have been trained by the United States, who are hired as 'enforcers' for the Gulf and Sinaloa drug cartels in northern Mexico.




Deputy U.S. Marshal James Benjamin in San Antonio says the incident that prompted the warning is the arrest of a major drug gang commander earlier this week near Tijuana.




"There will be some jockeying as to who will be in charge of that cartel, and we expect some renewed violence," Benjamin said.




Vasys says there is no specific threat from the Zetas.




"Law enforcement regularly receives raw intelligence, information from a variety of sources, which is put out in bulletin form to alert law enforcement to trends that they may see on a daily basis."




Vasys said Los Zetas are a 'significant problem in Mexico' and have 'the potential to pose a significant problem to law enforcement in Texas.'




Perry says his program is aimed at 'dismantling' Mexican gang activity in Texas.




"In addition to paying overtime, these funds will go to essential items such as the collection, analysis, and the sharing of intelligence among local state and federal agencies, improved equipment, education programs for our kids, so they can learn about the dangers of getting involved in this type of activity."




Perry said $4 million from Texas criminal justice funding will be made available today, and he will ask the Texas Legislature for an additional $24 million when lawmakers convene in January.




Perry said none of this would be necessary if the federal government properly carried out its job of border control and enforcement.




"We always had held out hope that Washington would do their appropriate job, but that seems to not be the case so far," he said. "Texans are having to fund these efforts ourselves. We can't sit around and wait for Washington to secure our border. We can't sit around and wait for Washington to keep its citizens safe. We have to do it ourselves, it appears."

http://radio.woai.com

Posted on Thu, Oct. 30, 2008
Cartel stockpiling arms in McAllen

The Associated Press
McALLEN — The Mexican Gulf Cartel is stockpiling high-powered weapons and recruiting local gang members on both sides of the border to prepare for possible confrontations with U.S. law enforcement, according to an FBI intelligence report.
The regional leader of the cartel’s enforcer group, the Zetas, Jaime "El Hummer" Gonzalez Duran, has ordered dozens of reinforcements to Reynosa, Mexico, across the river from McAllen, the report stated.

"These replacements are believed to be armed with assault rifles, bulletproof vests and grenades and are occupying safe houses throughout the McAllen area," according to the report, which was obtained by The McAllen Monitor.

The Monitor reported Wednesday that local FBI officials declined to comment on the report.

Erik Vasys, an FBI spokesman in San Antonio, also declined to discuss the details of the report but told The Associated Press: "We acknowledge the Zetas are a significant problem in Mexico, and they have the potential to pose a significant problem to law enforcement on this side of the border."

More resources

On Oct. 17, representatives of the U.S. Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety, along with the Hidalgo County sheriff, announced the initiation of Operation River Freedom Denial, which will provide more air and ground law enforcement resources and allow more heavily armed deputies to return fire across the Mexican border.

Tension along the border had increased that week with a shootout Oct 16 in downtown Matamoros, Mexico, across the river from Brownsville. Shots were also fired at or near the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico, twice that week. In the first incident, a grenade was lobbed at the consulate, but it did not explode. Also, Border Patrol sector chief Ronald Vitiello said, his agents and drug smugglers exchanged gunfire and a smuggler rammed an agent’s truck while escaping.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said deputies patrolling near the Rio Grande would be issued high-powered rifles and authorized to return fire.

'Project Reckoning’

In September, "Project Reckoning" nabbed more than 175 cartel members and affiliates in the United States.

Reymundo Guerra, who was sheriff of neighboring Starr County until he resigned last week, has been indicted on conspiracy charges that accuse him of sharing intelligence with the head of a cartel cell operating in his county.

The Rio Grande Valley and its Mexican sister cities have largely avoided the drug war massacre that has plagued Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso. More than 1,100 people have died in the violence there this year.

http://www.star-telegram.com/279/story/1006810.html

Originally Posted by Texan123

Why did our government pull the National Guard from the border? It appears we need troops there more than ever. Does anyone think our government will protect US citizens against Mexican criminals?

They never have. The Border Patrol needs tanks, hummers with machine guns and bullet proof trucks. It does not matter who is president, or how bad the Mexican violence gets,government does not have the will to stop this.

Makes me wonder too. We send thousands of troops to the middle east and spend billion over there fighting terrorism but we can't do anything to fight terrorism right at our own back door?

I travel to Juarez Mexico several times a month. Crossing the bridge is like crossing over into the twilight zone. Fully armed troops, troop trucks, armored carriers with machine guns locked and loaded. This is a war zone folks, make no mistake about it. It is spilling over into Texas and both governments along with the media are doing their level best to keep it under wraps. Businesses in La Zona Centro in Juarez are suffering big time because people are afraid to cross the border...and with good reason! Murders, beheadings, kidnappings...pick your poison, they are all happening at an alarming frequency with no end in site. I travel there only because my job demands it. Wife doesn't like it, kids don't like it, my friends don't like it and I don't like it. I hope to find a new job but the economy is in the toilet and may get much worse if Obama becomes our new dictator. On the brighter side...I came back home yesterday! Yee Haw!

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