Thread: Drug violence in Atlanta tied to several cartels

Drug violence in Atlanta tied to several cartels

By JEREMY SCHWARTZ
Cox News Service
Published on: 07/31/08
MEXICO CITY — Powerful Mexican cartels have assumed control of drug distribution networks throughout the United States, sparking worry from U.S. law enforcement and experts that they may export the same violent methods that have ravaged Mexico for years.

U.S. federal officials say the Mexican cartels operate in dozens of U.S. cities and analysts say they are moving to consolidate their control of the entire supply chain of illegal drugs.

In the Atlanta area, Mexican trafficking organizations control the lucrative methamphetamine trade, as the arrival of purer Mexican ice methamphetamine has supplanted local powder meth production, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Nationwide, the Mexican cartels "are the dominant distributors of wholesale quantities of cocaine in the United States, and no other group is positioned to challenge them in the near term," according to the department's 2008 National Drug Threat Assessment.

"Their idea is to control the whole economic process of production and distribution," said Georgina Sanchez, an independent security consultant in Mexico and executive director of a public safety think tank.

But while experts say that the cartels' incursions into the U.S. could spur more secondary crimes, such as kidnapping, most believe that the bloody battles for territory will continue to be fought in Mexico and not in the United States.

While in some areas of the United States the cartels have entered into partnerships with local gangs, in others they have directly assumed control of local drug distribution, analysts say.

The Zetas, former Mexican soldiers who have become the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, have been linked to killings along the Texas side of the border and as far north as Dallas, according to court records and press accounts. The Sinaloa Cartel has been linked to the local Houston drug trade. And in Phoenix, suspected Mexican traffickers dressed as the Phoenix Police SWAT team recently attacked a home with high caliber weapons.

"The violence in (American) cities has a direct cause and effect related to what is taking place in Mexico," said Fred Burton, vice president for counterterrorism at Stratfor, an Austin-based private intelligence company.

"The farther north you go from the border, the less that is understood," said Burton, who is a member of the Texas Border Security Council, which focuses on homeland security and economic development along the Texas-Mexico border.

The biggest worry for local law enforcement groups is that the cartels will bring with them violent methods honed during furious cartel wars in Mexico that have left about 5,000 dead since 2006. In recent years, Mexican drug violence has reached new heights, featuring beheadings, videotaped executions broadcast on the Internet, and the targeting of top Mexican officials.

Drug violence associated with the cartels, although on a vastly smaller scale, has begun to emerge in the Atlanta area. Gwinnett County has seen about nine drug-related kidnappings this year, including a man who was bound and chained in a basement in the town of Lilburn.

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said Gwinnett has become a center of Mexican drug cartel activity and the Atlanta area is considered especially enticing to the cartels because of its location as distribution hub for the highly profitable East Coast market.

Jack Killorin, head of the federal Atlanta High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force, said most of the violence related to the cartels remains contained within the organizations and isn't affecting the larger community.

"We're not seeing violence across the cartels," he said. "They're just not in conflict. Some people would say that at this end of the distribution chain they're more interested in cooperating and making money than in conflict. Others would say there's plenty to go around so there's no need for conflict."

In December, local and federal agencies targeted two Mexican trafficking organizations, seizing 111 kilos of cocaine, 17 pounds of methamphetamine and as much as $10 million in cash. Officials said the groups used Atlanta as the distribution point for drugs smuggled from Mexico and for cash waiting to be smuggled back to Mexico.

Killorin said the two groups were affiliated with the Federation (also known as the Sinaloa Cartel), one of the two dominant Mexican drug cartels. Mexican officials have identified seven major drug cartels.

The Federation is based in Sinaloa, the Pacific Coast state that has been dubbed the Sicily of Mexico because it is the birthplace of many of Mexico's most important drug lords. Its leader is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most notorious drug capo, who attained an almost mythical stature after escaping from a federal prison in 2001.

In recent months, the Federation, which officials say controls Pacific smuggling routes from Central America, has been torn apart by an internal feud that officials say may be responsible for a spike in violence in Sinaloa and its capital Culiacan.

Killorin said the Federation in recent years has eclipsed the Gulf Cartel as the predominant organization in the southeast. That cartel, headquartered in the border town of Matamoros, once controlled East Coast operations, but has been engaged in a brutal war with the Federation for years. The two cartels have fought bitter battles for control of smuggling routes in both Nuevo Laredo, and more recently, Ciudad Juarez.

Ricardo Ravelo, the author of several books on Mexican cartels and an investigative reporter for the Proceso magazine, said the Federation is well organized on the American side of the border. "I'm talking about distribution as well as the collection of profits, money laundering and smuggling money back to Mexico," he said.

In the last decade, Mexican cartels have surpassed Colombian traffickers as the ascendant force in the hemisphere: as they move into the United States they have also taken control of Central American trafficking routes and dominate the market in South American countries like Peru, according to law enforcement officials.

"It's all a question of business," said Carlos Humberto Toledo, a military affairs expert in Mexico City. "The American market represents the biggest consumer in the world and all the cartels are focused on it."

Analysts fear the cartels will bring not just drug violence, but peripheral cash-generating crime like kidnapping, extortion and protection rackets - problems that are all too common in Mexico.

Burton said there has already been an alarming spike in kidnappings along the Texas border. "We don't know how many have been kidnapped, but guesstimates by local law enforcement puts abductions in border towns at four to eight a week," Burton said. "They are snatched in the U.S. and taken to Mexico."

Sanchez said kidnapping in the U.S. could be particularly attractive to the cartels because they may be able to demand more money than they do in Mexico.

"The U.S. will begin to see a little of the same conflict that is happening in Mexico," Sanchez said. "If (the cartels) already have methods, and ways of diversifying into other crimes, it's normal that they won't stop at the border."

But experts say it's unlikely the U.S. will see the type of large-scale drug wars that have paralyzed various Mexican cities and forced President Felipe Calderon to send about 25,000 federal troops to confront the cartels.

Toledo, the military affairs analyst, said the cartels will continue to fight their major battles within Mexico. And less corruption and more effective law enforcement make it impossible for large cartels to flourish on American soil, he said.

"In the U.S. there will be violence, but it's local, decentralized, a small dose compared to Mexico," he said. "The American system is much more effective in combating drug distribution."

Experts say more cooperation between Mexican and U.S. governments will be needed to effectively combat the cartels on U.S. soil. The U.S. recently approved a $400 million aid package to help Mexico fight drug trafficking. Such high level cooperation may also be needed in the U.S.

"It's a tremendous geopolitical issue that law enforcement by itself can't deal with," Burton said. "You're dealing with extremely violent people with the money and resources to do pretty much what they want."


THE GULF CARTEL

Based in Matamoros, in the state of Tamauilipas along the Texas border, it has been one of Mexico's two dominant cartels in recent years. It has been strengthened by its armed wing called the Zetas, highly trained military deserters blamed for bringing new levels of savagery to the drug wars. The cartel was weakened in 2007 with the extradition of leader Osiel Cardenas, currently awaiting trial in Houston.


THE FEDERATION

The result of a 2006 accord between several groups located in the Pacific state of Sinaloa, it also is called the Sinaloa Cartel. It's led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most wanted drug trafficker. An internal rift has pitted the Beltran-Leyva organization against the Federation, leading to heavy fighting in Sinaloa. Atlanta officials say the Federation has become the dominant drug trafficking organization in the southeast, taking control from the Gulf Cartel.


TIJUANA CARTEL

The cartel of the Arrellano-Felix family, the Tijuana Cartel was once among Mexico's most powerful, but has fallen on hard times thanks to arrests of several top capos. The cartel entered into a brief partnership with the Gulf Cartel. It has been the frequent target of Mexican military confrontations and may be breaking into smaller groups.


JUAREZ CARTEL

Another former powerhouse that has been reduced to second-tier status. Formed part of the Federation after it entered into an agreement with the Sinaloa cartels, which have moved into its previous zones of influence.


Sources: Stratfor, Congressional Research Service

www.ajc.com

WHY HAS ALL OF THE GOVERNMENT BEEN ASLEEP; WAITING FOR THE CARTELS AND ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIENS TO RUIN AMERICA

TOTAL BLAME IS OUR GOVERNMENT NON ACTION FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS

useful sites:
Crimes being committed by illegals http://illegal.globalincidentmap.com/home.php

The New World Order by Eustace Mullins http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-125703-.html

I AGREE VMONKEY. WHY WASNT SOMETHING DONE ABOUT THIS LONG AGO? IT DID NOT GET LIKE THIS OVERNIGHT. THEY HAVE BEEN ASLEEP AT THE HELM. NOW WE HAVE A DANGEROUS MESS TO DEAL WITH.