Phoenix police union head sees Mexico drug wars expanding
September 9th, 2008 @ 8:53am
by Jim Cross/KTAR

In the past two years, more than 5,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug wars, and the head of the Phoenix police union worries that the violence may extend beyond the border.

Mark Spencer, with the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, said the drug cartels have business to do and don't care who gets in their way.

``You're seeing what a failure to take a pro-active enforcement philosophy does. It emboldens not only the coyotes in smuggling drugs and people across the border, it emboldens cartels."

Along the Texas and California borders, violence has grown more gruesome, with beheadings almost a weekly happening. Drug cartels post executions on the internet.

More than 500 people have been killed in Mexico's drug wars in recent years, with much of the violence limited to the border area.

Spencer fears that is changing.

``The cartels have provided the go-ahead to their operatives to take care of business, no matter where it is, north or south of the border," he said.

``Our friends at Border Patrol said the cartels usually were comfortable operating within a 10-mile range of our southern border. But, according to them, that range has been extended to 100-miles-plus. That equates to Phoenix."

Spencer pointed to the murder this summer of a man in the west Valley. The man died when more than 100 shots were fired into a house, near 83rd Avenue and Encanto. The suspects, dressed in police gear, were captured in downtown Phoenix. Two are illegal immigrants with felony records.

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