Thread: South Padre Island / Precinct One Corruption & Border Wa

"Even more difficult to explain is that those high end pre-construction projects like Kirana have actually been selling relatively well, (or so we have been told?), so these Mexican developers seem to know what they are doing. Could it be that future buyers are anticipating a big turnaround in the market before the projects are complete, and they're buying virtual call options with their deposit dollars? That possible explanation can't be ignored."


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Or maybe, just maybe, they have a lot of extra cash they need to find a way to get rid of . . .

And there are plenty of those Gatekeepers in the Valley stumbling over each other to let in the crime lords and riffraff for thirty pieces of silver, or more. . .

. . .and the Fanninites, who have already convinced us we can do nothing, and try to get us to surrender to the Santa Anas invading from the South.

Personally, I have apsolutely nothing but warmth and friendship for American Citizens who are Hispanic, and, or of Mexican Heritage, it is only those illegal invaders, corrupting our economy and social mores with the flooding of drugs across our border, and the political influence of their massive illegal commerce, both of which have eroded our society more than Sadam Hussein or Bin Laden could have dreamed, and the Fanninites tell us we can do nothing. . .

. . .Jose Maria Guerrero stood tall with the rest of them at the Alamo, but we can solely remember the Alamo-- no it was truly Goliad, which convinced everyone we could not give in to corruption and oppression, because they lie, and it was Goliad, in my opinion, which solidified resistance, which led to San Jacinto, and the beginning of a free place, culminating in belief in civil rights for all--these criminal foreigners do not share these beliefs with us, and no one treats Mexican Nationals as terrible as Mexican Nationals do--read their newspapers, and ask yourself, do we really need all of that violence and beheadings here?

15 million new voters from a place where cocaine cartels run the country? Are they even kidding? How many cartel foot soldiers are on this amnesty list?

Obama should be forced to live in the Rio Grande Valley so he can know what it is to live under their influence.

Every gangster in America will not only be a judge, but also own a casino--and his brother will be the local coke dealer--and his cousin the chief of police. . .

. . .welcome to Cameron County politics under the sphere of influence from the Other Side of the Border.

The Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, TX) | January 19, 2006

Byline: Emma Perez-TreviNo

Jan. 19--Justice of the Peace Bennie Ochoa III is disputing the county record that lists him as an owner of the Pennies from Heaven arcade, a gambling establishment in Port Isabel. "Not me," Ochoa said. "My dad owns it." The judge, whose Precinct 1 includes Port Isabel, said he was the manager for Pennies from Heaven for about two years, also while serving as justice of the peace. He said he does not have any interest in the gaming operation, now. Ochoa said his father, Benito Ochoa, has owned the arcade for a number of years. Several attempts to contact his father for comment were not successful. Questioned Friday about his …

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COPYRIGHT 2007 The Brownsville Herald. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.Â*Â*All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.

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Border Agent corruption: causes and cures
March 12, 2010 - 1:39pm


By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com

The history of corruption probably goes back as far as history itself. So when James Tomsheck, assistant commissioner with U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Internal Affairs, told a Senate homeland security subcommittee about Mexican drug cartel efforts to infiltrate the CBP ranks, there were a few observers who found the information presented as "alarming" as Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., who chaired the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration.

Thad Bingel, a former chief of staff for the CBP commissioner and now a principal with Command Consulting, told Federal News Radio that "for as long as we have had border officials, they have been targets of corruption because it's the highest threat environment."

What is different this time, said Bingle, is a "perfect storm" of causes of corruption now in the CBP: increased hiring and "additional efforts to corrupt them" even before they're hired.

They can actually target the recruitment process and try to place people into the CBP recruitment pipeline and hopefully get them through into positions where they'll be able to help move drug loads. So they are in many ways just the latest in a series of criminal organizations that target law enforcement in order to corrupt officials.
CBP candidates who have had some kind of relationship with somebody associated with narcotics trafficking organizations is a real concern, said Bingle, because the cartels "have obviously gotten smarter about trying to start this as early as possible within the organization rather than waiting for an employee to fall into their lap."

While making sure every candidate is given a polygraph before being hired would help, Bingle said the CBP also needs to turn to Congress for help in the form of a bigger budget.

The reality is if we're going to get serious about this problem, additional resources need to be devoted to this, not just polygraph and polygraph examiners, but additional investigators and a robust internal affairs capability for the agency.
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Drug violence spreads to normally quiet Mexican towns
April 18, 2010 - 7:35 AM
Valley Freedom Newspapers


The fight between rival drug organizations has been traveling all over the state of Tamaulipas and spreading into the neighbor state of Nuevo Leon.

Reynosa’s official website has not reported any alerts this week, city officials have instead been using the city’s Twitter account to inform people of the places to pay their water bills.

On Friday, the state of Tamaulipas’ website reported four city police officers had been found in Altamira in the southern part of the state.

The three neighbor cities of Tampico, Cd. Madero and Altamira, in the southern part of the state share the municipal police.

“It’s been horribleâ€

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Migration escalates as Mexico violence worsens
April 4, 2010 - 5:31 AM
JAZMINE ULLOA / Valley Freedom Newspapers


A middle-aged woman was driving along a busy street in Matamoros on her way to visit family, when she passed a Soriana grocery store barricaded by a throng of Mexican soldiers and vehicles. Gunshots cracked in the distance.

She kept her eyes on the road and pressed on the gas, following what many Mexican citizens consider unspoken policy: Look away. Mind your own business. Keep your mouth shut.

"These things don’t come out in the newspapers," said the woman, who works as a housemaid in Brownsville and asked her name not be used out of concern for her family’s safety.

In recent months, she and other residents say, sporadic shootouts in broad daylight, like this one, seem to have become more common in Matamoros, once one of the quieter cities along the Texas-Mexico border.

To be sure, with little trust in authorities and few reports from the media, it is difficult for Mexican residents to discern what is fact from hearsay. But to be caught in the crossfire is a legitimate fear, families say — even more distressing, is constantly seeing their schools shut down, their news outlets silenced and their streets blockaded by Mexican soldiers and military trucks.

Such concerns are driving Matamoros families away from the border city and into the Rio Grande Valley, residential and commercial real estate agents said. The migration follows a steady stream of Mexican nationals, including journalists, officials and business leaders, who have relocated to the United States since Mexican President Felipe Calderón launched a sweeping battle against drug cartels in 2006.

But families from Matamoros have only been moving to the Valley in higher numbers since last year, real estate agents said. And some brokers noted calls from Mexican nationals had become even more frequent in the last six months.

"They call and tell me, ‘I need (a home) fast. I want to take my children out of school. There is too much danger here,’ " said Sandy Lee Galvan, a real estate agent with Century 21 Johnston Company in Brownsville. "Many want to pay cash upfront."

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‘Violence escalates, migration escalates’

Drug war violence along the Mexican side of the lower Texas borderline began to intensify in late February, first after a bloody turf battle erupted between the Gulf Cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas, and now has amplified as drug cartel men increase their assaults against the Mexican army.

"As the violence escalates, the migration escalates," said Mary McGowan, broker and owner of All Star Realty in Brownsville.

Real estate agents are taking inquiries from Matamoros, Monterrey, Victoria and Valle Hermoso, and even from families living further in the interior of Mexico. Many Mexican nationals are not stopping in the Valley but choosing to go further north, to San Antonio or Austin, and even into other states, agents said.

But those who do stay prefer gated communities and condos throughout Brownsville and Rancho Viejo. Near McAllen, the sweetest deals are in the Sharyland community, said Leanne Richards, broker for Trendsetters Realty in McAllen.

"Everyone wants to get their children into the Sharyland school district," said Richards, who has worked in real estate in the Valley since 1994. In the past, Richards recalls few Mexican families calling in to inquire about homes in the area. When they did buy, it took time and they purchased expensive $500,000 homes, she said. Now people are buying properties costing between $80,000 to $120,000 because they want to move out soon. Many also choose to rent.

"They tell me, ‘We are not going back to Mexico, we are afraid,’" Richards said.

The high number of asylum applications from Mexico in part shows this increase in migration. The number of people applying for asylum under "credible fear of persecution," jumped from 179 in 2007 to 312 in 2008, and increased again slightly to 338 in 2009. These figures were based on people who pleaded for asylum at the nation’s southern ports of entry, according to U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Separate statistics collected from U.S. immigration courts showed an increase in the number of asylum petitions from Mexico in the first two years since Calderón initiated the drug war offensive, from 2,793 applications in 2006 to 3,459 in 2008, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review under the U.S. Department of Justice. But the number of petitions dropped to 2,816 in 2009.

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Hard to keep count

Nonetheless, tracking the number of people coming into the Valley, Texas or the United States from Mexico out of fear is difficult, experts said. No agency seems to be keeping count.

Part of the reason is because the way Mexican families are moving into the country runs the gamut. Some Mexican nationals have double citizenship, others apply for investor visas or asylum, and some come in illegally.

To judge the economic impact, thus, is much tougher. But Howard Campbell, professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at El Paso points to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, as an example.

Between 30,000 to 500,000 people have fled from Juarez to the United States, according to estimates based on the number of abandoned homes and the assumed number of people per household, he said. The number may be exaggerated, and it is uncertain how many of these people reside in the bordering city of El Paso, "but the impact is tangible. You can see it," Campbell said.

"It is very sad and tragic but the suffering in Juarez is contributing to the economic stimulus of El Paso," he said. "There is also a cultural side. There is a sort of rejuvenation and reincarnation of Mexican culture in the United States."

Many of the people fleeing Juarez are some of the wealthiest in the city and have injected a lot of money into El Paso’s economy, the professor added.

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Business boom

Real estate agents in the Valley said Mexican nationals moving in are helping keep the housing market afloat. Richards, for instance, estimated Mexican nationals to make up between 40 to 50 percent of Trendsetters’ clientele in Hidalgo county.

Many families also are "realizing it is a great time to make investments in the United States," said Norma Rasco, a real estate agent with Rancho Viejo Realty.

"Mexican nationals are cash buyers, and in this economy, cash is king," she said.

The stimulus is true of business in the Valley as well, financial leaders said. Larry Jokl, a commercial real estate agent with Brownsville Real Estate Management Company, said he helped six Mexican clients move their businesses to the Valley last year.

"In the first three months of this year, I have had a dozen clientele from Mexico who have looked to locate their businesses here, two of whom already have," he said.

Meanwhile, the Brownsville Economic Development Council has hosted about half a dozen prospects, or companies serious to relocate in Brownsville, from Mexico since January. On any given year, that number would have been about two, said Gilbert Salinas, spokesman for the city’s development council.

"A recurring theme has been that due to security issues in their country, they are now putting their plans on a fast track to break into the U.S. markets," he said. "Business men and women always have that — breaking into the U.S. market — in their back of their mind. Now they are making it a priority."

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Former Reynosa leader of Zetas sentenced
April 18, 2010 - 7:41 AM
Valley Freedom Newspapers


Mexican prosecutors said the former Reynosa leader of the Los Zetas drug cartel was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison on organized crime and weapons charges.

Jaime “El Hummerâ€

With illegals PREFERED immediately across the US border as the labor pool for construction, cooking, cleaning, wait staff, sales clerks, ect., there is every reason for illegals to cross and fill these positions--and with few jobs for citizens, many citizens are forced to leave--thus contributing to an escalating problem.

The local business owners, many of whom benefit from this cheap and illegal labor pool, definately elect politicians soft on illegal immigration, and Cameron County becomes a flood zone as the border hemmorrages past a point of control: onward north to Witchita and Omaha.

Now you know who to blame--Middle America take a vacation to South Padre Island, if you can afford to.