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

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Mexican army: Armored truck, grenades, guns and drugs seized in weekend firefights(Matamoros)
THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD ^ | February 23, 2010
Posted on February 24, 2010 5:59:40 PM CST by SwinneySwitch

The seizure of drugs, an armored SUV, weapons and grenades were the result of two weekend firefights between the Mexican military and alleged cartel members in Matamoros, officials said.

According to the Mexican Defense Secretariat (SEDENA), the shootings left behind one civilian and two purported cartel members dead. Mexican officials declined to say if any military personnel were killed or wounded.

The first shooting took place Saturday at approximately 7 p.m. at the intersection of Pedro Cardenas Boulevard (also known as Sixth Street) and Manuel Cavazos Lerma Boulevard, outside the Plaza Fiesta shopping center. A military patrol was fired upon by cartel members and began to fight back, SEDENA said.

Details of the firefight were not available, but the military reported that it seized 11 bundles of marijuana with an approximate weight of 255 pounds, a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado, a 2002 Cadillac Escalade, two fragmentation grenades, three assault rifles, 550 ammunition rounds, 24 ammunition clips and one metallic ammunition box.

As a result of the shooting, SEDENA reported that two "attackers" were killed in the fight. Their identities were not available.

The second shooting took place Sunday at 1 a.m. along Manuel Cavazos Lerma Boulevard, near the Walmart shopping center, when a military patrol was returning to its headquarters after documenting the scene of the first firefight.

As a result of the second shootout, the military reports the seizure of one armored 2008 GMC and a 2008 Chevrolet Silverado, one assault rifle, one handgun, 266 ammunition rounds, eight ammunition clips, three radios, one long-range scope and one pound of marijuana.

Also as a result of the second firefight, SEDENA reported one dead civilian, who was not identified.

"With actions like this we ratify the commitment of the federal government to recuperate the safety of the state by keeping any manifestation of organized crime from going unpunished," SEDENA said.

Mexican Consulate Threatens Minutemen
By Guest Author Mike Pechar
(Rio Grande Valley) The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has launched a campaign to stem the flow of illegal aliens into and through South Texas. As a result, the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville sent a warning.

"The [Mexican] consulate will be alert for human rights violations or anything illegal, and would be disposed to sue the group for any trespasses."
Now, the Minutemen took that as a threat and lashed out Monday at the Mexican Government, calling it 'corrupt and heartless,' saying they don't blame Mexican nationals who are "voting with their feet" by crossing the Rio Grande. The Minutemen blame the Mexican government for the problem.

Local Texas officials have also issued a warning to the Minutemen in addition to rules of engagement.
Arguably, if the Mexican government and local Texas officials were as dedicated to stopping illegal aliens as they are to policing the Minuteman Corps, there would probably be no need for the volunteers in the first place.

A rational observer would have to wonder why the groups are not all working in unison. Of course, a rational observer would mistakenly assume that the Mexican government, the Texas officials, and the Minuteman Corps are pursuing the same goal, a secure border.

In a somewhat related story from South Texas, a Mexican national, and probably illegal, was arrested for the rape of a 3-year-old girl.

Companion at Interested-Participant.


Posted by: Dave Schuler at October 6, 2005 11:16 AM


"“There will always be people who want to cross,â€

(Brownsville, Texas) A 40-year-old Border Patrol officer, 12-year veteran Sergio Lopez Hernandez, was arrested this week for alleged involvement with an illegal alien and drug smuggling operation.

Federal agents apprehended Hernandez while he was on duty at the Free Trade Bridge at Los Indios.

Federal agents initially received reports of a smuggling operation in October. Subsequently, investigators set up two successful undercover operations to gather evidence and court documents indicate that Lopez Hernandez received money for every illegal alien he allowed through his checkpoint, allegedly $500.

According to court documents, on Wednesday federal agents set up surveillance at the bridge and recorded Lopez Hernandez allowing the entry of four vehicles previously identified as those used for smuggling undocumented immigrants. The vehicles were intercepted and Alonso Banda, Estrada Lopez and Mejia Fajardo were arrested. The occupants of the fourth vehicle fled into Mexico.
The vehicle driven by Mejia Fajardo contained 15 kilograms of cocaine, according to the criminal complaint.

Lopez Hernandez, Javier Alonso Banda, Jose Estrada Lopez and Francisco Mejia Fajardo, were charged with smuggling illegal aliens. Lopez Hernandez and Mejia Fajardo were also charged with smuggling drugs and with intent to distribute.
I'll make a wild guess that corruption among Border Patrol agents is more common than reported. The temptation of easy money from cash-rich drug cartels is hard to resist.

To be fair, though, I'd wager that the overwhelming majority of Border Patrol agents are honest professionals working under terrible circumstances while sometimes feeling abandoned by their management. I salute them.

(Rio Grande Valley) The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has launched a campaign to stem the flow of illegal aliens into and through South Texas. As a result, the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville sent a warning.

"The [Mexican] consulate will be alert for human rights violations or anything illegal, and would be disposed to sue the group for any trespasses."
Now, the Minutemen took that as a threat and lashed out Monday at the Mexican Government, calling it 'corrupt and heartless,' saying they don't blame Mexican nationals who are "voting with their feet" by crossing the Rio Grande. The Minutemen blame the Mexican government for the problem.

Local Texas officials have also issued a warning to the Minutemen in addition to rules of engagement.
Arguably, if the Mexican government and local Texas officials were as dedicated to stopping illegal aliens as they are to policing the Minuteman Corps, there would probably be no need for the volunteers in the first place.

A rational observer would have to wonder why the groups are not all working in unison. Of course, a rational observer would mistakenly assume that the Mexican government, the Texas officials, and the Minuteman Corps are pursuing the same goal, a secure border.

In a somewhat related story from South Texas, a Mexican national, and probably illegal, was arrested for the rape of a 3-year-old girl.

Companion at Interested-Participant.

Mexico has deployed more than 49,000 troops across the country as part of its war on drugsÂ*[EPA]
The United States has temporarily closed its consular office in the Mexican border city of Reynosa after a series of gun battles between drug gangs.

The US consulate, located across from the southern US city of McAllen, Texas, will remain closed until further notice, US officials said in a statement this week.

"Several gunfights are believed to have involved narcotics trafficking organizations," the statement read.

The closure comes after four suspected drug cartel members were killed on Thursday outside the nearby Mexican city of Matamoros.

Mexico's defence department said the suspects had attacked an army patrol on a highway outside the city.

It said six suspected drug cartel members and one soldier were killed in a separate series of clashes on Tuesday farther west along the border. At least 10 soldiers and a police officer were injured in those clashes.

Spiralling drug violence

The US consulate in Matamoros has posted a message on its website advising US citizens to be aware of the recent violence.

"The US Consulate General in Matamoros has restricted the travel of American officials to Reynosa until further notice," the statement read, dated Wednesday.

The government of Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, has deployed more than 49,000 troops across the country as part of its war on drugs.

However, broad daylight shootings are common and killings by drug gangs soared to an unprecedented 7,000 last year alone as rival groups fought over markets and control of smuggling routes into the US.

More than 15,000 people have died in the spiralling drug violence in the past three years in Mexico.

South Padre Island is not safe for Spring Break this year: the border is not safe.

Thanks, SPILive. According to main stream media, this is an isolated problem in Mexico with no effect on the U.S. Yeah, tell me another one.

EDUARDO VERDUGO ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mexican Federal Police honor Officer Miguel Zedillo during a ceremony at police headquarters in Mexico City. Zedillo was killed during a three-hour shootout last week in Tijuana.
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ORCHESTRATING A WAVE OF VIOLENCE

The drug war came to Mexico City last week, and heated up on the border. The events:
• Dec. 18: Police detain five men riding in a car in a section of southern Mexico City where a senior drug official lives. Three of the men are police agents.
• Jan. 17: Three heavily armed men, allegedly members of the Sinaloa Cartel, are arrested in the same section of the city as those in December. Authorities later identified them as part of an assassination squad.
• Mond ay: Alfredo Beltran Leyva, one of five brothers accused of being top leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, is arrested in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa state.
• Tuesday: Federal police raid two houses in upscale Mexico City neighborhoods, arrest 11 alleged assassins for the Sinaloa Cartel and seize a stockpile of weapons.
Soldiers and federal police disarm police forces in five cities on the Texas border including Nuevo Laredo and arrest some officers for collaborating with drug traffickers.
• Thursday: Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a senior drug official, tells reporters the cartel gunmen arrested in Mexico City had planned to assassinate him.
• Friday: Soldiers in Matamoros, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, seize 12 automatic rifles, more than 2,600 bullets, radios, helmets and bulletproof vests from three parked cars, two of which were army vehicles. Matamoros is said to be the territory of the Gulf Cartel, whose reputed leader, Osiel Cardenas, is jailed in Houston awaiting trial on federal charges.
MEXICO CITY — Little more than a year after President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against Mexico's powerful drug cartels, the gangsters seem willing and able to strike back with a vengeance.
The arrests last week in Mexico City of 11 heavily armed men, whom authorities say were assassins for the Sinaloa Cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, suggest the crackdown is having an impact, officials say.
Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, a top anti-narcotics official in the federal attorney general's office, told Mexican interviewers that he had been the target of at least two assassination attempts in the past month.
"They plan to generate violence to force a retreat by authorities," Genaro Garcia Luna, Calderon's secretary of public security and one of Mexico's top cops, said last week.
But, Garcia vowed, "There will be no retreat. We are not going to take a step back. The fight against crime is going to to be permanent, systematic."
Departure from the norm
If both sustained and successful, such resolve may well mark a dramatic departure from the norm in Mexico's decades-long dance with its criminal empires.
Since the country became a major transshipment point for South American cocaine headed for U.S. consumers in the 1980s, Mexico's politicians and security forces tended to treat the crime of drug trafficking as a nuisance — and too frequently as a source of illicit gain.
Over the years, some gangsters, including cartel bosses, were jailed or killed, and some police officers and soldiers were also slain on anti-narcotics operations.
But the leaders of the cartels rarely targeted senior officials or challenged the state — as they did in Colombia — because high-level government officials never really presented much of a threat to their smuggling business.
The old style might have been best defined in the 1990s when Mexico's drug czar, an army general praised by U.S. agents for his crackdown on Mexico's leading trafficking gang, was convicted of working for a rival group.
But if that were once the way of things, some American and Mexican officials insist it's not anymore. Since taking office 13 months ago, Calderon has made the crackdown on drug cartels the anchor of his administration.
"Our intention is to make it so complicated for them to come through Mexico that they will seek to smuggle through somewhere else," a senior Mexican official said, speaking on condition he not be identified.
U.S. partnership
More than 40 tons of cocaine have been seized since the crackdown began in December 2006. Top crime bosses have been extradited to face U.S. courts.
Soldiers and police have battled cartel gunmen on the streets of border cities. Intelligence-gathering has been enhanced, and more importantly, acted on.
"People who have come here, who have talked to the Mexican government, who have engaged, really see a distinction here, a real expression of political will," said David Johnson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for narcotics and law enforcement, who was in Mexico City last week for talks with Mexican officials.
Johnson is helping shepherd the Bush administration's proposal to give Calderon's government $1.4 billion worth of law enforcement technology and training in the coming years to aid in the fight.
The plan faces concerns in the U.S. Congress, which is expected to vote on it by this summer.
"We think it's appropriate that America be a partner to try to work with the (Calderon) administration, to try to push this process forward," Johnson said.
Daunting challenge
Mexican security forces and senior officials "must be capable of confronting all the costs, all the risks ... including in lives offered to achieve the Mexico we desire," Calderon said Friday in an offhand comment to the Mexico City newspaper El Universal.
But even with such unwavering will, and with the proposed U.S. aid, the challenge facing Calderon seems daunting.
With annual earnings estimated at $10 billion, Mexico's drug gangs are deeply embedded in the country's economy. That's especially true along the key cocaine smuggling routes and in areas where marijuana and heroin poppies are grown and where crystal methamphetamine is manufactured.
Cartels have upper hand
Drug gangsters control complete towns and wield influence in wide swaths of entire states. Some local and state police forces, despite periodic purges of personnel, effectively remain in the gangs' employ.
Supplied with weapons smuggled from the United States and elsewhere, the cartel's foot soldiers are often better armed than the security forces.
Although leading traffickers like Guzman make the headlines, scores, even hundreds of smuggling gangs operated across the country. With such a lucrative return, gang bosses who are jailed or killed are quickly replaced by their ambitious lieutenants.
Mexico's smugglers grew more powerful and wealthy this decade as Colombia's cartels splintered into smaller organizations under the weight of that country's anti-narcotics efforts.
'Superior' capabilities
At the same time, the fall of Mexico's one-party government at the ballot box, accompanied by the growing political power of state and local governments, made it easier for gangsters to gain more political influence here, said John Bailey, a Mexico expert at Georgetown University.
"Decentralization and inter-party competition complicates this whole thing," Bailey said. "The state and local fellows don't have the firepower or intelligence network to take on these guys. "
Still, Calderon's senior officials insist they'll prevail.
"The great challenge in this effort is to prevent them from taking root," Garcia, the public security minister, said.
"Their logic of trying to generate violence to intimidate authorities is not going to work," he said. "The capabilities of the Mexican government are superior."

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Guess who really owns The Town of South Padre Island. . .

The US 90% myth: Where Mexico’s drug gangs really get theirÂ*guns
April 3, 2009 @ 10:06 am › Stefan Fobes
↓ Leave a comment
The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.

While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of the total number of guns reaching Mexico.

4.2.09 / William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott / FOX News

EXCLUSIVE: You’ve heard this shocking “factâ€