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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Cartels Trying to Move Operations to U.S.

By the numbers:
“Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw has testified to the fact that over the last 18 months, six of seven cartels have established command and control facilities in Texas cities that rival even the most sophisticated battalion or brigade level combat headquarters. Texas has suffered 22 murders, 24 assaults, 15 shootings and five kidnappings related to the cartels.”
Source: “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment.”

The Brownsville Herald
While a special report commends Texas for the military-type campaign it has been waging against Mexican narco-terrorists, it also points to a lesson already learned: The state faces a lethal, elusive, creative, ruthless, well-armed and superbly financed enemy who is trying to learn and adapt at a faster pace than its American enemy.

The report also warns of the drug cartels’ intent to move operations into Texas border cities.

Titled “Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment,” the report says the success of Texas’ effort depends on the ability of state, local and federal agencies to work together to expand their war against intrusion by the Mexican cartels.

“The bottom line, however, is that while today Texas is the frontline in this escalating war, the potential consequences of success or failure will affect our entire nation,” the report states.

The report, unveiled this week, results from the Texas Legislature’s call to the Texas Department of Agriculture to assess the impact of illegal activity along the border on landowners and the agriculture industry.
TDA joined with the Texas Department of Public Safety and commissioned retired four-star Army General Barry McCaffrey and retired Army Major-General Robert Scales to conduct the assessment.

McCaffrey is the former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and former commander of all U.S. troops in Central and South America. Scales is the former commandant of the United States Army War College.

TDA Commissioner Todd Staples said the report offers a military perspective on incorporating the three levels of warfare — strategic, operational and tactical — to secure the border along the Rio Grande.
“It also provides sobering evidence of cartel criminals gaining ground on Texas soil,” Staples.

The report notes that Texas has become increasingly threatened by the spread of cartel-organized crime.

“The threat reflects a change in the strategic intent of the cartels to move their operations into the United States.

“In effect, the cartels seek to create a ‘sanitary zone’ inside the Texas border – one county deep – that will provide sanctuary from Mexican law enforcement and, at the same time, enable the cartels to transform Texas’ border counties into narcotics transshipment points for continued transport and distribution into the continental United States,” the report states.

Not only are drug cartels in Mexico warring for control of lucrative drug-smuggling corridors known as plazas, they also are fighting for drug-distribution networks in the United States, the study found.

“In a curious twist of irony, the more successful the Mexican military becomes in confronting the cartels, the greater likelihood that cartels will take the active fight into Texas as they compete against each other in the battle to control distribution territories and corridors,” the report states.

The report also points to the reluctance of federal authorities to admit to the increasing cross-border campaign by narco-terrorists.

“Until lately, denial has been facilitated by a dearth of evidence that an organized and substantial campaign exists inside Texas,” the report states.
The report notes that accounts of violence compiled by federal agencies, congressional testimony and Texas Department of Agriculture underscore the “daily activity and constant threat of a larger presence of narco-terrorists than previously thought.”

The report notes that the Department of Homeland Security does not attribute many narco-crimes to the cartels and farmers and ranchers do not report many cross-border crimes due to fear of retribution from cartels.
“Living and conducting business in a Texas border county is tantamount to living in a war zone in which civil authorities, law enforcement agencies as well as citizens are under attack around the clock,” the report found.

“The Rio Grande River offers little solace to the echoes of gunshots and explosions, news of shootings, murders, kidnappings, beheadings, mass graves and other acts of violence coming across the border go far beyond any definition of ‘spillover violence’,” the report states.

The report notes that America’s fight against narco-terrorism, when viewed at the strategic level, “takes on the classic trappings of a real war.”
“Crime, gangs and terrorism have converged in such a way that they form a collective threat to the national security of the United States,” the report states.

The study notes that among the four U.S. states that border Mexico — Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas — “Texas has become critical terrain and operational ground zero in the cartels’ effort to expand into the United States.”

13 comments:

  1. Command centers that rival battalion and brigade level combat headquarters? That kind of word from two generals is not good news. I think its time for the CIA and NSA to step up. The assessment can at least give states good reason to ask for more National Guard on the border.

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  2. While I do not dispute that the cartels are looking to establish a foothold on the US side of the border, the statement, “Living and conducting business in a Texas border county is tantamount to living in a war zone in which civil authorities, law enforcement agencies as well as citizens are under attack around the clock,” is simply wrong and pretty much political sensationalism.... These reports are pushing a message Rick Perry is trying to sell the American public. If the governor cared so much about border security, why is it just now when he has national political aspirations that he has decided to address it when he has been in office for over 10 years. I work on the border and sometimes am mere feet from the river and other than a heightened federal LE presence have never encountered any "spillover". In the last year there have been exactly 2 incidents of violence in the Valley directly attributable to cartel activity. This of course not counting crimes such as home invasions and other drug-related incidents that are perpetrated by U.S. based traffickers and/or street level dealers.

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  3. This is gonna get out of hand fast in America. Hope they do something quickly there before the cartels spread too far.

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  4. A while back the Zetas came across the border here where I live and cleaned house. Entire families where gone almost overnight. Everyone from the little kids to the grandparents. Raids were conducted on certain houses in town where kidnapping kits were found ready for the next hit. If all of the cross border violence was released to the public it would be a real eye opener.

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  5. Living in Texas near the border, I believe Texas should continue to increase it's resources dedicated to investigating "criminal organization" crimes. However, I also agree with the last post that these reports are political dramatization that are being sold to the public. Also, National Guard on the border is a joke. Their mission and role is in need of a drastic makeover.

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  6. Another reason why the new laws being passed to gut santuary cities needs to be applied to every state in the US. Lock the border down and put a rotating series of patrols by active duty military units authorized to repel anyone from entering the country. When confronted with armed and hostile traffickers, kill them without remorse.

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  7. While I don't dispute there has been drug cartel "spill over" into Texas, I dispute the level of "spill over" being reported here! C'mon people Mexican Drug Cartels have existed since the 70's and 80's more or less..Calderon's drug war has been raging on since 2006..if DTO's were going to penetrate the US (operation purposes) it would have happened already..having said that..there is no way in hell that any DTO is going to try and setup shop or expand operations in the US simply because the law enforcement factor is to risky. Yea we have corruption here in American law enforcement but not on the scale as Mexico. Plus, the penalties for getting caught and the punishment here in the US is not an attractive proposition. Those stats in the opening paragraph "22 murders, 24 assaults, etc.." is a joke as compared to let say the greater Los Angeles area over the same 18months period! Bottom line..what's happening in Mexico is not going to happen in the US and for the sake of argument, even if it did..the drug war violence could not thrive or even be sustainable here the US because the American public would not tolerate it! Period!! Think about it Americans go nuts, when a baby gets trapped in a water well or when a mother disappears or fucking American hikers get arrested in Iran..lol Can you imagine the outcry, if headless bodies or just the heads were found in busy American streets!

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  8. Barrey Mcaffery is a fucking idiot who should have lost his job as the head of the "War on Drugs" a very long time ago. When your getting 4 billion dollars a year to 'fight' a war, why win it? Every decent documentary on drugs has an interview with him, and he sits and preaches the evils of pot. Why we waste even a second fighting a plant is beyond me, when meth a coke devistate everyone it touches! Including the environment! Instead of trying a new approach, these old farts keep doing the same old shitty tactics that Reagan's people tried, AND IT DOESN"T WORK!!! The only people who the drug war are hurting is the ones who use, who are supposed to be the 'victims'. The agencies and the criminals make hundreds of billions of dollars, and the high school kid with a joint has his life ruined over a plant that grows all by itself. All the while, ol' Barrey sits on his stiff ass drinking his drug of choice while he watches the Sean Hannity show thinking he did some good for the day.

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  9. National Guard Troops on the border is not going to help, maybe they witness something and call it in, but they are not capable of really doing anything to stop any situation.

    Unfortunately, it is going to take more actual law enforcement officers toting bigger guns that have the power and authority to arrest and shoot back, along with the ability to conduct counter-cartel, and counter-intelligence operations away from the border to prevent the proliferation of these organization in Texas and other border states. The State and Federal Gov. need to work in tandem to tighten up on cartel communications in the US and Texas as well as work harder to take their money away from them.

    We need to start considering the fact that Mexico is virtually a narco state and civil war is around the corner for Mexico and that is not in our best interests. We realize Mexico is powerless to stop any of these cartels.

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  10. If anything, this report has actually been sugar-coated. It is far more gruesome and violent than what this article reports. I get to hear a lot that is not divulged to the public because my best friend works for DPS. In all honesty, I really wish I didn't hear all that my friend tells me. It's sickening what these Cartels are doing in our own country. We MUST show these cartels that this is our country and we will not stand for the violence. Unfortunately, as long as there is a demand for the drugs, they will operate and the violence will continue.

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  11. cool people hanging off highway 59 overpasses

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  12. Does this mean the price of coke will go down

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  13. The problem is not really weed......the problem is armed groups that cross the Arizona Sonora border with impunity. The problem is untold tons of meth or pre-meth ingredients that come in to the port of Manzanillo.....the problem is cartels that threaten farmers in Hidalgo and Cameron counties...and who will answer for the murder of the american waterskier at Falcon Lake who was assasinated in cold blood?? These guys are a monumental threat to U.S. national security and anyone who does not get this ill informed.....These cartels only understand an ass whooping.....and if a republican like Perry gets in there it may happen.

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