So Close to the United States, Part 1

Actually, I have not felt terribly motivated to blog in recent months, as you may perceive from how few posts have been written. However, as I was surfing through Facebook this weekend, I noticed people posting links about the Texas Highway Patrol, a division of the Department of Public Safety, and its new armored patrol boats operating in the Rio Grande.

I find it interesting how people complain nothing is being done to stem the tide of illegal immigration and general lawlessness along our southern border, yet, people then complain when some government agency actually tries do to something about it, misconstruing what is being done.

Perhaps it is time to do another post here at the blog.

First, I would like to review some previous material, with a focus on a series dealing with issues just south of the border.

In So Far from God, Part 1 we saw how President Calderón's escalation in the war on drugs helped fuel a dramatic increase in violence and instability in Mexico, so much so that surrender of Ciudad Juarez to the cartels was beginning to become somewhat politically palatable. If it went that route, I wondered where things would end.

In So Far from God, Part 2, we considered what actually gets smuggled - narcotics, weapons, and other merchandise, including people - and saw how Ciudad Juarez connects to El Paso which, in turn, connects to the major trafficking routes in Texas. We also saw how the cartels are using military grade weapons, and this caused us to question common reports that 90 percent of the weapons used in Mexico come from gun sales in the United States: how can this be so, when the weapons being used - automatic weapons, crew-served weapons, grenades, grenade launchers, and other military-grade weapons - are not being sold in gun shops and guns shows north of the border? Also, we saw how, with the cartels now armed almost as heavily as the Mexican military, President Calderón had begun to explain the unrest in Mexico as a battle for the government of Mexico to exert control over sovereign Mexican territory - which, by the way, is one way to describe a civil war. In the comments, we clarified the origin of the "90%" figure.

In So Far from God, Part 3, we saw how foreign sources account for the military-grade weapons, as well as outright theft from the Mexican government of weapons sold by the US government. We also saw how these foreign suppliers are even providing radars and submarines to the cartels; there's no way the Obama Administration can blame these items on gun shops along the border! More significantly, though, is that Islamic terrorist groups have helped supervise the training of cartel gunmen in special camps near the US border.

With So Far from God, Part 4 we began to see how Africa is increasingly becoming a transit area for South American cocaine destined for Europe and beyond, and we also saw how there was a westward flow of precursor chemicals for methamphetamines, as well as other suspicious cargo. This is significant, considering how we developed in other posts the concept of the Saharan and Sahelian regions of North Africa as a crossroads for smuggling all kinds of goods as well as for the interactions of various Islamic terrorist groups going as far east as the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa.

We pause in our review of past posts to introduce some new information not previously covered at this blog and to examine information that has been presented from a new perspective.

One key aspect to what we learned in Part 4 - though not developed as a concept in the post, but rather seen in a new light now - is that the Mexican cartels have come to have significant influence in Africa, with ties going all the way to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Whether this grew out of a desire to grow their business, or out of necessity due to increased pressure by government forces in Mexico, is not important; the fact is, Mexican cartels are tied in with the trafficking of arms, drugs and Islamic terrorism that occurs across the Saharan/Sahelian region of Africa.

This is interesting.

If cocaine is going one way, and arms and expertise to fight against government forces are coming the other way, that means Islamic terrorist organizations have bases and allies, not just in this hemisphere, but immediately along our southern border.

This is not a theoretical threat. We have extensive evidence that we are actually being infiltrated by Islamic terrorists across our southern border. Here are excerpts from A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border, a House committee report not specifically dated but apparently finalized in late 2006:

Items have been found by law enforcement officials along the banks of the Rio Grande River and inland that indicate possible ties to a terrorist organization or member of military units of Mexico.¹⁰⁶ A jacket with patches from countries where al Qa'ida is known to operate was found in Jim Hogg County, Texas by the Border Patrol. The patches on the jacket show an Arabic military badge with one depicting an airplane flying over a building and heading towards a tower, and another showing an image of a lion's head with wings and a parachute emanating from the animal. The bottom of one patch read "martyr," "way to eternal life" or "way to immortality."¹⁰⁷

[snip]

Members of Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization, have already entered to the United States across our Southwest border. On March 1, 2005, Mahmoud Youssef Kourani pleaded guilty to providing material support to Hezbollah.¹¹¹ Kourani is an illegal alien who had been smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border after bribing a Mexican consular official in Beirut for a visa to travel to Mexico. Kourani and a Middle Eastern traveling partner then paid coyotes in Mexico to guide them into the United States. Kourani established residence among the Lebanese expatriate community in Dearborn, Michigan and began soliciting funds for Hezbollah terrorists back home in Lebanon. He is the brother of the Hezbollah chief of military operations in southern Lebanon.

In December 2002, Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a café owner in Tijuana, Mexico, was arrested for illegally smuggling more than two hundred Lebanese illegally into the United States, including several believed to have terrorist ties to Hezbollah.¹¹² Just last month Robert L. Boatwright, Assistant Chief Patrol Agent of the El Paso Texas Sector, reported, "We have apprehended people from countries that support terrorism... they were thoroughly debriefed and there was a tremendous amount of information collected from them."¹¹³

Statements made by high-ranking Mexican officials prior to and following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks indicate that one or more Islamic terrorist organizations has sought to establish a presence in Mexico. In May 2001, former Mexican National security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, reported, that "Spanish and Islamic terrorist groups are using Mexico as a refuge."¹¹⁴

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller has confirmed in testimony "that there are individuals from countries with known al-Qa'ida connections who are changing their Islamic surnames to Hispanic-sounding names and obtaining false Hispanic identities, learning to speak Spanish and pretending to be Hispanic immigrants."¹¹⁵

These examples highlight the dangerous intersection between traditional transnational criminal activities, such as human and drug smuggling, and more ominous threats to national security. Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez summed it up this way: "I dare to say that at any given time, daytime or nighttime, one can get on a boat and traverse back and forth between Texas and Mexico and not get caught. If smugglers can bring in tons of marijuana and cocaine at one time and can smuggle 20 to 30 persons at one time, one can just imagine how easy it would be to bring in 2 to 3 terrorists or their weapons of mass destruction across the river and not be detected. Chances of apprehension are very slim."¹¹⁶

So, before this series continues - even before we finish our review of the previous series - I would like to address the matter that sparked my desire to start writing again at the blog: the advent of heavily armed patrol boats in the Rio Grande River, manned by Texas State Police. Actually, this is old news - from a little more than a year ago - but it is now really making the rounds on Facebook.

From Heavily-armed Texas gunboats now patrol Rio Grande, June 28, 2012:

"Typically, the boats operating in the Rio Grande River are operating with six M-240, 30-caliber automatic machine guns," explains Lt. Charley Goble, the DPS officer in command of the newly deployed force of gunboats on the Rio Grande.

Texas now has a small navy of gunboats patrolling the Rio Grande and the Intercoastal Waterway.　 Right now, the DPS has four of the 34-foot shallow water vessels, but the fleet will soon grow to six.　 Each of the boats, equipped with armor-plating, night vision equipment and a small arsenal of weaponry, costs about $580,000 in state and federal funds.

Troopers patrolling the border say the expense is justified, considering the ruthless nature of their adversaries in the Mexican drug cartels. What they fear, more than anything else, is the prospect of an ambush.

An ambush may seem particularly threatening, considering what we know, not covered in the article, about the presence of terrorists infiltrating the border and training cartel gunmen along the border. These terrorists have developed their skills ambushing US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. They downed our Blackhawk helicopter in Somalia - "Blackhawk Down" - using techniques they had developed fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. These guys have decades of corporate experience successfully ambushing superior forces.

And now they're here.

:)

From "Texas Navy" fights drug traffickers' escapes on the Rio Grande, June 25, 2012:

Video from Texas State Police shows officers chasing a pick-up truck, its bed loaded down with drugs destined for sale in the United States.

The drug runners, once cornered, race back to the border to escape capture.

"They do not care who they run over," said Lt. Charlie Goble, who patrols the Rio Grande Valley. "They do not care how many felonies they commit while they're doing so, their goal is to get away from law enforcement."

The cartels' latest escape technique is something called a "splashdown."

"They just splash their vehicle right into the river," Goble said. "We have seen them jump off 30-foot cliffs into the river."

After the drug runners abandon their vehicles in the river, other cartel members in boats rush in to save their bales of drugs, and whisk them back to the Mexican side of the river, determined to get the drugs back to Mexico.

"The cartels that are controlling these situations -- they're very ruthless," Goble said. "Their life literally depends on them either getting the load to where it's going, or safely getting it back."

Police say the drug traffickers have made these splashdown getaways at least 65 times in the past three years. Texas police don't have the boats they need to stop them -- and the drug runners know it.

"They know once they get back into the water, they're safe," Goble. Said. "All they gotta do is swim home."

The Texas-style solution? Launching its own mini-navy. Six boats, each equipped with multiple machine guns, will soon be patrolling a 54-mile stretch of the Rio Grande.

From Have You Seen the Bulletproof Texas Gunboats Equipped With Automatic Machine Guns That Will Battle Drug Cartels on the Water?, July 4, 2012:

Maj. Bob Bailey of the Texas Highway Patrol’s Special Ops Division told Fox News the boats would be another tool for law enforcement on top of ground units, helicopters and various weapons being used to battle the ruthless cartels who seem to always find a way to get their product into the United States. He says the cartels have access to “unlimited” funds and firepower.

Trafficking cocaine is extremely lucrative, and we have already seen how the cartels are getting firepower far beyond what is available in a local gun show on this side of the border - contrary to the lies the Obama Administration spread regarding this situation.

All in all, I think Texas authorities would be irresponsible, foolish and derelict in their duties if they were not doing something like this; I applaud the Texas government for deploying its heavily-armed patrol boats, I hope they will be safe and effective, and I would further add that if Obama were on the right side of this issue, federal vessels would also be patroling this international waterway.

More to follow as this series continues.

Take A Long Holiday, Part 2

I hope you are familiar with Part 1 and with other things I have written at this blog, because this topic is headed in your direction.

To establish some background, we begin with a passage from Cocaine, kidnapping and the al-Qaeda cash squeeze, from March 6, 2010:

The three al-Qaeda agents assured the Colombians that they would have no problem moving their shipment of European-bound cocaine through the Islamist badlands of the Sahara.

As supporters of the terrorist organisation's North African branch, they would guarantee shipment of the drugs through territory they controlled - so long as they were paid fee of $2,000 per kilo.

The trio, all from the impoverished desert nation of Mali, thought they were setting up a deal with representatives of Colombia's Marxist FARC guerrillas to smuggle up to 1,000 kgs of cocaine.

In fact, they were speaking to informants for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who secretly taped the meeting in Ghana in a sting operation in December.

[snip]

Every business needs cash flow, and Islamic terror is no exception. Across the world, al-Qaeda is turning to drug smuggling and sharply stepping up kidnapping and extortion to plug the gap in its finances caused by a fierce international crackdown on its original sources of cash. The trend raises the prospect of new floods of illegal drugs entering the West, and a sharply increased risk to Western tourists and businesspeople as they travel outside Europe.

When the terror group first began its activities more than a decade ago, it did not need to resort to criminal activities of a kind which might offend the strict Koranic principles proclaimed by its founder, Osama bin Laden. Deep-pocketed donors, in countries like Saudi Arabia, and Islamic charities throughout the Middle East channelled the cash needed to bankroll bin Laden's drive to create an Islamic caliphate across the region.

There has been a nexus between terrorism and organized crime for decades. These guys run in the same circles, and ever since the Cold War began to die down, terrorists began to look to drug trafficking as a source of money. Credible evidence suggests Al Qaeda and its predecessors were getting a significant amount of funding from trafficking Afghan heroin going all the way back to the 1980's jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden's group had previously been able to rely on wheeler-dealers like Abdul al Hamid al Mujil, known in jihadist circles as "the million dollar man" for his ability to solicit donations to the cause of holy war.

The 60-year-old Saudi was a regular visitor to Afghanistan during the 1990s and on friendly terms with bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, as he channelled funds from Arab states to al-Qaeda.

But in August 2006, al Mujil and the Philippine and Indonesian branches of the International Islamic Relief Organisation, which he headed, were designated by the US treasury as financiers of terrorism.

Western firms were prohibited from doing business with him, UN member states froze his assets and Saudi Arabia restricted the outflow of funds from the charity.

Deprived of his largesse, groups such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (the Arabic name for North Africa) are turning increasingly to international crime to provide their cash flow. And for bin Laden, that represents a dilemma.

At first he did not want al-Qaeda to dirty its hands with the drugs trade. But he apparently was won round by a combination of fiscal necessity and the argument, as often voiced on jihadist websites, that the drugs trade weakens Western "infidels" by feeding their sinful addictions.

Kidnapping of Western tourists to the Sahara has also become a lucrative money-spinner for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Its members also traffic everything from arms to cigarettes to people.

And, AQIM is connected to Nigeria's Boko Haram which, in turn, just got people back from training with Al Shabaab in Somalia, as mentioned in Unity and Faith, Part 4. There we also considered Iranian trafficking of arms and heroin through Nigeria. And, in Hazy Shade of Winter, Part 3, we considered evidence of and rationale for Shi'ite Iran's support of Sunni extremist groups.

If you think about it, it all kind of comes together.

We now consider excerpts from South American drug gangs funding al-Qaeda terrorists, December 29, 2010:

Islamic rebels familiar with the barren terrain of the Sahara have struck deals under which they provide armed security escorts for drug traffickers in return for a slice of their profits.

Counter-terrorism experts said that the terrorists belong to the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group, which has kidnapped a series of Westerners and killed a British tourist last year.

They warned that the money they receive from drugs gangs could be used to attract new recruits and plan terrorist attacks on European cities.

Olivier Guitta, a counter-terrorism and foreign affairs consultant, said that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Marxist rebel group, was the "force behind the agreement with AQIM".

In the past drugs were flown or shipped from South America straight to Spain or Portugal but the introduction of more rigorous controls in those countries led FARC to change its way of operating.

"Since the routes going through Europe became much more difficult to use, FARC saw an opportunity to use the Sahel and North Africa as its new drug route," said Mr Guitta.

"And since AQIM has a hold over the area and was already involved in major smuggling operations it made sense to offer them a deal.

"AQIM is an independent unit of al-Qaeda and does not share the monies with al-Qaeda central but is looking to pull off terror attacks on its own in Europe."

I have been warning about this for some time.

In Côte d'Ivoire, the legitimate government of President Gbagbo was overthrown, and French-backed strongman (and friend of Sarkozy) Ouattara was installed with French military force under UN auspices. In Libya, Gaddafi's regime is being destabilized, with the intent to overthrow it.

There are many factors in play. One of them is to open up a way for South American cocaine to enter Africa via Côte d'Ivoire; another is to open up Libya as a staging ground to move cocaine into Europe's soft underbelly, possibly to open up connections with long-established transnational criminal cartels based nearby in the Balkans and Turkey - important players and key connections in trafficking Afghan heroin.

These newly-opened routes will provide redundancy against interdiction, offering options against those routes currently in use to move cocaine from South America to Europe.

But, a major focus of this series is what is happening on this side of the Atlantic, so let's continue:

Terrorists linked to al-Qaeda in north Africa have made $130m (£84m) from helping drugs gangs and kidnap ransoms since 2007, according to one report citing an investigation by the Algerian government.

[snip]

Algeria's paramilitary police have reported dozens of clashes with AQIM rebels carrying Kalashnikovs and providing armed escorts for drug smugglers since 2008.

[snip]

Counter-terrorism officials in Europe and the United States fear that the Sahara is fast becoming a safe haven for the activities of Islamic terrorists, along the lines of Somalia and Yemen.

May I suggest you also review Standing There on Freedom's Shore, Part 1 and Standing There on Freedom's Shore, Part 2 for further background on what is happening in and around the Sahara/Sahel region?

But Mr Guitta said attempts by Europe, the US and some north African states such as Morocco to tackle the growing links between terrorism and drug trafficking are hampered by the attitudes of other governments.

"In South America, only Colombia really helps. In Africa, most other countries do not co-operate very much and a few allegedly actually profit from the drug trafficking," he said.

Once you've made the connection to Columbia and its fight against the FARC, connections to Venezuela's strongman Chavez jump out at you.

But, it doesn't end there.

Here is Mexican Groups Team Up With Islamic Terrorists, from July 16, 2008, in its entirety (see the original for a link which I did not reproduce):

The same Mexican drug cartels that violently smuggle their goods through the United States' porous southern border are buying arms from radical Islamic terrorists and teaming up with them to distribute narcotics in Europe and the Middle East.

An alarming U.S. government intelligence report reveals this dangerous relationship, lending credibility to what advocates of immigration enforcement—including a barrier along the southern border—have said for years: National security is at risk. The southern border is not utilized only by desperate, hard-working people in search of the American dream.

Published by the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), the report identifies terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestine Liberation Front and the Palestine Liberation Organization as Arab associates of Mexican drug-trafficking cartels. All are officially designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. Department of State.

The Islamic terrorist groups have trafficked large amounts of heroin and cocaine in Europe and the Middle East sold to them by Mexican drug cartels as well as similar enterprises in South America. In turn, the terrorist groups have established multi million-dollar contracts in order to sell weapons to Mexican drug traffickers that are commercialized by providers in Yemen, Kuwait and Syria.

The investigation was conducted by the three U.S. government agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), probing Islamic groups operating on the common border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. It revealed that these groups launder money, sell arms and traffic drugs of the same Mexican criminal organizations that operate within a stone's throw of the United States.

And this brings us full circle: Islamic terrorist groups are based and operating literally a stone's throw from the United States, receiving their funding from trafficking drugs in this hemisphere.

And the reason we can't have honest investigations of this is because the investigations would connect the terrorists to the drug traffickers, and the drug traffickers to corrupt officials in Washington. That's why there is no effective policy to control the flow of drugs and terrorists into the US along the border with Mexico: the drug traffickers are paying Washington officials for ineffective control of the border, so they can move their drugs to a very lucrative North American market.

The only good news is that now Europe is becoming the destination-of-choice for South American cocaine. :)

This One Before, Part 2

From Sharing Mexico's drug-war burden, March 3, 2011; as you watch this vid, take a good look at the weapons shown towards the end, weapons that are supposedly being bought in gun shops in the US and smuggled across the border - the vid shows submachineguns and heavy-caliber crew-served weapons:

Criminals get firearms and other weapons the same way they get drugs; they get them illegally.

Many of these military-grade weapons are stolen from the Mexican government itself, taken by security personnel who desert to join the higher-paying cartels, taking their weapons with them as they leave government service. Others are trafficked in from around the world.

Yes, some weapons are brought across the border from the US.

When they come up with a statistic of over 90%, saying that this percentage is the percentage of weapons coming across the border from legal gun sales in the US, that statistic is misleading.

Mexican authorities know that bazookas, grenade launchers and heavy machineguns didn't come from a gun shop in the US; they only submit a fraction of the weapons they seize to US authorities for tracing. About half of those submitted can actually be traced. Of those that are successfully traced, the vast majority can be traced to some kind of gun purchase in the US, although often times, the law was broken, perhaps by a purchaser misrepresenting himself when buying the weapon.

Does President Calderón not know this? Or, is this empty posturing, the kind that scores points among a Mexican populace?

From Mexican Government Completes PR Investigation of U.S. Agent's Murder, February 27, 2011:

The arrest of the supposed Zeta thugs by the Mexican Army, announced on Feb. 23, about a week after the assault on the U.S. agents, seems quite convenient, given the extreme media-generated pressure on both the Mexican and U.S. governments to solve the case. The swiftness of the arrests, particularly given the extensive narco-corruption in Mexico (and the fact that the autopsy on the murdered ICE agent was performed in Mexico, reportedly against he wishes of the U.S. government), has led some law enforcement sources who have spoken to Narco News, and to other media, to question whether those arrested are merely media scapegoats.

Skipping down:

And the two ICE agents on the day they were attacked were driving into the belly of that beast, in a U.S. government SUV, with diplomatic plates, and using Nextel wireless phones, according to ICE sources, that at one point during the attack failed to operate properly. Yes, that's right, the latest information coming to Narco News from law enforcement sources is that the ICE agents' phones were "off line" during the initial stages of the attack, and that a call for help did not get out until after the agents had been shot.

Now, the explanation for such a phone failure could be as simple as a dead spot in cell coverage.

Sources familiar with the situation in Mexico contend it is possible, though, that the Zetas, given their corrupt reach, have access to sophisticated communications blocking technology of the sort typically associated with sensitive military operations and may well have used such a device in the attack on the ICE agents.

"Counter RF [radio frequency] containment measures could have been employed," one source explains. "Devices could have been employed that would have prevented the cellular phone communications links in that vehicle from emitting a signal that could be properly received at the intended location."

If that turns out to be true, it would represent even more evidence that the assault was far from a mistake, but rather a high-level, coordinated effort designed specifically to target U.S. government agents.

It sounds like the hitmen had communications-jammers with them, and engaged the jammers during the attack. The jamming ended as the overt hit team withdrew. According to one report:

The attackers suddenly departed, leaving Avila alone in the SUV, bleeding. A short time later, the source contends, a Mexican cop arrived at the scene and knocked on the window of the SUV, but Avila did not trust the situation, and refused to open the door. The Mexican police officer departed, the source claims, and shortly after an ambulance arrived, presumably called by the cop, but again, Avila refused to get out of the SUV.

Finally, after the ambulance had departed (and after what seems to be an inordinately long time since the initial calls for help) the cavalry arrived — a phalanx of Mexican soldiers and law enforcers. According to the source, at that point, Avila opened the door to the SUV. He was subsequently informed, the source claims, that both the Mexican cop and the ambulance that had stopped at the scene previously likely were ruses designed by his attackers to get him to unlock the door to the SUV so they could finish their job.

This was a well-coordinated attack. In addition to the communications jammers, the hit team had back-ups in the form of a guy dressed like a Mexican cop, and another guy disguised as an ambulance driver.

The intent here was serious: they wanted to finish the job.

Back to Mexican Government Completes PR Investigation of U.S. Agent's Murder:

At least one source in the intelligence world suspects the Zetas were after the payload (communications equipment) that was being transported by the ICE agents from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City to the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey. However, other sources contend U.S. officials, absent sheer incompetence, would never move truly sensitive cargo through the heart of Zeta territory absent adequate security — which would involve more than two unarmed ICE agents driving in broad daylight in a SUV sporting diplomatic plates.

This was a set-up, coordinated by someone among the higher-ups. The purpose was to kill two US agents. Whether it was intended to kill these two US agents, or just whichever two happened to get picked to move this "sensitive cargo" remains to be seen.

The article Mexican Government Completes PR Investigation of U.S. Agent's Murder then goes on to detail information from Wikileaked cables that shows the extent of corruption in Mexico. Some Mexican officials are probably happy to make some extra money on the side, but many officials do so only reluctantly. The option, made clear by the cartels, is that the official will be murdered (probably brutally), and that the murdered official's replacement might take the hint and accept the money to cooperate with the cartels; if not, the cartels will keep murdering officials until they find a replacement that will work with them.

What I find interesting, though, is the response on this side of the border. Whether Bush-43 or Obama, senior federal officials do not want to do what it takes to secure the border.

Those two agents fell victim not just to corruption among Mexican authorities, but to corruption within their own chain of command. The clear message, repeated through various incidents and repeated by various instructions received from the top, is that our law enforcement and security personnel had better not do too good of a job, or they will be hung out to dry - just like what happens in Mexico, where the authorities are unable to protect their own officials who actually seek to honestly enforce the law and resist organized crime.

__________

As John Conyngham, at the time the Global Director of Investigations (he is now Group Legal Counsel) for the Control Risks Group Limited, explained in 2002 testimony before the Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, of the US House of Representatives:

The discussion today about what has become known as grand corruption and, in particular, the recovery of monies illegally obtained by high ranking government ministers and officials in worldwide jurisdictions through the abuse of public position for private gain. As this Subcommittee is aware, grand corruption typically consists of the payments of large bribes - often in millions of dollars - to secure commercial contracts or other business advantage. In its most extreme form grand corruption can amount to state capture where corrupt interests control the state itself and manipulate the machinery of government to serve their private interests.

Later on, in explaining how an investigation is conducted, Conyngham explains:

A simple underlying presumption is made that those who divert state funds will wish to utilise such funds for their own or their family's benefit. As such, there must be linkage, however camouflaged, between the individual and the asset.

Of course, if you broaden the perspecive on this, you can see misappropriation of funds for the benefit, however camouflaged, of the party that has corrupted the government official; in return, you can see some kind of benefit, however camouflaged, received by the corrupted government official from the party that the official is illicitly working for. And then, later on:

A second presumption will also be made; namely that third parties will be utilised in the concealment process.

The context of the above quotes is one of recovering money stolen by some third-world dictator who has been "president" of his country for the past few decades.

But, do the terms "grand corruption" and "state capture" apply when senior US officials work in the interests of the highest bidder, regardless of whether the business interests of that highest bidder are legal or not?

Criminals are in the highest echelons of the US government. And the clear message to honest law enforcement officers is that they do their job at their own peril.

Does this remind you of an honest cop who did his job at his own peril?

Does this remind you of anyone else who tried to do an honest job, and at every move was placed in check?

This One Before, Part 1

We begin with excerpts ICE Agents Shot in Mexico Were Targeted, Ambushed, Law Enforcement Source Claims, from February 15, 2011:

The agents were driving a black SUV with diplomatic plates. After their vehicle was stopped, with the road in front of them and behind them blocked off (a tactic typically employed by professional assassins), several armed men dressed in black approached the agents' SUV.

The men, according to the source, are presumed to be members of Los Zetas — a paramilitary narco-trafficking organization that counts among its leadership former elite members of the Mexican military.

As the armed men walked toward the ICE agents' SUV, they motioned the agent in the driver seat to roll down his window, according to the source, recounting the initial reports from the scene.

"He did a little, and that's when they opened fire," the source reports. "The windows on the SUV are dark, so it is my opinion that they wanted make sure they had the right people."

From an update to the same article, only hours later:

New information has just come in concerning the background and alleged mission of the two ICE agents who were shot in Mexico earlier today.

Additional law enforcement sources have weighed in on the story and contend that the two ICE agents were on what one described as an under-the-radar mission that involved transporting a box containing an unknown payload, though it is suspected that the box contained weapons. The two agents were expecting to meet up with another group of agents to exchange the box, the law enforcers contend.

"So they were either tailed or there's a mole somewhere who tipped them [the Zetas] off to the operation," a law enforcement source told Narco News.

That same source described the box transfer operation as being very unusual and possibly part of some kind of "black op" — meaning it might have dovetailed with an intelligence operation.

The new information also contradicts the original information reported by Narco News in some areas. The law enforcement sources contend that is because a cover story had to be created and it is now starting to intersect with the real story.

For example, the information now coming in, which is from several law enforcement sources, indicates the agents were not involved in any type of training operations, but rather that was a cover for their trip. In addition, in the latest version of events, the agents who were shot were driving north from Mexico City heading toward Monterrey when they were ambushed by the Zetas.

[snip]

The details of the ambush are essentially the same as originally reported. However, the new information coming into Narco News includes a few more details, such as the fact that the windows on the SUV were bullet proof.

"When the agent on the passenger side rolled down his window, the unknown male [the alleged Zeta] pulled a gun and started firing through the crack in the window, hitting the passenger in the chest, and other areas, while the driver was hit in the arm and leg," a law enforcement source says.

It looks to me like these guys were ratted out. Definite intelligence was passed to the assailants, who knew the agents were expecting some kind of rendezvous. The uncertainty whether the roadblock was some kind of coincidence or possibly the rendezvous itself may have been intended to get the agents to put the bullet proof windows down enough to allow the assailants to fire inside the vehicle.

Subsequent reporting can be found in ICE Agent's Murder In Mexico Could Become a Cold Case, February 19, 2011:

Although the details of the attack vary, even at this point, depending on which news outlet you read, Narco News' early reporting on the crime, by any reasonable measure, has stood the test of time — and the barrage of mainstream media reports that have been published since.

That even includes Narco News' revelation, since re-reported by the Associated Press, that the two ICE agents left Mexico City in an armored SUV with diplomatic plates the day of the attack to deliver some unknown equipment to another team of ICE agents from Monterrey — who had arranged to meet Zapata and Avila at a midway point between the two Mexican cities.

A source familiar with the attack has since told Narco News that the cargo being transported by the ICE agents was communications equipment, nothing worth killing over — but possibly just sensitive enough so that it could not be transported via commercial airline. That same source also revealed some important new details about the assault on the agents.

Perhaps the killing was not about the equipment, but more about sending a message.

Or, perhaps the agents were marked for assassination - the transportation of the equipment was just a pretext to get them out where someone could take a shot at them.

Were these two agents specifically targeted, or was the intent merely to kill any two agents?

An autopsy was performed in Mexico on the body of the agent who got killed; there was then discussion of flying the body to Houston for a second autopsy, but Houston authorities refused to do a second autopsy.

"The reason the Houston people probably didn't want to do another autopsy is they are likely afraid the first one was already screwed up in Mexico, and they didn't want to complicate matters [by doing yet another autopsy]," the DEA source said. "There's probably some rounds [bullets] missing [from the body], or at least there's likely no way of knowing [which creates a big chain-of-evidence hurdle for prosecutors in any U.S. criminal case]."

An important point to note is that the Zetas were founded by former military special-forces members, including soldiers from an elite Mexican unit, and they continue to recruit members of the Mexican military, as well as law enforcement, into their ranks. As a result, if any of the bullets used in the attack were to trace back to Mexican soldiers or law enforcers, the political blowback — not to mention conspiracy concerns — from such a link would create shock waves for political leadership on both sides of the border.

One ICE source told Narco News that U.S. government officials had asked Mexican officials for the courtesy of allowing the autopsy to be performed in the U.S. and were quite angry when they discovered that request was simply ignored.

This stinks of a cover-up. Corrupt Mexican authorities are involved, but so are corrupt American authorities at very high levels.

Given that the ICE agent who was killed, Zapata, presumably had diplomatic status in Mexico, then the U.S. government should have had some say on where the autopsy was performed, adds the former DEA agent

"It sounds like the State Department might not have done its job in demanding that the body be turned over to the U.S.," the former DEA agent says.

And so, we can see already signs of a breakdown in the investigation into the murder of ICE agent Zapata, due to a failure of U.S. officials to keep their eye on the ball due to turf wars, political grandstanding and bureaucratic incompetence.

When caught, they will plead guilty to political grandstanding and bureaucratic incompetence - it beats the hell out of pleading guilty to what they are really guilty of.

The keystone cop routine now seemingly playing out on both sides of the border in the aftermath of the ICE agent's murder could well be a byproduct of the Alice-in-Wonderland nature of the drug war, according to another former DEA agent with years of experience doing undercover work, including in Latin America:

Mexico is through the looking glass, and the powers that be on this side of that glass, for very apparent reasons (alas. not apparent to mainstream media) do not want anything to happen that would damage that country's financial stability.

That means cover-up the truth about the depth and extent of the corruption, and above all, do not damage the Mexican drug economy....

If that analysis is correct, it seems rival narco-trafficking organizations may actually do more to solve this murder case than the U.S. or Mexican governments.

Hmmm...

From ATF gun running scheme finally getting scrutinized... Now there is no question that ATF "walked" guns were found at the murder site of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, March 5, 2011 (note the nested link and blockquote):

Imagine you are Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's family ... and at first everyone denied your loved one was not required to use bean bag rounds and that turned out to be a lie.

...And you had no idea that 2 AK 47s found at his murder scene were actually allowed to "walk" into the hands of the killers by the ATF....

Arizona Republic March 5, 2011:

ATF Mexican gun-smuggling sting scrutinized
Agency accused of losing track of guns that wound up with drug cartels
by Dennis Wagner – Mar. 5, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Newly released U.S. records and assertions by a government whistle-blower support allegations that government agents allowed hundreds of firearms to be smuggled across the Arizona border and into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

The records, released by a member of Congress, have prompted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to call for an independent review of a campaign designed to dismantle Mexican crime syndicates that purportedly wound up arming them instead.

The Arizona Republic reported last month that investigators have confirmed that two weapons connected to the ATF operations were found at the scene of a December gunbattle near Rio Rico, Ariz., where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by suspected border bandits.

Records detail deadly Border Patrol shooting in Arizona

The controversy has engulfed Project Gun Runner, an ATF enforcement campaign. This week, the Center for Public Integrity and CBS News interviewed an ATF agent whose revelations about being instructed to let guns pass into Mexico are likely to accelerate a congressional investigation of the scandal.

Justice Department authorities and their counterparts in Mexico have complained for years that cartel violence is fueled in part by a flood of weapons, mostly AK-47s, purchased in the United States and smuggled unlawfully across the border.

Project Gun Runner was created in 2006 to combat that threat in Arizona by identifying and prosecuting firearms traffickers.

Dozens of so-called straw buyers have been arrested, and more than 10,000 guns confiscated. However, the ATF came in for criticism from the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General last year because Project Gun Runner was catching only the straw buyers – small fish in the smuggling business.

Here's what stinks about all this.

As I pointed out in a previous post, the weapons that are being used by increasingly militarized Mexican organized crime cartels are heavy, military-style weapons bought on the international black market, or stolen from the Mexican government itself. The idea that heavy machineguns, rocket launchers, hand grenades and other kinds of similar weapons are being bought in US gunshops and smuggled across the border is absurd.

Of all the weapons captured by Mexican authorities - and those weapons include real military-style heavy weapons - only several thousand are submitted to US authorities for tracing. Of those, a little more than half are traceable. Of those that are traceable, 90% come from the US.

This is actually a small percentage of the total weapons seized, though, and it is the least lethal percentage.

Yet, to counter this, we have a program to trace the flow of weapons across the border.

And, the program actually facilitates the flow of weapons in order to have something to trace; then, a few low-level guys are busted for running guns.

And, US public servants, who carry badges and who try to protect our country, are being sold out, and die in this charade.

As I look into this "Project Gunrunner" scheme, and what is happening along our southern border, I am encountering a fierce army of TiNRATs.

Now, where have I seen...?

I Saw The Sign, Part 1

Wow!

This only happens on the other side of the border, doesn't it?

Well, maybe not...

From Gangs in the Military, May 13, 2010, by Norma Yuriar:

Tulare County, Calif. (KMPH News) — Honor, respect and duty to country – three reasons why many valley soldiers are proud to serve, but some recruits are using war tactics they learn in the combat zone on their enemies here in the central valley. One local soldier speaks to KMPH News about his experience and the day he came face to face with a rival gang member in military base in Germany.

"My rank is Staff Sergeant, active Army — Walter Huerta," before Staff Sgt. Huerta was representing red, white and blue he was claiming, a different shade — the color of a notorious gang in Tulare County.

"My teenage life was basically all gang banging."

The 26–year old grew up in Orosi and spent most of his teenage years on probation, expelled from school for fighting, busted for selling drugs and left his mark all over town as a member of the Norteno Criminal Street Gang.

"It finally came down to the point where – at the time my girlfriend was pregnant – and I ended up over–dosing on Meth. I was rushed to the hospital; it was a wake up call. It took a near death experience for me to make a grown–up decision to join the military and get out of here and so that's what I did," Huerta said.

For the first time in 17–years, Huerta says he felt like he was heading on the right path.

"When I finally finished basic training, I got to my unit in Germany," but even overseas, his former life was staring right back.

"I get there and he looks at me up and down and he tells me, where are you from?"

The young soldier (seventeen at the time) was placed in the same platoon as a rival gang member.

"He told me – hey, I don't like you. I said you can like me or not, but I'm going to be with you for the next three years of our life," Huerta said. "The next thing I know is we are outside and we are fighting, two American soldiers in Germany and we fighting each other."

Although, Huerta was ready to make changes for the better – others gang members were not. Like in the case of 19–year old Andres Raya, an active–duty Marine and suspected gang member. Investigators say Raya used "military–style shooting" to kill a police officer near Modesto in 2005.

Sgt. Howard Stevenson, a 23–year veteran of the Ceres Police Department didn't have a chance.

"In this case, this guy was a killer hiding in a United States Marine Corps Uniform," Retired Ceres Police Officer Sam Ryno said.

Raya was cornered and killed in a firefight with officers. Because of this incident – five years ago — law enforcement agencies across the valley are training their officers to respond to a new kind of threat; gangster with military expertise.

Gangsters with military expertise... isn't that what Mexico is dealing with?

Here's a vid that addresses the incident described above:



Interesting.

An article from the Chicago Sun-Times was posted at PoliceOne.com: Are gang members getting military training?

July 19, 2010
Chicago cop who served in Afghanistan and Iraq has seen a rise in US gang graffiti in the Middle East
by Frank Main

CHICAGO — Being in a street gang is now forbidden for members of the U.S. armed forces. But you might not guess that if you were to visit U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to soldiers who have recently served there.

Jeffrey Stoleson, a Wisconsin corrections official, returned from Iraq in January with photos of gang graffiti on armored vehicles, latrines and buildings. Stoleson, a sergeant with a National Guard unit, was there for nine months to help the Army set up a prison facility outside Baghdad.

"I saw Maniac Latin Disciples graffiti out of Chicago," Stoleson said, adding that there was a lot of graffiti for Texas and California gangs, as well as Mexican drug cartels.

So, while so many of our military personnel are honorably serving their country, there is definitely an element that is taking gang activity into the military, and military training to the streets.

Mexico is moving down the path of civil war, as the national government cannot effectively exercise control over some parts of the country due to the armed resistance by drug cartels.

Part of the reason is that the drug cartels have been recruiting personnel with military experience and training from the Mexican Army.

In the US, some border areas are being lost to incursions by drug-trafficking cartels, and the US is losing de facto control over these places.

When a national government loses control of its territory, it is the job of the military to regain that control.

But, if some members of the military owe their allegiance not to their country, but to a criminal gang that is trying to take over some turf, then does that not limit the effectiveness of the military to regain control over national territory?

From the 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment:

Gang members with military training pose a unique threat to law enforcement personnel because of the distinctive military skills that they possess and their willingness to teach these skills to fellow gang members.

More than that, when facing foreign and domestic enemies on US soil, unit cohesion might be only the first casualty. If our military is called upon to defend US territory against foreign drug cartels and against the allies of those cartels, domestic street gangs, then... who's got the backs of our military?

(Of course, the good news is that it does not look like anyone in Washington is serious about defending US territory against a foreign narcotrafficker invasion, so maybe the question will never come up.)

And, as the US loses control over its territory, and as control over the US military begins to erode, could this not technically be the beginnings of a new American Civil War?

So, the question arises:

But where do you belong?

Impeach Obama, not Judge Bolton

Arizona is literally being overrun by illegal immigrants. Contrary to how this is portrayed by some, these are not just decent people looking for a better way of life. There is a main drug-trafficking corridor from the border well into the heart of Arizona, and in this corridor and along the border, even law enforcement is outgunned and severely threatened; ordinary people are in deep trouble here.

I have extensive links in my sidebar, including a very long list of links to news services from California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; you can learn about the issues along the border from local TV and newspapers in the area by clicking on the links. It is not hard to do your own research and learn more.

I am opposed to the Arizona law for one reason: the federal government should be securing the border, not the state government.

The problem Arizona faces is that the federal government refuses to do its job; given this, how can Arizona officials best protect the citizens of their state? In this situation, the law seems to make sense. I am sure those same officials who passed this law would also want the federal government to do its job, so Arizona wouldn't have to, but given that this is not the case, Arizona's officials are trying to serve the best interests of their state. Arizona's officials have been dealt a bad hand, and are playing it as well as they can.

US District Judge Susan Bolton recently ruled on the Arizona law, and some of the rationale behind the ruling is in Why Judge Susan Bolton blocked key parts of Arizona's SB 1070, dated July 28, 2010, of which we review excerpts:

The judge said the state measure was preempted by federal law because such checks would swamp federal immigration officials who are pursuing different priorities.

"The number of requests that will emanate from Arizona as a result of determining the status of every arrestee is likely to impermissibly burden federal resources and redirect federal agencies away from the priorities they have established," Bolton wrote.

The judge said the same problem would arise under the provision requiring police officers to check the immigration status of suspected illegal immigrants. "Federal resources will be taxed and diverted from federal enforcement priorities as a result of the increase in requests for immigration status determination(s)," she said.

Federal priorities are not what the Constitution says they should be, so maybe this law would be a means of redirecting the federal government so it does its job - not proactively, but reactively in support of a state that has had to step in.

The judge said the provision would also create an impermissible burden on immigrants who are lawfully present in Arizona.

Agreed.

Bolton concluded that there was a likelihood of irreparable harm to the interests of the federal government if certain provisions of SB 1070 took effect.

"The court by no means disregards Arizona's interests in controlling illegal immigration and addressing the concurrent problems with crime, including the trafficking of humans, drugs, guns, and money," Bolton wrote.

"Even though Arizona's interests may be consistent with those of the federal government, it is not in the public interest for Arizona to enforce preempted laws," she said.

Opponents of SB 1070 said the law would lead to illegal racial profiling by state and local law enforcement officials. Supporters countered that the state law was necessary to make up for lax and ineffective border enforcement by the federal government.

That last sentence nails it. The problem is not along Arizona's border, nor anywhere in or even near Arizona - the problem is in Washington.

Our "Constitutional scholar" President not only doesn't DO his Constitutionally-mandated job, I wonder if he even knows (or cares) what the hell his Constitutionally-mandated job IS.

Judge Bolton is not the one to come down on here - like Arizona's officials, Judge Bolton is trying to make sense of a situation that sucks.

If you want someone removed from office, Judge Bolton is not the one to impeach; impeach Obama. He is failing to do his job, which is to see that the laws of the land are faithfully executed, most emphatically including the job of protecting the state of Arizona from an illegal invasion which threatens to destroy not just Arizona, but vast regions of the United States, by allowing US territory to be controlled by hostile foreign powers, namely international drug cartels based in Mexico.

For further information, I suggest Next steps for the Arizona immigration law after court's preliminary decision and Judge Blocks Parts of AZ Law, Battle Not Over, from which I take the following vid:

So Far From God, Part 6

This is why the Obamanistas refuse to effectively deal with the southern border.

From Citizen's group taking border battle into own hands, by Dave Biscobing, updated on June 20, 2010:

PINAL COUNTY, AZ - JT Ready and a group of armed men are taking Arizona's border battle into their own hands this weekend.

"This is the Minutemen project on steroids," he said.

Ready is a member of the Nationalist Socialist Movement, and he and his citizen's militia group are tired of waiting.

"We're going to go all night and shut down the drug corridor that comes directly into Phoenix," Ready said. "We have guys that are going to be doing some covert stuff and we have some snipers coming out."

And, from Heavily-armed citizen militia group plans to patrol smuggling corridor by Teresa Jun and Christopher Francis, updated on June 20, 2010:

PINAL COUNTY, AZ (KOLD) - A group of citizens plans to arm themselves with heavy weaponry and patrol the Vekol Valley area of Pinal County, looking for drug smugglers entering the country. They plan to conduct their patrol operation from 3:00pm Saturday to 3:00pm Sunday.

"We're going to block off the narcoterrorists that come up through this area," said Mesa resident Jason "J.T." Ready, who is organizing the gathering.

Ready says volunteers are coming from all over Arizona, and even out of state, to support the effort.

"This is the Minuteman Project on steroids," Ready explained. "We've got people with assault weapons. We will use lawful, deadly force where appropriate."

You see, by taking a hands-off approach and letting the situation boil, the Obamanistas know that Americans - who are their own leaders - will react.

And, they know someone will overreact.

Skipping down in Citizen's group taking border battle into own hands:

"With calling and writing emails, probably 100 plus a day," said Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

Babeu's county is one of the nation's worst for drug trafficking and human smuggling.

And Patrick Bray with the Arizona Cattlemen's Association said his office has been receiving a lot of calls as well from people asking to help ranchers patrol their land.

"It's been a pretty big response," he said. "We tell them 'Thanks, but no thanks.' This is something for the federal government."

But that's why Ready said his group feels the need to act.

He said the federal government is not doing enough, and that now is the time to act.

"Defending our nation is dangerous," Ready said. "We have some brave patriots that are willing to put their lives on the line."

But Babeu said he's worried about what could happen.

"There's more to this than just going out there with a gun," he said. "People are getting killed out there, and we have drug cartels at war with each other."

And, when the problems occur, the Obamanistas will use the situation to make propaganda. Skipping down in Heavily-armed citizen militia group plans to patrol smuggling corridor:

Ready has ties to extremist groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, including a neo-Nazi group known as the National Socialist Movement. Ready has denied the group is neo-Nazi.

People who are right of where the Obamanistas want them to be will be smeared as extremists and militants. Average Americans who are concerned about the border situation will be compared to neo-Nazis and painted as Timothy McVeighs-in-waiting.

Then, the issue will be leveraged to further infringe on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

Obama is a shrewd politician. He may be relatively inexperienced, but he knows how to manipulate a situation. George Soros and company didn't pick this guy as their front man for nothing.

Not securing the border furthers different goals simultaneously:

1) It facilitates the smuggling of drugs into the country, and the cartels then thank the officials in charge of leaving the door open with illicit payoffs.

2) It de-Americanizes America by allowing non-Americans to flood into the country. The only downside for Obama is that, generally, Latinos integrate well into our society. If only they could be immigrants from certain places in the Middle East or South Asia...

3) The issue can be used to divide up decent Americans who are tired of all the Obamanations, and paint them as violent right-wing extremists; serious "gun control" follows.



Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste:

"You don't ever want a crisis to go to waste; and what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."

So Far From God, Part 5

We now resume this series with a brief overview of the current situation along the US/Mexican border.

First, from southern Arizona, Sheriff's report shows rancher in Douglas called about undocumented immigrant before murder, by Christina Boomer, updated June 19, 2010:

DOUGLAS, AZ - In a heavily-redacted Cochise County Sheriff's Office report, ABC15 has learned that people in the area told investigators they heard Rob Krentz talking to his brother over a two-way radio. One person said Krentz asked his brother to call Border Patrol because he had come "across an illegal alien who was injured and Rob was giving assistance." Another woman told detectives, "Rob sounded normal on the radio and she didn't feel he was in any distress when he was talking." That was the last anyone would hear from Rob Krentz.

Krentz was killed in March; the Krentz case has become a high-profile example of why the situation along the border is so intolerable.

When investigators found Krentz's body his dog "Blue" was nearby. The protective dog was still alive but suffering from a gunshot wound. The report stated that family members asked authorities to euthanize him. Both Krentz and his dog were found near an ATV that was still running. One detective thinks the murder happened more than 1,000 feet away from where they found his body. The detective speculated that Krentz was on the moving ATV with Blue in the back until he lost consciousness and then slumped over beside it. Nearly entire paragraphs, detective narratives, and lists cataloging evidence collection have been blackened out by CCSO.

(BTW, underneath the article is the statement "This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed." Below that is a button to share it, including to Blogger. I claim fair use, in compliance with the intent of the publisher.) So, let's see if we got this right. An illegal was hurt, so this gentleman tried to render assistance, and apparently got ambushed - then, the Cochise County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) essentially pulls a "State Secrets Privilege" (do an internet search if you don't know what that means) to kill the story. This man was obviously a good guy, and he paid for his kindness with his life. I wonder if he didn't walk into a drug-smuggling operation. And, why is CCSO blanking out so much of the report? Speaking of drugs, from Albuquerque: Man nabbed twice for heroin in 3 days, by reporter Ian Schwartz, dated June 18, 2010:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Albuquerque Police Detectives arrested a man this week with more than $30,000 worth of heroin and guns. Benedicto Rios got out, and then police got him again, this time at a place where you would not think people would bring drugs. Detectives first arrested the 24-year-old Tuesday after they said he was peddling heroin from a Motel 6 near Coors and I-40. "He sells the drugs to high school students," said Officer Nadine Hamby of the Albuquerque Police Department. Hamby said Rios has a lengthy arrest history for DWI, domestic violence and narcotics. She said he was main supplier of heroin to his two friends, who admitted to police they sold heroin at Cibola High School.

Heroin to high school students... now what blogger do I know that blogs about heroin? Heroin isn't a major US product. I wonder how it got into the US? You don't suppose across a relatively unprotected border, do you? You know, these guys crossing the border illegally with their illegal drugs are fairly heavily armed. A recent story entitled Continued drug violence has Pinal sheriff renewing call for help by Sergio Avila, updated June 12, 2010, references Deputy shot near Casa Grande by Brian Pryor and Craig Smith, April 30, 2010:

CASA GRANDE, Ariz (KGUN9-TV) A Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy was shot by drug smugglers along Interstate 8 near Casa Grande Friday afternoon leading to a multi agency manhunt for the shooters on the ground and in the air. Lt. Tami Villar with the sheriff's office says that the deputy was shot after investigating a load of marijuana in the desert around 4:30 p.m. Friday. A short time later the deputy transmitted to his dispatcher that he had been shot by illegal immigrants who confronted him with AK-47 rifles. Radio contact with the deputy was lost and dozens of cops from all area law enforcement area rushed to the scene. Several law enforcement helicopters began searching for the shooters and the wounded deputy. According to ABC affiliate KNXV their news helicopter while overhead the scene was told by the police helicopters that the shooters had started to shoot at them. A short time later a Arizona Department of Public Safety located the deputy and evacuated him to waiting emergency crews. Paramedics transported the deputy, identified as 53 year-old Louie Puroll to an area hospital for treatment, the wound is described as a graze-wound above his left kidney and he is expected to fully recover. After 6 p.m. several blackhawk helicopters from Customs & Border Patrol arrived on the scene carrying tactical law enforcement officers who immediately began scouring the desert looking for the shooters. As of 9 p.m. Friday, the shooters were still on the loose in the desert near Arizona 84 and Interstate 8.

I'll bet the guys guarding Obama are more heavily armed than just having 9mm pistols. But, then again, Obama is the elite; he is the one who will sit on Mount Olympus and send good things down to us as he sees fit. We mortals are expected to live under gun control, and even the police upon whom we are supposed to rely to protect us are often barely able to survive, they are so outgunned. You know, in France, Sweden and other places in Europe, there are no-go areas that the police dare not venture into, except briefly and in force. Is the US-Mexican border getting like that? Knowing 1) it's their job to protect it; 2) heroin and other drugs are being trafficked in, and this, in turn, kills Americans and destroys American communities; and 3) innocent Americans, such as ranchers and even police, are getting ambushed and killed as the contraband is moved north into US territory - knowing all this, why would government officials leave that border unprotected?

From U.S. Military has Special Ops "Boots on the Ground" in Mexico, posted by Bill Conroy, June 12, 2010 (please see original for links and further information):

Task Force is Embedded with Mexican Troops, CIA Operative Claims A special operations task force under the command of the Pentagon is currently in place south of the border providing advice and training to the Mexican Army in gathering intelligence, infiltrating and, as needed, taking direct action against narco-trafficking organizations, claims a former CIA asset who has a long history in the covert operations theater. [snip] As evidence of his claims about the U.S. special operations task force operating in Mexico, [former CIA contract pilot William Robert "Tosh"] Plumlee in early April last year provided Narco News with information he said he obtained from that task force detailing the Mexican Army's investigation of a mass grave site located outside of Palomas, Mexico. About a month later, in early May 2009, the first press reports appeared in Mexican newspapers indicating that a mass grave containing at least seven bodies had been discovered at the same site identified by Plumlee. At the time of the unearthing of the Palomas mass grave, Narco News chose not to release specific information about the U.S. task force for fear that it might compromise lives. Since that time, however, Plumlee says task force members have become convinced, due to corruption and leaks within the Mexican government, that their presence in Mexico is now known to narco-trafficking organizations. In addition, in recent weeks, there have been a series of reports in mainstream newspapers, such as the Washington Post and The Nation magazine, indicating that U.S. special forces teams are operating in numerous foreign countries.

Government corruption? Imagine that... but only down south, right? In an exclusive story he provided to the San Diego Reader in 1990, Plumlee discusses how he helped the government run drugs during the 1980's. This makes me wonder - those government guys that were running drugs back then... are they controlling the show now? If so, that would explain a great deal. Perhaps the reason our people on the front lines of the "War on Drugs" can't win is because their moves are being manipulated from above - not to end drug smuggling, but merely to control it, and make sure certain people profit from it with less competition. That would explain why we can't get our border under control, despite 1) the necessity to do so, 2) having the resources to do so, and 3) the outcry calling for it. Here's a quote I am going to take completely out of context. From Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 7, 2004:

JH: Here's a question that you might be able to answer: What is al-Qaeda? SE: This is a very interesting and complex question. When you think of al-Qaeda, you are not thinking of al-Qaeda in terms of one particular country, or one particular organization. You are looking at this massive movement that stretches to tens and tens of countries. And it involves a lot of sub-organizations and sub-sub-organizations and branches and it's extremely complicated. So to just narrow it down and say al-Qaeda and the Saudis, or to say it's what they had at the camp in Afghanistan, is extremely misleading. And we don't hear the extent of the penetration that this organization and the sub-organizations have throughout the world, throughout their networks and throughout their various activities. It's extremely sophisticated. And then you involve a significant amount of money into this equation. Then things start getting a lot of overlap -- money laundering, and drugs and terrorist activities and their support networks converging in several points. That's what I'm trying to convey without being too specific. And this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this money.

Maybe it's not just Al Qaeda's narcodollars that are "getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying."