by Patrick Corcoran

“Mexico’s drug gangs are increasingly developing ties to mafias around the world, from Japan to India, Russia, and Western Europe.

Mexico’s drug gangs have exploded into a frenzy of violence in recent years. Less visible, but just as significant, is their increased power in the international drug market, and connections to foreign criminal organizations.

As Contralinea reports, while Mexican groups like the Sinaloa Cartel have long had close links with Colombian cocaine suppliers and U.S. drug wholesalers, they are now establishing their presence across the world. In the process, they are carving out links with some of the most established groups in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Indian subcontinent.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/06/mexico-gangs-spread-tentacles-abroad.html

By STEWART M. POWELL, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

“Even as it works to beef up security, the U.S. government is turning up hundreds of agents who may already be compromised

Rookie agent Raquel “Kelly” Esquivel – no relation to Diego – is serving 15 years in a North Texas federal prison, one of many federal law enforcement personnel targeted by Mexican drug cartels in criminals’ widening campaign to infiltrate or buy turncoats within the expanding ranks of 20,700 Border Patrol agents and 21,000 Customs and Border Protection officers stationed at airports, seaports and land crossings.

Investigations of border security personnel have expanded in each of the past four years, with at least 1,036 inquiries under way, including some 267 focused on suspected corruption. Additional corruption-related investigations are conducted by the FBI or internal affairs agents within the agencies.

“The cartels buy off police chiefs and elected officials in Mexico, and now they’re trying to buy off our Border Patrol agents who are our first line of defense,” said McCaul.

Other border protection officers in Texas and elsewhere also have faced federal corruption charges in recent years.

Even with all the precautions, senior officials concede they can only guess at the breadth of infiltration or corruption by Mexican cartels.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/

“Major scandals don’t always have the most dramatic beginnings. Andrew Johnson was impeached for replacing the sitting secretary of war; Richard Nixon’s collapse started with a breaking and entering. Bill Clinton’s infamy was guaranteed for quibbling over the definition of a common verb.

It now appears that high-ranking officials in the Obama administration may be writing the end of their careers and risking a life behind bars by arguing about the technical definition of “walking” firearms.

“Gunwalker” now involves the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); its parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ); the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and the White House itself. But to understand the depth of the scandal you must return to its roots at the beginning of the Obama adminstration.

Within weeks of President Obama’s inauguration in January of 2009, newly installed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder began to craft the meme that Mexican drug cartel violence was rooted in what they view as lax American gun laws. By February 4, we were hearing the infamous “90 percent lie,” the administration’s false accusation that 90 percent of the guns used in cartel crime could be traced to U.S. gun shops.”

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-from-obamas-inauguration-to-issas-report/

U.S. soldier with the 10th Special Forces Group and his dog leap off the ramp of a CH-47 Chinook helicopter during water training over the Gulf of Mexico as part of exercise Emerald Warrior on March 1.

BY REBECCA FRANKEL

“Dogs have been fighting alongside U.S. soldiers for more than 100 years, seeing combat in the Civil War and World War I.

… Today, they’re a central part of U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan — as of early 2010 the U.S. Army had 2,800 active-duty dogs deployed (the largest canine contingent in the world)…

So it should come as no surprise that among the 79 commandos involved in Operation Neptune Spear that resulted in Osama bin Laden’s killing, there was one dog — the elite of the four-legged variety.

And though the dog in question remains an enigma — another mysterious detail of the still-unfolding narrative of that historic mission — there should be little reason to speculate about why there was a dog involved: Man’s best friend is a pretty fearsome warrior.”

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/04/war_dog

Dave Hendricks
The Monitor

“Drug smugglers opened fire on U.S. law enforcement officers Sunday morning near the Anzalduas International Bridge after Mission police intercepted a 500-pound load of marijuana, police Chief Leo Longoria said.

U.S. law enforcement officers shot back, Longoria said, and no injuries were reported. Details remained hazy Sunday afternoon, and Longoria couldn’t give further information about the brief shootout.

Less than two weeks ago, U.S. law enforcement officers came under fire near Abram and shot back, injuring three smugglers. On June 9, after Texas Rangers, Border Patrol agents and state game wardens were fired upon, they returned more than 300 rounds. The suspects escaped into Mexico on inflatable rafts.”

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/06/mission-texas-law-enforcement-exchanges.html

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 | Borderland Beat Reporter Ovemex

“Seven municipal police officers were arrested in connection with the kidnapping, torture and murder of a marine in the eastern state of Veracruz, the Mexican Navy Secretariat said.

Three marines were abducted, tortured and murdered recently, with two of the killings occurring in Veracruz and one in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, the secretariat said last week.

The three unidentified marines were involved in operations targeting drug traffickers and other criminal organizations.

The police officers were arrested in connection with the killing of a marine whose body was found on June 11 near the Tuxpan River in Veracruz, the secretariat said.

The navy has participated actively in the war on drugs, with marines involved in the December 2009 killing of drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva.

Gunmen later murdered several relatives of marine Melquisedet Angulo Cordova, who died in the shootout in which Beltran Leyva was killed on Dec. 16, 2009, in Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos state.

The gunmen, all suspected of being members of the Los Zetas drug cartel, killed Angulo Cordova’s mother, two brothers and aunt.

The marine’s relatives were murdered on Dec. 21, 2009, at the family’s home in Paraiso, Tabasco, just hours after their loved one was laid to rest with full military honors.

Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels’ ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking officials.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/06/seven-mexican-cops-arrested-for-killing.html

“El Salvador’s president says members of the Zetas drug cartel have gone on scouting missions to his country in an attempt to obtain weapons from corrupt police officers and soldiers.

President Mauricio Funes says there are a lot of weapons left over from El Salvador’s 12-year civil war and that the flow of guns there is “shocking.”

Funes said Tuesday after a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon that the Zetas have not settled in El Salvador like they have done in Guatemala but said some local gangs are working for them.

Mexican drug cartels have been increasingly moving to Central America as Mexico cracks down on them.”

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/