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Posts Tagged drug trade
The Falcon Lake Murder and Mexico’s Drug Wars
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 21/Oct/2010 17:19
The Falcon Lake Murder and Mexico’s Drug Wars is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
By Scott Stewart
STRATFOR published an analysis last Wednesday noting that a reliable source in Mexico informed us that the Sept. 30 shooting death of U.S. citizen David Hartley on Falcon Lake — which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border — was a mistake committed by a low-level member of the Los Zetas drug trafficking organization. The source also informed us that those responsible for Hartley’s death are believed to have disposed of his body and that the Zeta hierarchy was conducting a damage-control operation to punish those responsible for the death and to distance the cartel from the murder. The source further reported that the murder of the lead Tamaulipas state investigator on the case, Rolando Armando Flores Villegas — whose head was delivered in a suitcase to the Mexican military’s Eight Zone headquarters in Reynosa on Oct. 12 — was a specific message from Los Zetas to Mexican authorities to back off from the investigation.
Since publishing the report, we have been deluged by interview requests regarding the case. Numerous media outlets have interviewed Fred Burton and myself regarding the Falcon Lake case. During the course of talking with reporters and customers, it became obvious to us that a solid understanding of the context within which Hartley’s killing occurred was lacking in media discussions of the case. Viewing the murder as part of the bigger picture of what is occurring in Mexico makes it far easier to understand not only why David Hartley was killed, but why his body will likely never be found — and why his killers probably will not be held accountable for their actions, at least in the context of the judicial system. Read the rest of this entry »
Mexican drug cartels are moving tens of billions of dollars in profits south across the border
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News on 31/Aug/2010 19:47
“LAREDO, TEX. – Stashing cash in spare tires, engine transmissions and truckloads of baby diapers, couriers for Mexican drug cartels are moving tens of billions of dollars in profits south across the border each year, a river of dirty money that has overwhelmed U.S. and Mexican customs agents.
Officials said stemming the flow of this cash is essential if Mexico and the United States hope to disrupt powerful transnational criminal organizations that are using their wealth to corrupt, terrorize and kill.
Despite unprecedented efforts to thwart the traffickers, U.S. and Mexican authorities are seizing no more than 1 percent of the cash, according to an analysis by The Washington Post based on figures provided by the two governments.
The drug traffickers and their Colombian suppliers smuggle $20 billion to $25 billion in U.S. bank notes across the southwest border annually as they seek to circumvent banking regulations and the suspicions aroused by large cash deposits, studies by federal officials, regulators and academics show.”
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/08/stepped-up-efforts-by-us-mexico-fail-to.html
For use in Mexico or coming over the border into Texas?
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 23/Jun/2010 01:05
These are photos of a Zetas camp (a Mexican drug cartel w/ Guatemalan ties) that was found near Higueras, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico - a little over 100 miles away from Laredo, TX.
At least 25 suspects managed to get away.
They found 12 trucks/SUVs under a shaded canopy. The vehicles contained military & police issue accessories. Its estimated that they found around 200 rifles, and 30 pistols. They also found grenade and rocket launchers. There were over 300 magazines and uniforms. They also found a box of 60 grenades.
And to answer one criticism: no Nancy and Diane, most of these guns did not come from gun shows in the American Southwest. You can’t buy selective fire M4s with 14.5 inch barrels, RPG-7s, and 40mm grenades at gun shows. More about the M4s: If those had actually been smuggled commercial M4geries from the States, then they’d be in umpteen different configurations and have 16-inch barrels. Notice how those rows of M4s all look identical? Obviously, those were built to Ejército Méxicano contract specs. Now I suppose those two Barrett .50 rifles might have been smuggled from the States. They aren’t in the TO&Es of most Mexican Army units, but they are used by their Special Forces.
http://www.claytonmspaparazzi.com/2010/06/13/look-what-they-found-near-the-texanmexican-border.html
Mexican narco-pirates ambush boaters on Texas lake
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 22/May/2010 22:07
Armed with machine guns, members of the Zeta drug cartel from Mexico are attacking boats and robbing sailors of their loot—and gadgets—on a lake that straddles the Texas/Mexico border.
Mexico and the Failed State Revisited
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 6/Apr/2010 14:38
This report is republished with permission of STRATFOR
By George Friedman
STRATFOR argued March 13, 2008, that Mexico was nearing the status of a failed state. A failed state is one in which the central government has lost control over significant areas of the country and the state is unable to function. In revisiting this issue, it seems to us that the Mexican government has lost control of the northern tier of Mexico to drug-smuggling organizations, which have significantly greater power in that region than government forces. Moreover, the ability of the central government to assert its will against these organizations has weakened to the point that decisions made by the state against the cartels are not being implemented or are being implemented in a way that would guarantee failure.
Despite these facts, it is not clear to STRATFOR that Mexico is becoming a failed state. Instead, it appears the Mexican state has accommodated itself to the situation. Rather than failing, it has developed strategies designed both to ride out the storm and to maximize the benefits of that storm for Mexico.
First, while the Mexican government has lost control over matters having to do with drugs and with the borderlands of the United States, Mexico City’s control over other regions — and over areas other than drug enforcement — has not collapsed (though its lack of control over drugs could well extend to other areas eventually). Second, while drugs reshape Mexican institutions dramatically, they also, paradoxically, stabilize Mexico. We need to examine these crosscurrents to understand the status of Mexico. Read the rest of this entry »