Is the Mexican Mafia a threat to the United States?

Yes

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by Linda Sunkle-Pierucki

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The Mexican Mafia is a serious threat to the United States. By the Mexican Mafia, I am not referring to the relatively small group of organized Hispanic criminals of that name that formed in the California prison setting in the past twenty years, but the larger, more loosely-connected groups of drug, kidnap and crime gangs that have invaded nearly every large American city and many, many smaller towns over the past few years. These ugly excuses for humanity have even the Crips and the Bloods banding together in some areas for protection!

We often hear solitary sound bytes about the MS-13 gang and that they have moved into large cities such as Chicago and Atlanta. What we do NOT hear about, however-at least in the mainstream media- is the constant and escalating violent crime wave that is occurring in so many smaller cities and towns. And, in many cases, the victims are immigrants themselves, and therefore beneath the notice of the major press. Many cities have adopted sanctuary city policies and thus don't keep official records of the legal status of either the victim or the perpetrators. So, when major crimes occur among these populations, the local officials and newspapers bury any reports on the inside pages and seldom report the results of investigations. It is as though if not reported, it isn't happening. In the view of many of the public, that is invariably true-they didn't see any headline news item, so it escapes their notice. Often too, both perpetrators and victims are illegal immigrants-not a fact public officials want brought into the spotlight for political reasons.

The majority of these crimes appear to be drug related. Apparently, the casual reader assumes this is a one-on-one drug deal gone wrong. In many cases, it is far bigger than that. The recent case in Birmingham Alabama of five men found dead in an apartment, tortured and their throats slit illustrates the fact this was not a case of someone who didn't pay for a rock of cocaine: this is organized drug crime perpetrated by a rival gang either over drug sales turf or theft of a major shipment. That both the victims and the killers were nearly all illegals is hardly reported. This is not the only incident of this type-they've been happening with increasing frequency across the country.

Not only are these inhumane thugs killing their countrymen, several American petty drug dealers who have gotten mixed up with these people have found that there is no honor among thieves when they cross any of the drug cartels' representatives in the US. They don't usually live to regret their unwise actions. Often, neither do their families, for there is a difference in how these gangs treat innocent bystanders-killing the entire family is seen as a method of terrorizing other possibly double-dealing cohorts into expected behavior. And last year, a trial in Texas exposed the fact that a group of American teens had been working as paid hit-men for the Mexican cartels. . .in the United States. The seventeen year old Laredo teen on trial was paid $10,000 and two kilos of cocaine for his last killing.

California, particularly the Los Angeles region has been dealing with Latino gangs killing blacks, first for gang control over neighborhoods, but later simply as a genocidal act. As most of those living near the border have known for years, the drug smugglers-all of whom are affiliated with the Mexican drug cartels or they wouldn't live to get to the border-and the coyotes' smuggling human beings are one and the same. Often, illegal entrants wishing to get to the United States are forced to carry drugs in addition to paying for passage. Passage does not mean safe passage, however, as evidenced by the rape trees' where the undergarments of female border crossers are draped as trophies of the coyote's "conquest". Recently, there is evidence that in several instances, rival cartels have killed immigrants on the trip to deflate the opposition smuggler- cartel's profits. And it is not unusual for police in southwestern cities to find themselves faced with freeing up to sixty immigrants held for ransom in so-called safe-houses'. Many young girls are forced into prostitution by these same smuggler-cartels, all with little public exposure or overt law enforcement action. These professional smugglers aren't averse to smuggling those from terrorist nations into the country, either-they just charge them more. Calling these vicious thugs is an insult to the picture most of us conjure up when faced with the word "Mafia"; these crimes make the traditional Mafia look like a Sunday School Picnic!

Below are several quotes from local newspaper articles regarding crime perpetrated by members of these gangs and drug cartels:

"A 2005 U.S. Government Accountability Office study looked at 55,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records and found that they had been arrested an average of eight times. Forty-five percent of the arrests were on immigration and drug charges; 12 percent were for violent crimes. " *1

If this does not indicate gang activity, then we have a highly criminal group of illegal aliens in this country who are apparently committing random crime.

We also have statements from members of Congress concerned about the numbers of death occurring at the hands of illegal aliens. Again, I postulate that these murders are either perpetrated by gang members or we have a highly criminal group of illegal aliens here:

"Twelve (12) Americans are MURDERED every day by illegal aliens, according to statistics released by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. That translates into 4,380 Americans murdered annually by illegal aliens." *2

Please notice this is murders, not death by drunk driving, but intentional murder. That these are organized, deliberate acts of murder, likely for retribution, and are now targeting law enforcement in this country is clear in the following:

"Attacks ordered by Mexican drug cartels are nothing new," according to an Aug. 26 Stratfor analysis. "A team of cartel hit men carried out a tactical assault conducted on a home in the Phoenix metro area June 23, gunning down a Jamaican with ties to the drug trade. On Dec. 14, 2007, four men carried out a home invasion in Tucson, Ariz., when they entered a Border Patrol agent's home, firing at him in what appeared to be an attempted assassination. The Border Patrol agent returned fire, however, causing the four men to flee. These particular incidents did not receive - or perhaps merit - much response from the media or federal government. . ." and "In an April 11 situation report, the NDIC (National Drug Intelligence Center) stated that Mexican "drug trafficking organizations," or DTOs, "operate in at least 195 cities throughout the United States and in an additional 129 cities law enforcement officials reported the presence of Mexican DTOs with affiliations to at least one of the four principal Mexican drug cartels that supply illicit drugs to U.S. markets - Federation, Gulf Coast, Juarez and Tijuana cartels" Roswell Record, Sept 3, 2008 *3

In spite of all of this mayhem, death and criminal action, this Mexican Mafia" or gang activity would not likely endanger the United States as a country too much except for one thing: we are doing nothing to stop it. We have refused to deal with the increasing numbers of law enforcement officers who have been killed by these illegal usurpers. We have a government that is not only aiding and abetting this criminal activity by refusing to secure the border area, but a government that has shown itself more than willing to prosecute its own law enforcement for trying to do the job they were supposedly hired to do. Most Americans have heard of the case of Agents Ramos and Compean. They may not be aware that there are others being prosecuted in similar circumstances for doing the jobs they were hired to do. Rep Ted Poe (R-Tx) has read a statement into the federal record regarding some of these prosecutions. The information included in his statement may be enlightening to the many who have heard US Atty Johnny Sutton attempt to twist the story to the American people the same way he did with the jury. *4

One needs look no further than Mexico to see what happens to a country that refuses to confront drug crime and corruption while it is still possible to do so. Calderone's apparently honest attempt to clean up corruption and wrest control of the country back from the drug cartels has been met with unprecedented violence, with over 2600 drug-related assassinations so far this year(2008). These assassinations show the same pattern of violent torture and beheadings we concern ourselves with endlessly on the news when they happen in Middle Eastern countries. Most of the media doesn't appear to believe this Mexican violence is newsworthy. Calderone's efforts are likely too late. Mexican drug cartels are an international problem:

"Mexican cartels - splintered as they are - have also become powerful global forces, according to Edgardo Buscaglia, an adviser on security to the United Nations and numerous countries who has said Mexican organized crime operates in 38 nations." *5

Calderone's forces face extreme difficulty in that so many Mexican local police forces are highly corrupt-and on the payroll of the drug cartels. He has been forced to bring in military forces, who have been accused in many instances of the same corruption. There are repeated reports of human and civil rights violations by the troops on many, many occasions; the citizens have nowhere to turn for help. That the Mexican military is actually fully engaged in a war against the drug cartels is called into serious question by the fact that there have been so many instances of Mexican troops making incursions onto United States soil, apparently in support of drug smugglers-over 200 incidents since 2006. The Border patrol union has formally asked the White House to stop the military incursions to no avail.*6

Why are the American people so woefully uninformed of the activities occurring within our borders and immediately outside it? Because the criminal drug and crime gangs are inextricably tied to illegal immigration and one simply cannot discuss one without bringing the other into play. This discussion is not one government, business, finance or the media wants to occur.

Calderone likely has little chance of stopping the drug cartel-related corruption as he has no forces he can depend on to be fully on his side in support of the law. Even dedicated law enforcement officers are rightly terrified when their names appear on "hit-list' banners hung in public places. Several have fled in terror to the United States, begging asylum, as have businessmen, journalists and attorneys. Kidnap for ransom is a popular small-time criminal activity near the Mexican border, with 27 Americans kidnapped and several killed in recent years. The drug cartels play generous Robin Hood to the desperately poor people of the city slums, gaining both neighborhood support and cover, and gathering plenty of recruits who they actually pay well in comparison to other available jobs. The rising violence and death has frightened many of the populace into silence and Calderone is losing the support of the people in his inability to bring the situation under control. Hostility caused by the weidening income disparity resulting from NAFTA has alientated the people both from their own government and from the United States.

The United States response to Calderone's dilemma has been to offer funds and training to his troops. Many in congress remember what happened the last time we did this: now we call those we trained Los Zetas-the feared criminal enforcers for the drug cartels. Their advanced training and weaponry virtually assure their success in a firefight with police or federales. And they have developed training camps along the border to train new recruits to their private army of criminals. They pay well-drug money is usually good money. And those who don't cooperate often end up encased in cement or in a burning barrel of diesel fuel.
Currently, the violence in Mexico is concentrated along the border-in those border towns where there are major crossings into the United States. NAFTA has given them profits beyond their wildest imaginings of a few years ago. The lax border trade has created a war for control of truck routes into the United States, and a growing network of corrupt US officials who will ease passage for their goods. *7

For our part, the federal government has-reluctantly, and only because of massive public outrage- made a major media circus out of a ham-fisted effort to build a fence by alienating just as many border residents as possible, hoping the outcry will force Congress to order them to cease construction. In spite of massive cost overruns, the fence has now taken at least twice as long to build half of the length they were ordered to build. In any other government contract negotiation, we would cry corruption and demand an inquiry. Is this intentional? I don't doubt it.

Because of our obvious reluctance to secure our borders against drugs and against illegal entrants, as they are thoroughly intertwined-we have an emboldened criminal class of illegal border crossers who know we don't intend to stop them. We have also placed our Border patrol in extreme fear of the loss of either their lives or their freedom-and publicly pretend we are trying to recruit more. For whatever reason-business desires, quasi-humanitarian desires, globalization desires-we are not serious about stopping the drugs or illegal entry and the corruption that comes with it. The message to our hired and trained Border Agents is clear: do not do your job too well or you will go to jail. To the drug smugglers, the message is clearly that the US doesn't intend to do anything when they injure or kill a Border Agent.

Because we do not secure the border, the Mexican government cannot succeed in rooting out the corruption as easy access and high profit margins continually escalate the efforts to cross the border. And because we encourage illegal workers who send even more cash back to Mexico, the Mexican government faces a double dilemma because of the negative effect on their economy if they really crack down on illegal drugs and in doing so, slow illegal border crossings.

This is the true danger to the United States from the Mexican Mafia, then. The danger is that the corruption is already endemic in this country and that is the reason nothing is done. If not, this corruption will naturally spread until the United States resembles Mexico, with a criminal element terrorizing the populace and a very wealthy elite, likely enriched by narco dollars in one way or another, directing the circus from within their gated communities. This does not bode well for the rest of us-or for our freedom. It is apparent even now that any serious attempt to force the federal government to enforce existing law will simply mean more surveillance of ourselves, our neighborhoods and our every thought. Every time we demand better security, what we get is more interference from Homeland Security and its abuses of the Constitution. The Mexican mafia is truly a serious threat in that it is a means to an end-and the ending is not one we will like.

*1 Police killing puts focus on illegal immigrant crime
http://www.bizj ournals.com/phoenix/ stories/2007/09/17/d aily46.html
*2 http://www.house.gov /apps/list/hearing/i a05_king/col_2006050 5_bite.html
*3 http://www.roswell-r ecord.com/main.asp?F romHome=1&TypeID=1&A rticleID=31644&Secti onID=49&SubSectionID =112
*4 http://www.govtrack. us/congress/record.x pd?id=110-h20070315- 43
*5 http://www.kansascit y.com/451/story/7971 91.html
*6 http://www.washingto ntimes.com/news/2008 /aug/28/bush-urged-t o-block-mexican-mili tary/
*7 http://www.dallasnew s.com/sharedcontent/ dws/news/localnews/c rime/stories/DN- constable_15met.ART0 .State.Edition1.4d57 1b2.html

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