The Border

[Dzone]

TweetJust got this email from a friend who works as a guard at the Federal Prison:

"We get this information every day from our Special Investigative Services at work. Thought you might find it interesting. Just one more reason we need to close up our borders.

Special Assignment: War on our border
Friday, March 13, 2009


The night before spring break begins, University of Texas students are being urged to check the U.S. State Department's website before traveling to Mexico because of drug-related violence. Much of the violence is along the border and tourists are not usually targeted, but there have been killings in Acapulco and Cancun -- far away from the border

Last year there were 5,000 killings in Mexico.
"That's more than the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined, " said U.S. Congressman Michael McCaul who authored a report on the escalating violence in Mexico and its effect on the border -- A Line In The Sand .
"I don't think most Americans realize there's another war going on, and it's in Mexico just south of our border," McCaul said.
That war involves the Mexican drug cartels and their fight to control territory on both sides of the border. Experts say when the Colombian cartels crumbled in the early 90's, the Mexican cartels took control of the North American drug trade.
"This is a homeland security issue; this is a national security issue," said Fred Burton, Statfor's VP of counterterrorism, a global intelligence company based in Austin.
Burton says it's a mistake to characterize these cartels as nothing more than street thugs. He says today the cartels consist of paramilitary soldiers -- many of whom have special forces training. And when it comes to firepower, Burton says the only weapons they lack are predator drones and surface-to-air missiles.
"They have better resources, more money, better weapons than a group like Al Qaeda does today. Think about that for a moment," Burton said.
Even more frightening is the violence that's carried out.
"There's no limit to what these guys will do to get what they want," said Rusty Fleming, the executive producer of DrugWarsTheMovie.com
Experts say it's no longer enough for the cartels to kidnap someone. Now street gangs like MS-13 and Los Zetas -- working with the cartels -- inflict unthinkable torture.
"Victims with their legs and arms chopped off and informants and victims that are literally tossed into lions and tigers. I don't know who sits around and thinks of these kinds of things," Burton said.
And it doesn't stop there. After the torture Burton says the cartels now - in order to send a stronger message - rely on more violent forms of murder, such as burning their victims alive and beheading.
"Now we're having heads chopped off, placed in coolers and delivered to houses or police stations, that's directly out of the insurgent kind of play book in Afghanistan, think of the signal that sends to the police department, to the community in Mexico, are you going to want to go out and investigate the cartels after you open up a cooler and there are six to a dozen heads in there?" Burton asked. "You're thinking about your own life, you're thinking about your family's life."
On top of the fear factor -- stopping the flow of illegal narcotics into this country is a numbers game. Burton says consider this stunning fact: 44,000 policemen are employed by New York City. Compare that to just 14,000 border agents who patrol the entire Mexican and Canadian borders.
In Austin, two members of APD's undercover gang unit patrol neighborhoods once rife with gang graffiti. Regarding the drug related violence in Mexico...
"It will be a mistake to bury our heads in the sand and think this problem is going to go away," the undercover officer said.
It's why Chief Art Acevdo and area commanders were recently briefed on the latest drug and gang activity in Mexico and the possibility of spillover violence -- even here in Central Texas.
"The fear is that is that the violence will no longer be between the warring groups -- that it will spill over and start affecting, impacting innocent people, men women and children who have absolutely nothing to do with the drug trade, but they're the ones who're becoming victimized," said another undercover officer. "Reporter: Do you see that starting to happen here? Sure."
"It took decades for this war to migrate 2,000 miles into Mexico. It's got 1,100 feet to go before we're fighting it in our own street, the idea that it will never happen here, is the kind of thinking that allowed 19 terrorists to get on four planes and bring America to her knees," Fleming said.
Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley says years ago -- in an attempt to help alleviate prison overcrowding -- Texas legislators decided to move up the parole dates of illegal immigrants so they could be deported.
"Not even a dang year goes by before I'm getting a parole letter on a 20 year sentence. As a prosecutor, that just drives you nuts," Bradley said.
Bradley says soon after the parole, that same drug smuggler can make his way up Interstate 35 from Mexico and back into this country with a new shipment of drugs.
It's estimated that as much as $100 billion worth of drugs are smuggled into this country every year. About 30 percent or $30 billion worth come into this country via the I-35 corridor.

Johnny **** III
Special Investigative Agent
USP Florence
Florence, Colorado "

[daved150]

Tweetawsome read...i've been reading alot about this shyt...funny thing is, when i had that car lott and that mexican (scumbag that stole my cars!!!) he told me this was coming...he said this was going down and was gonna get huge. he made alot of claims about being involved and mention alot of the towns names that you read about today...i sometimes wonder if he was a little less full of shyt than i gave him credit for!

[Doink the clown]

TweetIt amazes me that people are so dumb....it's illegal to walk accross the border.....do it and go to jail. And hey Mexico, take the money and training we have provided for you and clean your toilet towns up

[deepsouth]

Tweetthey let them walk acroos in Del Rio everyday to shop at WalMart- Last time I was in there(on a hunting trip) I was the only person that spoke English!

[FUZO]

Tweetsomething needs to happen to help our borders

[BIGMOFO]

Tweet

they let them walk acroos in Del Rio everyday to shop at WalMart- Last time I was in there(on a hunting trip) I was the only person that spoke English!

who would dress your deer and cook your breakfast if they did not come over!

[deepsouth]

TweetHey i do that myself- my house keeper on the other hand.....