Threat of Mexican Drug Cartels Near Crisis
March 3, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
Two of Mexico’s deadliest drug cartels have reached a combined force of 100,000 foot soldiers, wreaking havoc across the country and threatening U.S. border states, the U.S. Defense Department told The Washington Times.
The cartels rival the Mexican army in size and have both Mexico and the U.S. in crisis mode as they deal with what they fear is a coming insurgency along the border.
“It’s moving to crisis proportions,” an unidentified defense official told The Times. The official also said the cartels have reached a size where they are on par with Mexico’s army of 130,000.
About 7,000 people have died in the last year — more than 1,000 in January alone — at the hands of Mexico’s increasingly violent drug cartels. Murders often involve beheadings or bodies dissolved in vats of acid.
The two most dangerous cartels are the Sinaloa cartel, nicknamed the “Federation” or “Golden Triangle” by law enforcement agencies, and “Los Zetas” (the Gulf Cartel). They have been growing and are reportedly discussing a truce or merger to better withstand government forces, The Times reported.
Mexico is now only behind Pakistan and Iran as a U.S. national security concern, coming in ahead of Afghanistan and Iraq, the defense official told The Times.
Mexico Send In Military To Restore Order
The Mexican government will deploy 1,000 more federal police officers as part of a wider effort to restore order in Ciudad Juarez, the nation’s most violent city, officials said Monday.
Some of those uniformed federal officers began arriving in the border city Monday, two days after about 2,000 soldiers landed there in a related military buildup. Those soldiers were the first of an expected 5,000 additional troops who will be sent to help perform basic police functions.
The military reinforcements will bring to more than 7,000 the number of soldiers in Ciudad Juarez.
The nation’s public safety chief, Genaro Garcia Luna, said that along with the soldiers, he planned to dispatch the additional 1,000 federal police officers, Notimex news agency reported.
About 425 federal officers already had been posted in Ciudad Juarez, where the death toll last year exceeded 1,600, the highest in a country racked by drug-related violence.
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…..and we are STILL waiting to get our borders sealed! When will “enough” be “enough”? Spring break is coming up, many students are planning on running down to Mexico (not the smartest thing to do right now…but…) Let’s hope they make it back safely.
I have been watching for some time about this situation.
I seen it coming.
I am just a blue collar citizen here in the South Western region of the U.S. and my biggest question is.
Why is it that most real Americans can see this problem, But the politicians will not bring the issue up.
We should already have our military in place.
We should of already had put special war policies in place when our country is at a state of war.
ie. Securing our borders. And an entire census of the United States on every town and every city for the wear abouts of undocumented people wandering through out our streets.
I don’t know about you, But I think I can tell when someone looks out of place with out racially profiling him/her.
I have no problems with background checks, and neither should any American that loves his country and fellow man.
My point is. This drug war is only a front for whats really going on
across our borders. Some of these undocumented people are actually from other countries. I think you know what I mean.
Now as an ordinary citizen, born here in the U.S.A.
Should I take means to helping my country defending herself from an attack from our southern borders. Or should I stick my head in the sand like everyone else does.
I’d rather fight.
I love my country from which I was born in.
How are you going to win a war where the problem lies in our own consumption of drugs? Americans snort, smoke, shoot up, inject and ingest tons and tons of drugs, cocaine, marihuana, metamphetamines, angel dust, extasy, etc., etc., According to the U.S. Department of Justice, close to 50 million Americans use drugs. Having the military seal borders is only one measure, the defenitive cure is to stop using drugs or making them legal.