U.S. and Iranian officials immediately went into an uproar when the plot was publicly revealed, hurling accusations at each other at a record pace. But analysts and observers of both Iran and Mexico were left scratching their heads, and with very good reason. First of all, the two Iranian plotters never met with a real cartel member. They were actually dealing with a DEA informant who convinced them that he worked for a cartel. At no time did any real cartel members know anything about this plot, or have any involvement whatsoever. Then there’s the matter of the sum offered. Remember, drug cartels are raking in billions of dollars every year. One and a half million dollars is literally pocket change to these guys: the equivalent of one lost drug load, or the monthly payment to bribe a handful of police officers. There is no way that any cartel in its right mind would risk that kind of exposure for what amounts to pennies in the drug trade. Ultimately, there was no true link between the Iranians and Los Zetas—or to any other Mexican cartel.
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Our Own Worst Enemy
I recently spoke to Kent Lundgren, chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, and he made a great point: No one person or group (terrorist or not) who comes across our border poses an existential threat to America’s future. Instead, that threat comes from the inside, from the complacency and corruption of those of us who are already here. Lundgren said:
“The real threat that we should fear, one that can destroy the America we know, is corruption. Corruption is what makes possible drug trafficking on the scope we see in Mexico. When we think ‘corruption’ we tend to think of an officer accepting money to let a load of drugs go, or stealing money that he has seized or getting sexual favors in return for turning a blind eye to criminal activity.
“It is all that, of course—but we must expand our thought horizons. What of the politician who accepts campaign money to introduce a bill that makes things easier for the bad guys? Or a reporter who blows off a story? Or a prosecutor’s secretary who misses a critical filing deadline in a case that forces it be dismissed? The list of vulnerabilities is long, and the cartels know each item on it.
“To a degree remarkable among the nations of the world, America operates on trust. Trust of each other and of our institutions. Erode and destroy that trust and we become no better than Mexico or Egypt. And that’s exactly what the drug cartels and terror groups are counting on . . .
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When we talk about a potential relationship between terrorists and cartels, we need to remember that, first and foremost, cartels are profit-maximizing businesses. They aim to minimize expenses and reduce risk as much as possible. They know that nothing would bring the wrath and full might of the U.S. government—including law enforcement and possibly the U.S. military—down on them faster and harder than aiding and abetting terrorists. Neither the cartels, nor the Mexican government for that matter, can afford the consequences that such an association would likely bring.
Of course, none of that changes the fact that our open border is responsible for clear cases of death and despair here in the United States. After all, the people who do have operational intentions and who have crossed the border in droves (and whom, for whatever idiotic reason, we don’t seem to be too worried about) are the thousands of violent cartel members and human smugglers living and working in every corner of the United States.
ONE NATION, UNDER SIEGE
One huge obstacle to examining the drug war clearly is the idea that it’s all a “southwest border problem.” There’s a pretty good chance that most people in Montana, or Rhode Island, or Nebraska really aren’t that concerned about what’s happening in Mexico or along the border, or about the thousands of people being slaughtered in the name of illegal drugs every year.
Unfortunately, that just seems to be the new American way. If something isn’t in our own little bubble, or in the bubbles of our friends and family members, we just don’t have the time to really deal with it. And why should we? We work hard every day, get our kids to school on time, shop for groceries, get gas, and try to get some sleep. The problems in our orbits are our coworkers, traffic, food prices, gas prices and, of course, not getting enough sleep. What we don’t spend much time worrying about is getting caught in machine-gun crossfire on our way to work, seeing decapitated bodies at the door to our kids’ school, or having to avoid certain restaurants because cartel members on someone’s hit list might be eating there that night.
But guess what: many people do have to worry about those things because of cartels. Right here, in America.
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Yeah, But Is It Organic?
As a recovering alcoholic, I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised about what people are willing to put in their bodies, but methamphetamine is really nasty stuff. The fundamental ingredient is ephedrine, which is found in some cold medicines (and is the reason why many kinds are now restricted). The ephedrine is mixed, or “cooked,” with other ingredients like battery acid, drain cleaner, lantern fuel, and antifreeze. The process of heating this mixture is very dangerous (as you know if you’ve ever seen the show Breaking Bad), as the chemicals are volatile and can cause the entire lab—often an apartment or trailer—to explode. It also leaves behind a toxic mess: the production of one pound of meth creates five pounds of toxic waste.
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According to the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center, Mexican drug cartels have a presence—either direct or by proxy, in over one thousand U.S. cities. Ninety percent of the illegal drugs consumed in this country come from our neighbor to the south. In 2009 (the latest year for which this data is available), drug overdoses and brain damage linked to long-term drug abuse killed an estimated 37,485 Americans. Meanwhile, cartels are co-opting thousands of gang members in our cities and communities to sell those same drugs on our streets. They’re even making or growing those drugs well within our borders.
The precursor chemicals used to make methamphetamine were either outlawed or restricted in 2004 (which is why you have to go through everything but a body cavity search to buy a decongestant at a pharmacy these days), but the cartels don’t follow our rules. They’re able to get the raw chemicals from Asia and South America, and either make the meth in Mexican “superlabs” before bringing it across the border—or make it right here. One of the largest meth labs ever discovered in the United States was in Gwinnett County, Georgia—just outside Atlanta—and it was run by La Familia Michoacana.
Then there’s the marijuana. Would it surprise you to know that Mexican drug cartels are growing marijuana plants in our taxpayer-funded national parks and forests? And out of the top ten states where they’re doing it, only one (California) is along the southwest border. Marijuana “grows,” as the plantations are called, have been discovered in North Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, and Michigan, to name just a few states.
In February 2012, three Mexican nationals were each sentenced to ten years in federal prison for a marijuana-growing operation based in the sprawling, thickly wooded Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin. Typically, these grows contain thousands of plants, each one worth between $1,000 and $3,000, and the men working and guarding them are always armed, usually with automatic weapons. Sheriffs’ deputies, hikers, and hunters have been shot at—and some deputies seriously wounded—in the process of searching for or stumbling upon these grows in the more remote areas of parks and forests.
If you were still in search of a reason to be personally outraged, there it is. Parks are where we take our families to go camping and hiking, and now we have to worry about finding pot plants and getting shot at? Why don’t we hear more about this? More important, why isn’t our government doing more to find these grows and put them out of business?
WHAT HAPPENS IN MEXICO DOESN’T STAY IN MEXICO
Sometimes it’s hard for people to get too worked up about something like marijuana grows, but actual bloodshed here on our streets is another matter entirely. So let’s pull ou
t the trump card: cartel members are killing and kidnapping people on U.S. soil.
This violence is usually referred to as “border violence spillover” and, like most things that have been given politically correct terms, it’s controversial. How can violence be controversial? Well, because spillover violence is kind of like an image of Jesus on a grilled cheese sandwich. You’ll find a lot of people who will say you’re crazy if you can’t clearly see the image burned into the toast and you’ll find just as many people who won’t think twice before chowing down on the sandwich, thinking the other group off their collective rocker.
“There is a perception that the border is worse now than it ever has been. That is wrong. The border is better now than it ever has been.”
—Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security
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ADULT CONTENT
What other act is defined in a similar manner? You got it, terrorism. Yet the U.S. government, at least so far, doesn’t agree with calling Mexican cartels terrorist organizations.
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The truth is that border spillover violence is a war of statistics versus anecdotal evidence, and, since no one can agree on whether or not it exists, no progress is being made on how to address violence in the United States related to the drug war. Can you believe there isn’t even a standard definition of spillover violence? Here’s the one that Homeland Security (alone) is currently using:
[S]pillover violence entails deliberate, planned attacks by the cartels on U.S. assets, including civilian, military, or law enforcement officials, innocent U.S. citizens, or physical institutions such as government buildings, consulates, or businesses. This definition does not include trafficker on trafficker violence, whether perpetrated in Mexico or the U.S.
With some exceptions, the primary type of violence happening in Mexico right now is criminal-on-criminal. So wouldn’t logic tell us that spillover violence would likely entail criminal-on-criminal violence happening here in the United States as well? Of course, but the Department of Homeland Security clearly says, This definition does not include trafficker-on-trafficker violence. In other words, if a drug cartel member beheads five rival drug cartel members in the middle of Dallas, DHS would not consider that to be “spillover violence.” That only makes sense in Washington.
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A Database with No Data
A Congressional Research Service report on spillover violence acknowledged that the government doesn’t have exact stats on violence between cartel members in the United States. Seriously? So when cartel members kill each other we just mark it down as “jaywalking” and call it a day? I mean, honestly, what good is a violent-crime database when we can’t even use it to give us stats on an important type of violent crime?
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What about the official crime statistics instead; maybe they can shed some light on this.
One of the biggest fans of using violent crime statistics is DHS secretary Janet Napolitano. In fact, she used the ones found in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) database as justification for her oft-repeated statement that “the border is better now than it’s ever been.” She also says that overall violent crime is down across the southwest border by 30 percent. The problem with using the UCR database is that it’s the classic example of “statistics don’t lie, but liars use statistics.” There are literally hundreds of ways in which statistics can be pulled: by city, by city population, by county, etc. If you look only at big border city crime statistics then Napolitano is right. Places like San Diego, El Paso, and Nogales (Arizona, not Mexico) are some of the safest places in the country. Mayors and some border sheriffs have no problem telling the media that reports about spillover are exaggerated. There’s nothing to see here . . . move along.
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Bullets Don’t Need Passports
In early 2012, a forty-eight-year-old mother was pushing a child in a stroller down the street in El Paso when a bullet came seemingly out of nowhere and went right through her leg.
That bullet, it turns out, came from a shoot-out between police and carjackers in Juarez, Mexico. It’s the third time (at least that we know about) that actual gunfire has reached El Paso (ironically enough, one hit City Hall, the other struck a building at the University of Texas at El Paso).
“It’s always concerning,” El Paso mayor John Cook said, “when you’re living so close to the violence on the other side of the border.” I guess Mayor Cook didn’t get the memo: it’s not concerning if you just ignore it.
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So what’s all the fuss about? Well, perhaps it’s about looking past the crime stats to the cartel member who was beheaded in his Chandler, Arizona, apartment for telling his drug bosses his drug load was seized, when in fact he had sold it and kept the money. Or the six-year-old boy who was kidnapped from his Las Vegas home at gunpoint because his grandfather owed a cartel more than one million dollars. Maybe it’s about the five men who were tortured and then killed by having their throats slit in northern Alabama by men working for the Gulf cartel. Or the Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy in Texas who was shot three times while responding to a cartel-related kidnapping call. Could it be the shoot-out between Gulf cartel members that happened on a McAllen, Texas, highway? Or maybe it was the dismembered corpse discovered on a rural Tucson highway, and the possible link to another dismembered body found two weeks earlier in Southern California near the Hollywood sign.
The bad news is that those incidents are just a drop in the bucket compared to all the violent activities that cartel members are involved with on U.S. soil—particularly in south Texas. What else do we expect? They own homes here and often run businesses as front companies to launder drug money here. Many of them are legal residents or U.S. citizens, and can cross the border at will. How many of these incidents have to happen before our government wakes up and acknowledges that we have a huge problem, even if some properly sorted database does not?
It terrifies me that we still haven’t crossed some kind of violence threshold in the eyes of our government. There should be no question that cartel violence, and therefore “spillover” (no matter how you want to define it), is happening in the United States. Any time that individuals associated with Mexican cartels engage in violent criminal activity against anyone on U.S. soil, that needs to be documented—and more important, publicly acknowledged—as border violence spillover.
EASY TARGETS
I know that keeping our borders open is supposed to be the “compassionate” thing to do, but has anyone ever stopped to think about how vulnerable that leaves the illegal immigrants who try to come here? They are literally targets—where is the compassion for them?
One of the more tragic trends we’re seeing in Mexico, and one that is definitely spilling over into the United States, is acts of violence against illegal immigrants. They make very easy targets for cartels—mostly Los Zetas—because one of their primary travel routes runs directly through Zetas territory along the Gulf Coast. They’re often tired and weak, unarmed, and usually have family members in the United States who can round up some ransom money. But violence against immigrants doesn’t stop once they successfully make it across the border.
Human smugglers paid to bring people illegally into the States are called coyotes, or polleros—chicken herders. They are paid anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000 per person (sometimes more), and it’s always up front. If they’re unsuccessful, there are no refunds or do-overs. More often than not, human smugglers have some sort of relationship with drug cartels. Either the cartels are directly involved, actually running the smuggling rings, or they demand payment from human smugglers—kind of like a toll or tax—for using their routes into the United States.
Coyotes only care about getting paid; human life has very little value to them. They’ll sometimes abandon their pollos, or “chickens,” at the first sign of trouble. They’ll tell migrants that, once they cross the border, it’s only a one- or two-day walk to Chicago, or Denver, or whate
ver U.S. city they want to go to. Border Patrol agents or U.S. ranchers often come across migrants who are close to death (or already dead) because they were completely unprepared for the unforgiving journey.
And then there are the “rape trees.”
Few things in the southern Arizona desert are more horrific than the sight of a rape tree. These are places where cartel members and coyotes rape female border crossers and hang their clothes, specifically their undergarments, from the branches to mark their conquests. The United Nations estimates that 70 percent of women and young girls who cross the border without husbands or other family members are sexually abused in some way. No one knows how many of these rape trees exist, if they’re only in Arizona (which sees half of all illegal immigrant crossings), or how many female migrants have been victimized in this way. Most of them have no recourse, and will never report the crime for fear of being deported.
Other migrants are frequently held in “safe” houses in U.S. border cities with very little food or water, waiting until their family members can pay the smugglers or cartels for their release. In June 2010, U.S. immigration officials raided a safe house in Phoenix holding fifty-one Guatemalan nationals, including six children. They were thirsty, but otherwise in good shape. In December 2011, authorities in Avondale, Arizona, discovered a drop house holding seventeen men and two women who were not quite as fortunate. The four suspects running the operation had beaten several of the victims with a curtain rod, wooden sticks, and pistols as punishment for not paying the extortion fee. Three victims were taken to a hospital with broken ribs, cuts, and bruises.