Mexican Drug Cartels Out of Control in the U.s. and Mexico

By Michael Webster: Investigative Reporter Aug 3, 2008 1:oo PM PDT

For years now US federal officials have reported that the Mexican drug cartels are operating in dozens of US cities, and have consolidated their control of the entire corridor of the supply chain of illegal drugs from deep in Mexico north to the U.S. border and beyond.

Nationwide, the Mexican drug cartels are now the dominant distributors of wholesale quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana in the United States. No other group is positioned better to expand there already nationwide operation and take over total distribution of drugs in the south eastern part of the country too, then are the Mexican drug cartels as they now do in the south western part of the country.

Mexican drug cartels through their segregate organizations control the lucrative methamphetamine trade, as the arrival of purer Mexican ice methamphetamine has replaced locally produced powder meth, according to the US Department of Justice.

Glen Beck of the popular show of the same name said,” Atlanta has become the latest battleground for Mexican drug cartels.”

 

"Their idea is to control the whole economic process of production and distribution," said Georgina Sanchez, an independent security consultant in Mexico and executive director of a public safety policy institute.

In many areas of the United States the cartels have entered into partnerships with local gangs, in others they have directly assumed control of local drug distribution, analysts say.

According to Beck, “The Mexican side of the border is essentially a war zone with the Mexican government fighting, losing, or sometimes in collusion with the heavily-armed drug cartels.  You’re not going to see much about it in the mainstream media. And for some reason, this just isn't a topic anymore.”

Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora says cartels have deeply penetrated city police forces. (Eduardo Verdugo - AP)

Gwinnett County, Georgia, where Atlanta is located is over 1,000 miles from our U.S. - Mexico border. They have already had nine drug-related kidnappings this year. In one incident it just happened a couple weeks ago, DEA agents raided a home and charged three men, all illegal aliens, with kidnapping and conspiracy to distribute cocaine after finding that they had bound and chained the victim to a wall in a basement in the town of Lilburn and beat him for nearly a week in an effort to collect $300,000 in drug debt.

"The violence in [American] cities has a direct cause and effect related to what is taking place in Mexico," said Fred Burton, vice president for counterterrorism at Stratfor, an Austin-based private intelligence company.

"The farther north you go from the border, the less that is understood," said Burton, who is a member of the Texas Border Security Council, which focuses on homeland security and economic development along the Texas-Mexico border.

The biggest worry for local law enforcement groups is that the cartels will bring with them violent methods honed during furious cartel wars in Mexico that have left thousands dead since 2006. In recent years, Mexican drug violence has reached new heights, with beheadings, videotaped executions broadcast on the Internet, and the targeting and killings of top Mexican law enforcement officials.

Beck, said, “There are no good guys in this story except the people who are on the front line, like Rodney Benson. He is the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Atlanta Field Division of the DEA.”

From excerpts from the program Beck asks, “Let’s start, what did I miss about that guy who was chained to the wall? Tell me a little bit about this.”

“He was a distributor of narcotics up the East Coast, and he was lowered down under a ruse to come down and see the Mexican suppliers here in Atlanta.

And when he went to a house just in the metro area, he was pulled into a garage where seven armed men took him, took him out, essentially beat him, brought him down into the basement of this house where he was shackled in this unfinished basement. And his hands were cuffed. Then they took rolls of duct tape and essentially his entire face, his nose, pretty much everything was just covered with tape.

And over the course of a week, we became aware of this. And what we ended up doing, Glenn, through a number of different investigative means, we found the house where this individual was being held. And what we did was we conducted a rescue operation. And this individual, when we found him, was chained in the basement, severely dehydrated and he was beaten as well. And we saved his life.” Benson said.

BECK: All right, is it true that some of these people that are kidnapping in Atlanta are as young as 16 years old? The kidnappers?

BENSON: We’re seeing younger individuals being deployed by Mexican cartel leadership up into the United States to work for these cartels. Google or click on: Mexican drug cartels infiltrating colleges and high school campuses in America

BECK: Okay, there are two people who have a little bit of credibility on this. There’s the Gwinnett D.A. that said this is not a blip. This is significant in what’s going on here. U.S. Attorney for the northern part of Georgia said, we are about to see the extreme violence that is happening south of the border happen here in America.

“Not a lot of people because nobody is really covering this in the mainstream media, according to Beck. Google or click on: Young girl raped and beheaded in Florida by Mexican traffickers

But we’re watching it. The violence south of the border is off the charts. It’s more violent there than it is in Baghdad or Afghanistan. They’re beheading people said Benson.
Beck, do you believe this is the kind of stuff that is coming our way if we don’t do something and pay attention to this?

What we’re doing, Glenn, is we’re aggressively attacking that problem. Clearly, Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the dominant force that we’re facing here in the metro area. They’re responsible for the lion’s share of cocaine and methamphetamine and marijuana and black tar heroin that’s being distributed here.

It’s coming here; it’s going up the Eastern Seaboard.

We’re facing a very -- it’s a challenge for us. They’re getting more sophisticated. They’re absolutely armed to the teeth; AK-47s and other weapons. According to Benson.

BECK asks: And they’re targeting this county because this is a large Hispanic community. So these drug gangs are just kind of trying to blend in to the Hispanic community? What is the reaction for the community? Are they standing up? Or are they afraid? Google or click on: Mexican Drug cartels terror reaches deep into the U.S.

It’s not just that county, Glenn. What you have is multiple counties in metro Atlanta. Now we’re seeing it, too, in a big way in North Carolina.

The community is reporting information to police. And that’s what they should continue to do. There’s a steady stream of tips and leads that come into law enforcement that we’re able to react to and I don’t anticipate that stopping anytime soon. Said Benson.

"Their idea is to control the whole economic process of production and distribution," said Georgina Sanchez, an independent security consultant in Mexico and executive director of a public safety policy institute

DEA agents say that the cartels' incursions into the United States are spurring more secondary crimes, such as shootings, kidnapping, and murders.