Pima County sees the spillover from the cartel’s battling for control of the smuggling corridors in to the United States everyday. About 15 percent of the Pima County jail’s population, about 300 inmates, are criminal aliens—individuals here unlawfully who have committed a felony (other than just violating immigration laws). Most of the serious violence so far has been confined to cartel-on-cartel attacks. The cartels, often heavily armed, try to seize the loads from their competitors as they are transshipped through the border counties into the interior of the United States. …
The character of the cartel war as seen in Pima County can be brutal. One “bandit” tactic is to organize small teams that camp out for days in the desert living on peanut butter and gallons of water. They set-up scouts on the hill tops to look out for law enforcement, as well as competitors. When a train of backpackers laden with dope are traversing the foot hills, an ambush team is quickly dispatched with sniper rifles. The packers are given a choice—give up their loads or their lives. Sometimes, …
Yesterday, the Obama Administration sought to quiet mounting anxiety about Mexican drug violence and border spillover when it named the nation’s next Drug Czar, Gil Kerlikowske, police chief in Seattle on March 11. The position, the Vice President noted, will no longer be considered a cabinet-level office. The Vice President Biden used the opportunity to offer the most extensive White House comments thus far on the Mexico situation. The challenges facing the Chief are going to be daunting. Nowhere is that more true than in the southwest border today. All …
The Mexican government’s war with international drug cartels has been spilling over into the United States at an alarming rate. Just yesterday the Los Angeles Times reported that Phoenix has become a “kidnap-for-ransom capital.” Today at noon, The Heritage Foundation will host a panel titled: The Fire Next Door: Mexico’s Drug Cartel Crisis and What the U.S. Should Do About It. Speakers include: General Barry R. McCaffrey (ret.) President, BR McCaffrey Associates LLC Stephen Johnson Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere, Office of the Secretary of …
