By Michael Webster: Syndicated Investigative reporter. Sept 15, 2009 at 10:30 AM PDT.

 

 

Mexican Nationals are fleeing into the United States in record numbers many fearing for their lives. Most because of the Mexican civil war that is raging between the Mexican Government, the Mexican Drug Cartels (MDC’s) and the cartels fighting among themselves over lucrative drug and human smuggling routes in both Mexico and the U.S. Many believe they are safer here than in Mexico. Many of these refugees are Mexican business people, ranchers, police, politicians and even cartel members who fear for their lives. Still others were victims being shaken down for protection money by the cartels similar to the American mafia tactics of the twenty’s and thirty’s. Many of them fear retaliation for not paying the cash or are just not welling to pay anymore.

Shopkeepers along the U.S. Mexican border recite the list of "protection" fees they pay to the MDC’s to just stay in business: 100 pesos a month for a stall in a street market, 30,000 pesos for an auto dealership or construction-supply firm.

First offense for nonpayment: a severe beating. Those who keep ignoring the fees - or try to charge their own - may pay with their lives.

"Every day you can see the people they have beaten up being taken to the IMSS," said auto mechanic Jesus Hernandez, motioning to the government-run hospital a few doors from his repair shop.

Mexican drug cartels have morphed into full-scale mafias, running extortion and protection rackets and are trafficking in everything from people to pirated DVDs and even entered the black market oil and gas business. As once-lucrative cocaine profits have fallen and U.S. and Mexican authorities crack down on all drug trafficking to the U.S., gangs are branching into new ventures - some easier and more profitable than drugs

 

No one knows the real number of these refugees but some experts believe they number in the thousands

“There’s an increasing number of (cartel) leaders living in the U.S., probably either to escape law enforcement or their enemies in Mexico, so that’s one of the risks that has increased in the last few years,” said Stephen Meiners, a senior tactical analyst for Latin America at Stratfor, a global intelligence company based in Austin, Texas.

“There’s a possibility that this thing could get out of hand,” he said.

Shannon O’Neil, an expert on Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations, said she knows of no other high-level killings in the U.S., but fears it won’t be the last.

“We have started to see more brazenness close to the border on the Mexican side and on the U.S. side,” O’Neil said. “Once you get these organizations firmly established in Mexico and the United States, you will have killings at all different levels.”

But no one is safe against the Mexican mobsters not even in the states where not only Mexican nationals  but American men, women and children have been kidnapped taken to Mexico and killed and other Americans murdered right here on American soil by orders of the MDC’s.  Recently a deputy U.S. marshal and Ice informant have been tracked down and assassinated by the cartel henchmen.

 

MDC’s are ordering decapitations  hooding victims before they shoot them. The Cartels are sending a chilling message to the Mexican President Felipe Calderon Administration by adopting methods of intimidation made notorious by Middle Eastern terrorist groups.

 

Dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped, held hostage and killed by their captors in Mexico and many cases remain unsolved. Moreover, new cases of disappearances and kidnap-for-ransom continue to be reported yet no high level warning has been issued to protect Americans against this world class violence.

 

Mexican MDC’s have crossed over again into U.S. the violence and insecurity generated by the drug war in Mexico, has crossed into the US, according to Jesse Tovar, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriffs Department.  He cites the abduction of a man at gunpoint by three men from his home in Horizon City, Texas, on September 3, who was found five days later executed by strangulation in Cd. Juarez.

American gangs are operating throughout the country representing the MDC’s they get their drugs from the cartels smuggled into this country by the MDC’s foot solders in turn the U.S. gangs sale the fronted drugs to street dealers consisting mainly of smaller American gangs, dealers and drug attic’s supporting their habits. The U.S. gangs are fronted the drugs and they set up drug trafficking operations and distribution systems throughout the country.  They represent the MDC’s by collecting millions owed by U.S. street dealers. They also act as enforcers for the cartels when ever the cartels feel they have been ripped off or someone owes the cartels money from fronted drugs. Many of the so called common drive by shootings are no longer just over turf or gang ego. Many of these deaths are ordered executions by the MDC’s.  Today the gang business is much more dangerous and sophisticated with much more cash involved. These same gangs carrying out cartel orders with gangland style killings across the country acting as paid hit men killing, wounding and maiming Americans in the thousands, according to law enforcement.

 

Robert Clifford, head of the national task force, has said "no single law-enforcement action is really going to deal the type of blow" necessary to dismantle the gangs. No one is more interested in busting up gangs than leaders of the Latino community, who live with the fear and fallout of the gang's savage drug dealing and murderous actions.

Violence in Mexico broke a new record on reaching 5,018 execution murders so far this year. This past week, with the murder of dozens of people, the number passed the 5,000 mark for murders by the war on drugs violence.  This brings the present total during President Calderon’s term to 13,599. [He took office December 1, 2006.]

 In the trenches of both sides of the war on drugs in Mexico the fighters who form the front lines in that war are not only Mexican military but also Para-military of the MDC’s.  They have become the expendable contingents the real face of the war on drugs that the Mexican military and the cartels are waging including the American gangs has one main characteristic: youths who average 20 years of age.  The only thing that marks the difference between the soldiers and the cartel mercenaries is the uniforms. The MDC’s soldiers and gangs have no uniforms but all carry modern day combat weaponry.

 

For Related Articles go to: www.lagunajournal.com

 

Sources:

Laguna Journal

El Paso Times

DEA

Mexican Officials

NAFBPO

El Paso Sheriff’s Office

Mexican Consulate

 

Michael Webster’s Syndicated Investigative Reports are read worldwide, in 100 or more U.S. outlets and in at least 136 countries and territories. He publishes articles in association with global news agencies and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 136 countries. Many of Mr. Webster’s articles are printed in six working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. With ten more languages planed in the near future.

Mr. Webster is America's leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding. He served as a trustee on some of the nation’s largest trade Union funds. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs and War on Terrorist Specialist, Business Consultant, Newspaper Publisher. Radio News caster. Labor Law generalist, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank and File Member Grievances Representative, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative. Mr. Webster represented management on that side of the table as the former Director of Federated of Nevada. Mr. Webster publishes on-line newspapers at www.lagunajournal.com  and www.usborderfirereport.com  and does investigative reports for print, electronic and on-line News Agencies. All of Mr. Webster's articles, books/CD's can be read or downloaded free at: http://www.lagunajournal.com/michael_webster.htm or MICHAEL WEBSTER'S OTHER WRITINGS