In Mexico, Old Clothes Can be Bad News - Fox News Latino

Comment: Social problems breakdown a country and sow the seeds to insurgency, revolution or a criminally run environment. The drug war has impacted the country in multiple ways:

-The government's ability to function by ensuring stability in small communities is disrupted and is contributing to instability in parts of the state and possibly the state of Mexico in the long-term. Police are killed or bribed and made subservient to the cartels which actually rule under invisible fiefdoms throughout Mexico.

-Informationally, the cartels continue to dominate the psychological environment by instilling discipline and support from the people by fear or money.

-Security is obviously disrupted, people don't know who to trust because people serve as spies that support the cartels. Who ever dominates the psychological terrain wins the fight, as security and stability is as much about perception than reality, and whoever sends out the strongest narrative will be recognized as dominant.

-Economy; the impacts of the drug war impact other parts of society and state stability and security. Underground economies surface, and the state finances suffers as the underground meets the desires better and faster than the government making the government seemingly irrelevant...contributing to further disintegration. The drug war is impacting bull fighters, the lumber and mining industries in addition to other markets such as the one below.

If Mexico cannot address the issue effectively the state of Mexico as we know it will meet its demise.

End comment.

"In Mexico, Old Clothes Can be Bad News With its textile industry hard hit, Mexico has developed a thriving black market in used, counterfeit or pirated clothing. And authorities are fighting back."

Visit: In Mexico, Old Clothes Can be Bad News - Fox News Latino

Example: Slowing Crime in Mexico

Comment: While crime is rampant in Mexico, it can be disrupted. Below is a tool used in various parts of the US to aid in this effort that might be of use to Mexico. Maybe Mexico can use the drug money captured during raids to pay members of the public willing to turn on the cartel.  End comment.

"How Crime Stoppers/Solvers was started"

The concept of paying for information about crimes was the brainchild of former Albuquerque, NM police detective Greg MacAleese. In 1974 Albuquerque had the highest crime rate per capita of any city in the country. Detective MacAleese came up with an idea on how to keep callers anonymous while being rewarded for coming forward by using the television media to show a tape of a reconstructed robbery and murder at a remote convenience store. A woman saw the tape on television and called to report a single piece of information. That tip lead to the arrest of the suspect who was later convicted. The Albuquerque Police Department began to show crime regularly. Other jurisdictions picked up on the idea, the first being Arlington Crime Solvers in Virginia in 1979. Out of this nationwide action, several coordinating organizations were formed at various times to support their effort. These organizations were Crime Stoppers International, Inc., Crime Stoppers USA, Inc., Southeastern Crime Stoppers Association, Inc., Virginia Crime Stoppers Association, Inc. and the hundreds of local programs across the United States."

Visit the source page for more information by clicking: Does it Work

Mexico details La Familia extortion practices

Comment:  This article is too good not to read in its entirety.  Why?  Because the techniques and tactics described here are similar to what one would find in insurgency environments; you have government penetrations, government collusion, extortion, infiltration of government, society, economy, etc.  You can also see how important perception management and control is to the cartel via their heavy reliance on propaganda.  These activities are also what one will find in underground movements.  End comment.

 

Feed: Borderland Beat
Posted on: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 12:37 AM
Author: Ovemex
Subject: Mexico details La Familia extortion practices

 

Nacha Cattan AP Mexico's cult-like La Familia drug cartel conducts widespread extortion rackets aimed at farmers, miners and even bullfight organizers while getting protection from state police commanders, federal officials said Sunday. Mexico's federal police agency, the Public Security Secretariat, outlined the local businesses preyed upon in a new report on the extent of the gang's corruption and intimidation tactics in its home base of Michoacan state. In order to supplement drug-trafficking income, La Familia forces miners to pay $1.50 per ton of metal they sell and cattle ranchers to pay $1 per kilogram of meat, it said. Michoacan's rich lime and avocado farms are subject to "quotas," or a percentage of farmers' earnings. Bullfights, cockfights and concerts also are extorted, the report says. While news reports of extortion by drug gangs have become common, authorities had not confirmed in detail the extent of La Familia's hold on raw material production in the western state. The report came five days after federal authorities apprehended La Familia's alleged leader, claiming the arrest was a debilitating blow against the crime group. Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas, alias El Chango, or "The Monkey," was the last remaining head of the cartel that authorities say has terrorized Mexico's western states. The report charges that Michoacan state police commanders aid La Familia in its operations by permitting cartel operatives to use patrol cars, radio frequencies and police uniforms. The report relates how one former state police official used patrol cars to block off streets and help hit men escape other police. "They used state police infrastructure to establish routes and ensure the safety of their armed commandos," the report says. La Familia makes extensive use of propaganda, such as organizing marches against the government's offensive against drug gangs, generating rumors of police abuse and reporting false human rights complaints, the report says. Still, authorities say they have managed to push the cartel into mountainous regions and have detained or killed most of its top leaders. The report says more than 700 La Familia members have been arrested since 2008, mainly in Michoacan and Mexico State, which borders Mexico City. But the leader of a violent splinter group, which calls itself the Knights Templar, remains at large. La Familia was born in President Felipe Calderón's home state of Michoacan in 2006. When he took office in December of that year, Calderón sent thousands of federal police there and warned that the cartel was corrupting local officials and extorting businesses. Even with the gang's setbacks, there are signs La Familia is still active. Seven bodies were found early Sunday in two different spots outside Mexico City along with messages purportedly signed by La Familia, the Mexico State prosecutor's office told The Associated Press. Prosecutor spokesman Alfredo Albiter said police were trying to verify whether the messages left near the bodies in both Valle de Chalco and Ixtapaluca in Mexico State were indeed written by La Familia members.

View article...

Cartel Extortion Practices/Targets

Source: Mexico details La Familia extortion practices - San Jose Mercury News

Excerpt from article by Associated Press:

MEXICO CITY—Mexico's federal police agency says the Michoacan-based La Familia drug gang extorts a wide variety of industries, including avocado and lime farmers, miners, ranchers and even bullfighting organizers.

The Public Security Secretariat says that in order to supplement its income, La Familia forces miners to pay $1.50 per ton of metal sold to China and cattle ranchers to pay $1 per kilogram of meat.

Mexican drug cartels turn to teen girl assassins

Check out this great MSN video: Mexican drug cartels turn to teen girl assassins

Mexican troops replace police in half a state that borders Texas - CNN.com

Mexican troops replace police in half a state that borders Texas - CNN.com

About 2,800 soldiers were deployed to 22 of 43 cities in the state, which borders Texas and is among the most violent in the country. The show of force came as President Felipe Calderon defended his drug war strategy in the face of mounting criticism from activists.

The soldiers took over policing duties in the state's largest cities, including the capital, Ciudad Victoria, and the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros.

Arrested kingpin says Mexican cartel nearing extinction - Fox News Latino

Arrested kingpin says Mexican cartel nearing extinction - Fox News Latino

Mexico City – Jesus "El Chango" Mendez, leader of the La Familia Michoacana drug cartel, told authorities after his arrest this week that the organization is close to complete collapse, Mexico's Public Safety Secretariat said.
The detainee, who was captured in a police operation in the central state of Aguascalientes without putting up any resistance, said in remarks released Thursday that La Familia is "going to be dismantled" and that its days are numbered.

21st century Pablo Escobars? The men behind Mexico's most powerful cartels

21st century Pablo Escobars? The men behind Mexico's most powerful cartels

Mexico declared a major victory Wednesday when it arrested the leader of the La Familia drug gang and 50 of its members, calling the group finished after the arrests. But the deadly drug war in Mexico is far from over. Many experts expect the remaining La Familia members to join allied groups and for its territory to be absorbed by other traffickers. Here’s a look at Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels

Mexico winning cartel war

Comment:  There's does appear to be truth to this.  The Mexican government also recently increased military presense patrols along the border.  The police there have been too corrupted to secure the towns.  As for more democratization, I'm not sure about that yet.  Despite all this, there is no doubt the government is making some positive gains.  However, these gains will be mute if the underground economy is not replaced with some positive and sustainable.  End comment.

Source: Contrary to popular belief, Mexico winning cartel war Viewpoints, Outlook Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Key excerpts:

A factor making it increasingly difficult for the cartels to operate is that they are being hunted by a variety of Mexican military and law enforcement agencies. The Mexican army and marines operate independently. The Mexican federal police force has quintupled in size to 33,000 officers (and U.S. sources describe their cooperation with American law enforcement as unprecedented). Finally, there is the smaller Agencia Federal de Investigación. Each of these entities is pursuing the cartels, sometimes collaboratively, sometimes independently, and each has taken down important cartel capos.

Another important variable is that it has also become much more difficult and costly for cartels to ensure control and protection. Prior to 2000, in PRI-controlled, pre-democracy Mexico, what was decreed at the top levels of government was enforced all the way down to the poorest municipalities. That made corruption efficient. Well-placed bribes at the top controlled everything up and down the line.

Today's playing field is much more complex, given that there are so many actors. For example, even though the Beltrán Leyva cartel was paying the head of the organized crime unit in the Mexican Attorney General's Office $450,000 a month to provide information about investigations and operations, Mexican army special forces arrested Alfredo Beltrán Leyva in January 2008. His brother, Arturo Beltrán Leyva was subsequently killed in December 2009 by the Mexican marines. There are simply too many players tracking down the cartels and the latter can't pay everyone off. Mexico's fledgling democratization has also increased the cartels' cost of doing business. Once a country where a single party controlled everything, today Mexico's three most influential political parties control governorships and municipalities, making it more cumbersome and expensive for the cartels to control local and regional institutions.

Together, the decimation of the cartels, the strengthening of federal law enforcement institutions, and Mexico's increasing democratization bode well for Mexico's future. However, for the present, taking down cartel operatives and unprecedented seizures of cash, weapons and drugs have had no appreciable impact on the one metric that matters most to the Mexican public: the level of violence. The vast majority of deaths are due to gang-on-gang disputes related to the local retail drug business. This violence is more akin to the Bloods and the Crips killing one another off in the streets of South Central than it is a cartel war per se. The fracturing of the cartels has also resulted in a proliferation of criminal bands engaging in ordinary street crime, including the lucrative kidnapping and extortion business. This crime is taking an enormous toll on citizens, which is why Calderón's popularity is sagging, notwithstanding his government's success against the cartels.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7626870.html#ixzz1QO7IU3xV

La Familia is Extinct

Comment: Report claims La Familia is destroyed. End comment.

"This capture destroys the remaining leadership structure of this criminal organization," Alejandro Poire said.

But experts say Poire and the Mexican government may be right this time. The leader's capture, they say, effectively marks the end of La Familia Michoacana.

Source: Drug lord's capture means demise of La Familia cartel, experts say - CNN

'El Chapo': The Most Powerful Drug Lord in History?

source: 'El Chapo': The Most Powerful Drug Lord in History?

Joaquin Guzman is currently one of the most wanted criminals in the world. In fact, Guzman’s power has become so great that a senior U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) official recently told Forbes magazine that the kingpin is now the most influential drug runner in history. “Chapo has a vast criminal enterprise and he has become the leading drug trafficker of all time,” said the official, who asked to be left anonymous due to security concerns. “He is the godfather of the drug world.”

Seven Mexican Cops Arrested for Killing Marine

source: Borderland Beat: Seven Mexican Cops Arrested for Killing Marine

The anti-drug operation, however, has failed to put a dent in the violence due, according to experts, to drug cartels’ ability to buy off the police and even high-ranking officials.

Latin American Herald Tribune - Gunmen Kill Police Chief in Eastern Mexico

Source: Latin American Herald Tribune - Gunmen Kill Police Chief in Eastern Mexico

VERACRUZ, Mexico – A police chief was killed and three civilians were wounded by gunmen in southern Veracruz, a state on Mexico’s Gulf coast where drug-related violence has been on the rise due to a turf war involving three cartels.

Comment: Note that the cartels are effective because they carry out a death penalty, but the state does not. If you were a local and you felt pressure to support one of them, who would you fear most? Who would you likely cooperate with, especially since you have no ability to protect yourself.  This is one major issue that likely continues to feed the drug war...passive, active and tacit support...epsecially if there are no jobs to make good money.  End comment.

NOT GOOD : California Gangs form alliance wi...

The American Backyard.NET: Borderland Beat: California Gangs form alliance wi...: "Comment: If true, which I believe there is some truth here, this is bad...real bad...no hyperbolae here. Why? Because a number of US cities,..."

Borderland Beat: Raided Mexican Ranch Linked to U.S. Drug War Corruption

Comment: This article is about bleed-over and internal corruption on the US side of the border. The piece also highlights the need for a strong, vibrant counterintelligence (CI) program. For those unfamiliar with CI, CI focuses on targeting threats that conduct espionage, sabotage, terrorism and subversion. The common thread to all four activities revolves around infiltration in order to develop access to their objectives or targets...hence nodes for infilitration e.g. person, place or thing should be targeted. Infiltration and subversion are best conducted by the enemy via the use of indirect approaches, meaning subtle pressure/force, persistence, etc all while being low-key in order to not tip off your target or adversary.  This achieves surprise. 

1. Adapt, Die or Be Irrelevant 
2. Boyd, Infiltration and the Ambush 
3. The Mask of Subversion - A Snap Shot

End Comment.

Article Excerpt:

The recent raid of a stash site on the Mexican side of the border suspected of containing a cache of guns and/or drugs is drawing attention once again to the U.S. border town of Columbus, N.M. — where 11 people, including the mayor, police chief and a village trustee, were recently indicted on gun-running charges.The Mexican stash site was raided this past Wednesday evening, June 15, according to former CIA contract pilot and New Mexico resident Tosh Plumlee, who was present at the scene taking photos.The stash site — actually two warehouse buildings on a ranch just south of the border and some 20 to 30 miles east of Palomas, Mexico, which borders Columbus — was allegedly raided by the Mexican military in cooperation with a U.S. military special-operations task force, Plumlee asserts. That Pentagon task force has been active inside Mexico and along the border region for several years and provided intelligence and other unspecified support for the recent raid, according to Plumlee.

Read full article: Borderland Beat: Raided Mexican Ranch Linked to U.S. Drug War Corruption
Also check out:  Thwarting Enemies at Home and Abroad: How to Be a Counterintelligence Officer

Mexico's Drug Wars and the Presidential Election

Comment: Very good article. The piece basically says that the drug war will continue regardless if Calderon stays in office, or not. One example used in the article to support the argument references the current US President Barak Obamas criticizing Bush during the election campaign by taking the US to war and promised to end them...yet the US is now involved in more wars than during the Bush presidency.

Excerpt:

While this political rhetoric may be effective in tapping public discontent with the current situation in Mexico — and perhaps obtaining votes for opposition parties — the current environment in Mexico is far different from what it was in the 1990s. This environment will dictate that no matter who wins the 2012 election, the new president will have little choice but to maintain the campaign against the Mexican cartels.

Read: Mexico's Drug Wars and the Presidential Election

Also check out:  Drug War Zone: Frontline Dispatches from the Streets of El Paso and Juárez

Drug war: One cartel falls, another rises - latimes.com

Comment: This article should be read in it's entirety. While it talks about how the Mexican Cartels replaced the Colombian Cartels in terms of driving the drug trade, the piece goes well into how the Colombian cartels spread out into other segments of society. It makes one ask themself the question, is where will Mexico draw the line? End comment.

Colombia's Cali cocaine cartel, once the richest and most powerful crime syndicate in the world, fell as a direct result of U.S.-led law enforcement and diplomatic pressure about a decade ago. Its toppling remains one of the most significant blows inflicted on modern organized crime.

But the giant cartel's collapse left a power vacuum, and Mexican drug gangs are still fighting, with often grisly methods, to determine who will fill it.

Source: Drug war: One cartel falls, another rises - latimes.com

Drug wars: Colombia cartel's demise spawned the drug violence that now plagues Mexico - latimes.com

Also check out: Hostage Nation: Colombia's Guerrilla Army and the Failed War on Drugs

Zetas leader Killed in Matamoros

17Jun11- Heriberto “El Lazca” Lazcano Lazcano, one of the original founders of los Zetas, was reportedly killed in a gunfight with members of the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros, Mexico.

Some interesting nuances:

-Lazcano arrived in Matamoros amidst a Zetas convoy of approximately 130 SUVs.  He was reportedly killed in a shootout the erupted with cartel members.  11 Zetas members (men and women) were caputured by Gulf Cartel members.

-The Gulf Cartel is said to have Lazcano's body.

-An unnamed US federal law enforcement official stated that a local Mexican military unit worked with los Zetas members to get the 11 hostages released.

For details read:  Sources: Zetas Head Lazcano Killed in Matamoros

Mexican teenage girls train as drug cartel killers | World | News | Winnipeg Sun

Article claims girls are being recruited to become cartel hit-women.

The piece also addresses other nuances that go beyond the article such as kids carrying guns to school; gang recruitment at around 10 years old. Lack of jobs and opportunity makes working for the cartels a financial opportunity, as the drug trade provides more financial opportunity than the government.


Read: Mexican teenage girls train as drug cartel killers World News Winnipeg Sun

Release of former Tijuana mayor compounds Mexico's judicial credibility problem - CSMonitor.com

Release of former Tijuana mayor compounds Mexico's judicial credibility problem - CSMonitor.com

Mr. Hank Rhon, one of the country's richest men, has been connected to the Tijuana Cartel, the murder of a journalist, breaking customs laws by trafficking ivory, and numerous other shady operations. However, he has consistently eluded jail and remains one of the most powerful men in the state of Baja California. His name circulates as a possible candidate for governor of the state or a return as mayor of Tijuana.

'Crime tunnels' beneath U.S. and Mexican border smuggle people, drugs - International - Catholic Online

'Crime tunnels' beneath U.S. and Mexican border smuggle people, drugs - International - Catholic Online

Tunnels, burrowing under the border between the United States and Mexico have been used to smuggle contraband, drugs, weapons and migrants seeking a better life. Many of the 150 or so estimated tunnels have been in use for more than 20 years.

Mexico suffers bad publicity from war with drug cartels | AHN

Mexico suffers bad publicity from war with drug cartels AHN

Mexico’s concern about a bad image internationally from its war with drug cartels rose again this week amid negative publicity in the United States.

Officials from the industry that brings about 22.5 million tourists to Mexico each year accused the United States of trying to protect its own tourist industry at the expense of its southern neighbor.

“They’re investing in the promotion of tourism in their own country,” Oralia Rice, tourism secretary in Mexico’s Sinaloa state, told the Mexican newspaper Vanguardia. Sinaloa has been a hot spot of violence between the Mexican Army and drug gangs recently.

Read more: http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90051730?Mexico%20suffers%20bad%20publicity%20from%20war%20with%20drug%20cartels#ixzz1PUvk2Dqh

Mexico: A Mosaic Cartel War

Mexico: A Mosaic Cartel War <http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2011/06/mexico-a-mosaic-cartel-war/>

via SWJ Blog http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog  on 6/12/11

Mexico: A Mosaic Cartel War

by Paul Rexton Kan

Download the Full Article: Mexico: A Mosaic Cartel War http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/792-kan.pdf

A situation of high-intensity crime does not mean that a war is not occurring in Mexico. But it is a war of a different kind. In fact, there are several conflicts occurring at once that blend into each other. There is the conflict of cartels among each other, the conflict within cartels...

Download the Full Article: Mexico: A Mosaic Cartel War http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/journal/docs-temp/792-kan.pdf

Number of Cartel Members - Some Things to Consider

Numbers are relative in low intensity conflict environments; an out-of-date term that still should have relevance today, especially in the case of Mexico. 

Why are numbers relative?  In simple terms- SOCIAL NETWORKS.  People belong to social networks; those networks may be familial, societal, professional, etc.  While loners do exist, the Mexican Drug Cartels are anything but loners and leverage both coercion and bribery to establish their networks to sustain their operations.

One has to take into account the Mexican culture and how people interrelate.  They historically have close knit families…ergo, it’s hard to believe that someone in those networks does not know, or fails to perceive, someone in their family does not have ties to the cartels.  This goes for other networks e.g. legal, economic, municipal etc.

So, when an estimate comes out and says the bad guys add up to about 100; starting doubling, tripling, etc. the numbers, because someone in each of those bad guy’s social networks has an idea of what the other person is doing and is not acting against the criminal terrorist for reasons of fear, love, survival or profit.

Below is an example of what a revolutionary movement looks like.  While the cartels of Mexico are not a political movement; they still function in very similar ways, but for profit.  The fighters are the tip of the ice-berg; now look at everything that sustains the iceberg.  The graphic below will be value if the reader switches criminal interests for political interests.  The graphic is from Human Factors Considerations of Undergrounds in Insurgencies by Andrew R Molnar and the Special Operations Research Office (SORO) of the 1960s.

Cartels Have 14000 Armed Men in 2 Mexican Cities, AG Says

*Cartels* Have 14000 Armed Men in 2 Mexican Cities, AG Says

via Google Alerts - drug cartel by Latin American Herald Tribune on 6/8/11

Comment: While one can say there are 14,000 "armed criminals" this only accounts for the overt actors, NOT the support elements...passive and active...that exist in society at large, on city councils, family members, friends and those who live in fear and are afraid to report. End comment.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – At least 14000 "armed criminals" are in the northern Mexican cities of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, working for the drug cartels that are fighting for control of smuggling routes into the United States, Chihuahua state Attorney ...
See all stories on this topic »

Mexican Cartel Tactical Note # 2 (SWJ Blog)

The American Backyard.NET: Mexican Cartel Tactical Note # 2 (SWJ Blog): " Mexican Cartel Tactical Notes: No 2. Ambush/Targeted Killing of US Law Enforcement Officer (San Antonio, Texas) Mexican cartel linkages..."