FBI - Two Leaders of Baltimore Drug Ring Exiled to 45 Years in Prison - Los Zetas

August 28, 2012

District of Maryland

(410) 209-4800

BALTIMORE-U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Wade Coats,
age 47, of Baltimore, and Jose Cavazos, age 44, of Midlothian, Texas, today
each to 45 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for
conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Coats was also
sentenced for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking
crime.

...

"A substantial portion of the illegal drugs distributed in Maryland are
imported from the Mexican border," said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.
"This case demonstrates the international ties of a local drug dealer."

According to evidence presented at the five-day jury trial, from 2005 to
February 2010, Coats and his co-defendant James Bostic, age 41, of
Baltimore, Maryland, received cocaine and marijuana from the Los Zetas
Mexican Drug Cartel, which he and other conspirators distributed. From 2005
to April 28, 2009 Cavazos would receive 20-25 kilograms of cocaine from the
cartel twice a month for delivery to Coats. Cavazos or his employees would
drive the cocaine to Baltimore.

Read More:
http://www.fbi.gov/baltimore/press-releases/2012/two-leaders-of-baltimore-dr
ug-ring-exiled-to-45-years-in-prison

Mexico extradites alleged drug cartel leader Eduardo Arellano Felix to US - The Washington Post

Mexico extradites alleged drug cartel leader Eduardo Arellano Felix to US

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, August 31, 8:38 PM

"SAN DIEGO - Mexico extradited Eduardo Arellano-Felix to the United States
Friday, marking what one U.S. official said was the end of a 20-year
investigation into the once-mighty drug cartel headed by his older brother.

Arellano Felix, 55, arrived in the United States and will make an initial
court appearance Tuesday in San Diego on charges of narcotics trafficking,
racketeering and money laundering, said Laura Duffy, the U.S. attorney in
San Diego, who built her career on the case."

Full Article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/mexico-extradites-alleged-drug-cartel
-leader-eduardo-arellano-felix-to-us/2012/08/31/551f8ee4-f3cd-11e1-b74c-84ed
55e0300b_story.html

Public Event: The New Mexican Government and Its Prospects 27Sep12 Washington DC

The New Mexican Government and Its Prospects
September 27, 2012
George Washington University
Washington, DC, United States
Open to the General Public

Details coming soon.

Partners: George Washington University Center for Latin American Issues,
U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute

Links and Contacts

Email Point of Contact: john.d.colwell.mil@mail.mil

Please note that all colloquia require RSVP.

Question- When did the Drug War Begin in Mexico? Answer – About 100 Years Ago

 

The First North American Drug Traffickers - Chinese Immigrants

The US Coast Guard recognizes Chinese Immigrants as the first recognized drug smugglers dating back to the 1870s. They were the first to develop sophisticated maritime drug trafficking networks for cocaine, heroin and opium into the US. One of the US Border Patrol’s first missions (1885) was not to focus on illegal Mexican immigration, but on illegal Chinese immigration coming in from Mexico.

The Drug Zones of Yesteryear are the Drug Zones of Today

Chinese immigrants who arrived in Mexico during the 1910s and the 1920s served as railroad workers. Some of these immigrants, however, decided to make money through illicit means.  It was also during this time some of these immigrants grew and distributed opium. Chinese immigrants formed “Tong” gangs to run the first  drug trade in Mexico. Poppy was often grown in the Sinaloa region of Mexico; Sinaloa being the home of today’s infamous Sinaloa Cartel. Ciudad Juarez, another area known for its recent high volume of drug cartel hub activity today, was a hub for heroin as far back as the 1930s. Ignacia Jasso Gonzalez, known in history as La Nacha, reportedly left the state of Durango, to Ciudad Juarez to make money after the Mexican Revolution around the 1920s. Envious of the Chinese successes in illicit trade, she and her husband began a propaganda campaign to subvert the Chinese drug traffickers by exploiting ethnic tensions between Mexicans and Chinese over lack of jobs, cultural differences and biases in order to position herself to eventually take over the networks. Matamoros, home turf to today’s Los Zetas, was known for marijuana and other drug trafficking since the 1930s. US Border security and containment to prevent the flow of drugs into the US was a problem all the way back then.

So What?

The takeaway from this little insight is that Mexico’s drug trade and internal drug conflict is not new; it has gone on for about 100 years now. What is new is the intensity and level of violence, its cancerous subversion of local and state mechanisms initially caused by a lack of effective governance. The drug trade filled a void many leaders of Mexico chose to ignore for personal profit or gain-this will be addressed in later postings. The drug culture and way of life is buried deep in the lives of many Mexicans. Any Mexican government or US government response will require much consideration and well-thought action to mitigate the potential for the conflict to go into thermal runaway. That response will understandably take generations to affect, and that response must fill any potential voids the drug trade filled. We are not only talking about eradicating crime, we are also very much talking about changing a culture for a significant number of Mexican citizens.

Cheers, SWOT Hunter

**Source information is hyperlinked and cited.  Wave your cursor over the text to view the source information.

31Aug12

BBC News - Mexico judge orders arrest of ex-Governor Yarrington

"A Mexican judge has issued an arrest warrant for a former state governor
for allegedly fomenting drug trafficking.

Tomas Yarrington, who was the governor of the northern state of Tamaulipas
from 1999 until 2005, is suspected of accepting millions of dollars in
bribes from Mexican drug cartels."

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19417715

Report: Guadalajara Represents Mexico's Present, Future Crime Battles

Subject: Report: Guadalajara Represents Mexico's Present, Future Crime
Battles

The report, published in early August (and available here), sees the greater
area of Guadalajara as a microcosm of the rest of the country where various
"tiers" of criminal organizations ally to control this important financial
and residential hub.

Read More:
http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/3107-guadalajara-crime-
jalisco-cartel-southern-pulse

Mexico Shooting: Probe Into U.S. Officials Shooting Reveals Key Details

Note: This news article was written by the author of 'El Narco', Ioan
Grillo.

"The men, traveling with a Mexican Marine captain, were wounded and taken to
a hospital for treatment, though their injuries were not life threatening.
Television footage showed the vehicle strafed with bullet marks, its tires
and rear window shot out.

A dozen federal police officers detained and questioned over the attack have
been ordered held in custody for 40 days, and in initial statements to
federal prosecutors they claimed they confused the Americans for criminals.

However, eyewitnesses at a bend in the road outside the small town of Tres
Marias told Reuters the gunmen were dressed in plain clothes and carried
rifles. They said they pursued the Americans firing from unmarked cars
trying to box them in and on foot -- a classic style of gangland hits in
Mexico.

"We had no idea at all they were police. They looked like criminals," said
one woman who witnessed the incident but asked not to be named for fear of
repercussions."

Read More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/mexico-shooting-probe_n_1840991.htm
l?utm_hp_ref=world

Resource/Recommended Read: Mexico's Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Rising Violence 3Aug12

This piece provides readers excellent context, for both novice and experts,
regarding Mexico's Drug War. The author introduces readers to the history
of the drug conflict and its impact on the state from political,
military/security, informational/perceptual, economic, societal and other
realms. The only thing the piece appears to lack are some deeper societal
and cultural impacts the drug has on society, but those can be obtained by
reading other material.

Mexico's Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Rising
Violence
June S. Beittel
Analyst in Latin American Affairs
August 3, 2012

Source Link: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R41576.pdf

In Mexico, Rehearsing to Inject Drama Into the Courtroom - New York Times

"More open trials, the theory goes, will increase due process and accountability in a country where the much-publicized arrests of cartel bosses are common, but the actual convictions of criminals are not. Fewer than a quarter of crimes in Mexico are reported and over all, just 2 percent result in sentences, according to a 2010 report by the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego."

In Mexico, Rehearsing to Inject Drama Into the Courtroom - New York Times
MEXICO CRIME - GOOGLE NEWS | AUGUST 27, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/cHazg


New York TimesIn Mexico, Rehearsing to Inject Drama Into the CourtroomNew York TimesMore open trials, the theory goes, will ... Read more

--
Sent via Pulse

Crime Group Suspected in US Ambush in Mexico - Wall Street Journal

"MEXICO CITY—Twelve Mexican federal police were under investigation on Sunday over an ambush that wounded two American diplomats in the hills above the Mexican capital, as suspicions mounted that an organized crime group may have been involved in the attack."

Crime Group Suspected in US Ambush in Mexico - Wall Street Journal
MEXICO CRIME - GOOGLE NEWS | AUGUST 26, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/cIwCC


ABC NewsCrime Group Suspected in US Ambush in MexicoWall Street JournalMEXICO CITY—Twelve Mexican federal police were under ... Read more

--
Sent via Pulse

Guadalajara- cartel road blockades

"According to Milenio, the majority of the road blockades took place outside of Guadalajara (see map below showing the municipalities where road blockades were reported). This does suggest that these were highly coordinated actions, either intended to demonstrate the reach of the Jalisco Cartel or to distract the security forces from some other activity, perhaps El Mencho's escape from the area."

Source:  http://www.insightcrime.org/insight-latest-news/item/3105-guadalajara-road-blockades-jalisco-cartel

Mexican gangs block roads, torch vehicles in western Mexico - Chicago Tribune

mexico violence - Google News
August 26, 2012 0:11

Mexican gangs block roads, torch vehicles in western Mexico - Chicago Tribune

Sydney Morning Herald

Mexican gangs block roads, torch vehicles in western Mexico Chicago Tribune MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Armed gangs blocked highways throughout Guadalajara, Mexico's second biggest city, on Saturday and vehicles were set on fire amid a surge in drug-war violence. Police confirmed seven unauthorized roadblocks constructed with ... Mexican gangs block roads, torch vehiclesTVNZ Mexico Police Fire on US Embassy Vehicle in Crime-Patrol AreaBloomberg Mexican police officers shoot two US diplomatsTehran Times Northern Voices Online all 821 news articles »

Cheers M8

Sent from my iPhone.

Mexico, before and after Calderon's drug war - latimes.com

Looking back, the TBI report suggests that drug-related violence may have begun to surge two years before Calderón took office.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-mexico-before-and-after-calderns-war-20120823,0,2496010.story

Cheers M8

Sent from my iPhone.

Cheran, Michoacan, Mexico: Failed Governance and The People’s Rebellion 15 April 2011 to April 2012

Situation

This 18.5 minute video shows what local people did to mitigate organized criminal activities (drug cartel types and lumberjacks) in a small town located in the Mexican state of Michoacan. For three years, people in this small down were murdered, kidnapped, robbed and extorted.

This video is about a group of women who set the conditions for a local rebellion which seized control of their local government to rid their community of organized criminal influence. The video underlines the importance that organized criminal activity can be disrupted if the people band together- yes, it comes with risk.

People of Cheran Revolt

The people of Cheran suffered under heavy organized criminal influence over a three to four year period, then finally had an uprising in 2011 to take back their community.  The church, not the municipal office, served as the foundation for command, control and communication over their community.  From there the locals developed a plan of action to establish security.  The locals then studied how to establish their own form of governance. 

Failed Governance

Ironically, it was the police who helped the criminals rob the people, and a civilian government (local, state and national) that failed to act.  See how the people stand up for themselves.

Lessons Learned and the Significance

This is a good news story.  The successes of counterinsurgency is rooted in the ability of the people to take control of their government; NOT by constantly relying on their government to run everything for them.  In 2007, Iraq experienced such an incident that changed the whole outcome of the conflict in Iraq.  There are indications some of this is happening in Afghanistan as well.  There’s much to learn from this video.