Mexican Drug Cartels

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

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

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

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...

Sunday, June 26, 2011

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.