The Mexican drug wars have become an old story. Media of all
types have given extensive coverage to the battles between and
among criminal gangs and federal police and military. Nonetheless,
the Obama Administration has continued a policy of avoiding
recognition of the danger of the open warfare that exists
immediately south of the United States border with Mexico.
The federal and state governments of Mexico have reacted
quickly to deny commentary that challenges their commitment to
enforcing law and order in their jurisdictions. From Washington
comes an active effort to counter any claims by local law
enforcement in the Southwest that suggest any increase in
trafficking in narcotics and human smuggling.
After organizing Department of Justice lawyers to bring
the State of Arizona to court over their law attempting to enforce
existing federal statutes on illegal immigration, the Obama White
House has done everything it could to play to the politics of the
Spanish-heritage population in the United States. This has included
downplaying the power wielded by Mara Salvatrucha (MS 13) and the
other Hispanic gangs in major cities throughout the U.S. and their
organization in American prison societies.
The Administration’s unwillingness to deploy major units
of federalized National Guard troops to inhibit illegal border
crossing was first thought to be some form of economy measure
and/or turf conflict with the Department of Homeland Security. It
has turned out, however, to be in response to Mexico’s President
Felipe Calderon’s fear that a heavily armed U.S. border would be
deemed by his political opponents as an indication of his
government’s weakness against American attempts to preempt Mexican
sovereignty. Desirous of supporting Calderon, President Obama’s
domestic strategists found a device to once again create a
seemingly logical decision out of a false premise.
Buttressed by the political elements of the American
Hispanic community that do not want the Mexico/US border restricted
in any form, the White House has chosen to pretend there actually
is a lessening of Mexican drug-related action spilling over into
the United States. This in spite of the fact the sheriff of Pinal
County, Arizona, who is also president of the state’s sheriffs
association, has regularly reported continued and even increased
traffic of armed smuggling teams through his and nearby
counties.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that
they had deported a total of 24,950 convicted criminals from
Arizona through July of 2010 out of 66,000 illegal immigrants sent
back across the border. It appears a reasonable assumption that a
substantial number of the nearly 25,000 deported criminals had drug
connections.
Scott Stewart, who closely follows narcotics trafficking
issues for the authoritative analysis service, Stratfor,
reports there has been a “persistent rumor” that the Sinaloa cartel
has had Mexican federal government protection. In the same manner
the story has grown in acceptance that the Juarez cartel wanted
American intervention in order to block the Sinaloa from extending
its operations into Juarez territory. The Juarez operation has been
badly hit by a combination of Sinaloa and Mexican military action.
How coordinated this was has not been revealed, but the Juarez
leadership believes the joint government/Sinaloa efforts against
them have been obvious. Official figures of the Mexican authorities
show over 9,000 drug battle deaths on all sides so far this
year.
The contemporary history of the involvement of
professional military and drug gangs is marked by the fact that the
Los Zetas, now aligned with the Juarez and remnants of the Tijuana
cartel, was originally created by deserters from the Mexican Army
Special Forces Group. There are reports that the remnant of this
original crew is now aided by Guatemala street gangs of MS-13 along
with teams of ex-members of Guatemala Special Forces. Meanwhile the
Sinaloa cartel has allied with La Familia Michoacana (LFM) and the
Gulf cartel to form an umbrella group called the New Federation
that aims to destroy the Los Zetas and take over the Juarez
territories. Here is where the outreach into the U.S. becomes more
clear.
The LFM of the New Federation made its entrée into the
U.S. scene several years ago in Chicago. La Familia Michoacana had
surfaced as drug traffickers in the U.S. matching Los Angeles-based
MS-13 cooptees, Barrio Azteca (the American wing of the Mexican
Azteca) and an eponymous group known as Mexican Mafia. The Drug
Enforcement Agency tracked LFM connections to Dallas, Atlanta and
on to major mid-western cities. The principal activity of LFM is in
end use delivery. The New Federation’s other participating cartels
of Gulf and Sinaloa have their own extensive lines into the
U.S.
The Mexican drug cartels have brought sophistication and
financial power to their American operations that they now run as
wholly owned subsidiaries. The war between the New Federation and
the Zetas, Juarez, and Tijuana groups without a doubt spills over
into the U.S. This violence exists in order to protect their
respective distribution routes. Nonetheless, for obvious political
reasons the Washington administration wants to underplay these
connections and pretend that the drug wars of Mexico do not cross
over into the U.S. and thus have no appreciable impact on the
northern side of the border.
What further evidence does the Obama administration
require to prove the need for a major commitment to border security
— and against human and narcotics trafficking?
