Drug cartel's tentacles stretch across the US

[babylonsister]

Drug cartel's tentacles stretch across the US

By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mexican drug cartels are shipping more than massive quantities of drugs north of the border. Increasingly, they're also exporting bloody mayhem.

snip//

Holder called the cartels a threat to national security, adding, "They are lucrative, they are violent, and they are operated with stunning planning and precision."

The attorney general also suggested that re-instituting a U.S. ban on the sale of assault weapons would help reduce the bloodshed in Mexico, where last year 6,000 people were killed in drug-related violence.

Increasingly, U.S. law enforcement officials see cartel violence spill into the United States, often as far away as Phoenix and Atlanta.

As he discussed the problem, Holder spoke briefly in Spanish, pledging continued cooperation with Mexican authorities who have increasingly come under direct fire from the heavily armed drug gangs.

U.S. officials have a responsibility to make sure Mexican police "are not fighting substantial numbers of weapons, or fighting against AK-47s or other similar kinds of weapons that have been flowing to Mexico," Holder said.

DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart said the raid showed the tentacles of the crime syndicate had spread far across the U.S. - not just to major cities like Washington and Los Angeles, but to quiet, smaller communities like Stow, Ohio, which the cartel allegedly used as a conduit to funnel drugs around the country.

Leonhart said the Sinaloa cartel has become one of the largest organized crime operations in the world.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BORDER_VIOLENCE_CRACKDOWN?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Occam Bandage]

1. Kinky.

[madrchsod]

5. kinky? you mean....

one of the best bands south or north of the border?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCbpwd6EoRg&eurl=http://video.google.com/

[Serial Mom]

2. Legalize and tax the stuff - would help both countries pretty much n/t

[ixion]

3. so legalize drugs

problem solved.

[Taverner]

4. Exactly

Nothing more to say than that!

[arcadian]

6. Setting the foundation for the future wars of the 21st century

It will no longer be East vs. West. Now it's North vs. South. AFRICOM also fits into this paradigm.

[crikkett]

7. This is the first time I've seen a 'mexican drug cartel' referenced by name.

I was beginning to believe that they were mythical. Putting a name on one doesn't give the concept much more credulity, to tell the truth.

[babylonsister]

8. You think these cartels are just concepts? I don't. nt

[crikkett]

9. No, I think we're expected to Trust that something is so without supporting evidence.

That makes me wonder about what we're not being told.

For example, we get stories in CA all the time about cops uprooting gardens of 'mexican drug cartels'. We're never told how the cops know it's 'mexican drug cartels'.

It makes me wonder if they're not uprooting our neighbors' gardens instead, and calling it 'mexican drug cartels' because there's more public support behind cops persecuting foreigners than there is for cops persecuting our own neighbors who we (used to when times were better) bump into at the sushi bar.

It's not like cops don't lie. They say they lie. They boast of lying. So why should I believe something cops say without anything to back it up?

Let me close by reminding you that my comment was, that this was the first time I've seen a 'mexican drug cartel' called by name.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. I'll give you names

Arellano Cartel, (Tijuana)

Sinaloa Cartel, they leader, El Chapo Gusman, is one disgusting person, and a tad unhinged... and on the wanted list of at least two countries and Interpol

The Colima Cartel

Those are the big three and ANYBODY who has followed them for years, KNOWS who or what they are.

They are far from mythical

[crikkett]

11. Thank you.