Incidents Detail Drug Cartel's Presence
In March 2010, a National Drug Threat Assessment report released by the Justice Department, reported an increase in drug availability due in part to elevated activity by Mexican drug cartels. One cartel Los Zetas, a notorious organization known for brutal intimidation, is also believed to have established a presence on US soil. Although the extent of their operations is fiercely debated, news reports and intercepted official bulletins appear to indicate that the Zetas pose a significant threat that reaches far beyond the US-Mexico border.
Los Zetas and psychological warfare
Since their formation in 1997, the Zetas' reputation as methodical operators has afforded the organization a legendary status that bolsters them to this day. Los Zetas: A Brutal Hi Tech Cartel Ruling Through Intimidation published at Suite101.com, clearly shows the evolution of one of Mexico's most dangerous cartels as it transitioned from the disciplined death squad of the Gulf Cartel to a dominating entity that is quick to kill.
With public displays and atrocities such as beheadings and kidnappings, the Zetas exert their will over the Mexican people with physical violence and emotional duress. Experts in psychological warfare, the cartel's reputation has permeated the US border and is now waging war on the American psyche.
As a result, numerous official and unofficial news reports and bulletins into Los Zetas operations conducted on both sides of the border, have aired in the media and across the Internet. One such bulletin allegedly issued by the Department of Justice in 2005 and obtained by Arizona CBS affiliate, KOLD News 13, warned local authorities in both California and Arizona of a possible interaction with the Zetas drug cartel. KOLD News 13, called the report alarming reading and said it included specific details on Los Zetas' involvement in "Executed journalists [and] murdered people in Dallas, McAllen and Laredo, Texas."
KOLD 13's news report is one of several to imply the presence of Los Zetas in the US. Others include:
a March 2002 shootout between U.S. Customs agents and what is believed to be Zetas members south of PhoenixZetas' activity (8-10 members) in North Texas since 2003, particularly in the Dallas areaan Aug. 2009 bulletin allegedly issued by the Dept. of Homeland Security warning of a potential Los Zetas operation to kill American law enforcement officers by using potassium chloridereports of multiple Texas ranches overtaken by the Zetasan alleged encounter between Los Zetas and a US vigilante group at the borderincreased violence on the US-Mexico border between the cartel and US Border Patrolthe penetration of Los Angeles gang and drug cultures at the middle and street levelAn evaluation of these individual reports will show that whilst a Los Zetas presence in America is still very much questioned, there seems little doubt that the cartel is here.Confusion surrounds Mexican cartel activity in the US
Although the US government recently described the Zetas as "The most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico," the official stance from the federal government on Los Zetas operations in the US is rather confusing. Conflicting reports from state and local entities, combined with outright denial at times, leads many to believe that Los Zetas is far more ingrained on US soil than some are.
willing to admit. Take the recent Texas ranch takeover story for example.
On July 24, 2010, reports surfaced across the Internet that Los Zetas had overtaken two ranches near Laredo, Texas. The story went viral and led to the Laredo police department being flooded with calls. As police officials denied the story, several entities who broke the exclusive were called into question. As reports continued to be repudiated by the Laredo PD, Diggers Realm, Kimberly Dvorak of the San Diego Examiner and the Cypress Times, were called out as hoaxers and even liars.
Two days later on July 26, 2010, John Winder of the Cypress Times actually issued a conditional retraction at Cypresstimes.com saying, "It is never the desire of The Cypress Times to publish erroneous information and I am not convinced that we have done so. I chose to run the article because I trusted, and still do trust, the writer of the original article and at least one other writer of another article."
The story itself continued to evolve rapidly over the next couple of weeks and contained several twists and turns.
Dvorak in her defense, managed to produce an official Laredo PD police blotter detailing the alleged "non event." It said, "According to LT. Garcia with LSO (Laredo Sheriff Office) received a call from a ranch owner stating that the Zetas had taken over his ranch." The blotter which Diggersrealm.com, says was eventually authenticated by the Laredo Police Department, did lead to an admission of the call being received but in the next breath, Laredo PD designated it a hoax. Diggers Realm refused to buy the explanation and on Aug. 10, 2010, released a five-part report called "LaredoGate," which claimed that evidence suggests otherwise and the hoax claim was nothing more than a national political cover-up.
Los Zetas in Texas and Arizona
In March 2002, KOLD News 13 reported on another incident in which US Customs Agents encountered an enemy that it had never dealt with before in Southern Phoenix. Agents found themselves engaged in a shootout with military-like entities sporting state-of-the-art equipment ranging from armor and guns, to advanced communication gear. Agent Jose Garza told KOLD News, that although the encounter reflected Zetas-like operations, no evidence could officially link the cartel to this incident.
Alfredo Corchado of the Dallas Morning News made a stronger case for the cartel's presence in, " Mexican Zetas Extending Violence into Dallas," which was published on May 20, 2005 at Dallasnews.com. Corchado cites two American law enforcement officials as saying that Los Zetas had "Carried out at least three drug-related slayings in Dallas." The claim was supported by federal officials adds Corchado, who said the belief is that "Since late 2003, eight to 10 members of the Zetas have been operating in North Texas, maintaining a "shadowy existence."
Mexican authorities however deny the claim and blame outsiders or copycats for emulating Zetas-like tactics. Federal authorities Corchado says, remain adamant that the Zetas involvement is of little doubt. Five years on, reports now indicate that the cartel has expanded operations into Los Angeles.
Los Zetas in California
"Los Zetas are now in Los Angeles," published at Impre.com, by La Opinin's Jorge Morales Almada, reports how the feared cartel has infiltrated Los Angeles drug and gang cultures. Almada's July 19, 2010 report, cites the head of the LAPDs Narcotics Division Lt. Alvin Jackson, as saying, "The agencies (anti-drug) working in Lo s Angeles are combating seven major cartels from Mexico. Weve detected two of them, Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, working in distribution for the area covering San Fernando Valley, Westside, Central and South Central." (Los Angeles).
Furthermore writes Almada, the cartel is hiring unemployed gang members fresh out of prison whom they are sending to Mexico for training, (See Michael Ware's Aug. 2009 article, "Los Zetas Called Mexico's Most Dangerous Drug Cartel at Cnn.com). The FBI department in L.A. told Almada it was unable to comment on the recruitment aspect of Zetas operations, but did say that although Los Angeles is a strategic point for drug operation and distribution, the cartels themselves and the drug lords, remain in Mexico.
Mexican cartel on the US-Mexico border
On Sep. 15, 2009 former reporter Tom Diaz posted an official Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin that had been distributed to all law enforcement officials. The missive dated Aug. 28, 2009, reported that an unnamed source had suggested that Los Zetas could be planning to murder multiple US law enforcement officers. In a chilling plot aimed at personnel on the Arizona, New Mexico and Texas borders, Diaz, author of the book No Boundaries, describes how the DHS believed that the Zetas were plotting to use potassium chloride injections to simultaneously commit mass murder.
The bulletin is 100% genuine says Diaz if not totally realistic. Whilst it would be foolish to ignore such a warning Diaz adds, the plan seems impractical and so raises questions about the original source. The DHS however, must have felt this to be a credible threat to issue such a bulletin in the first place and the psychological advantage for the Zetas from such an action, would have been immense.
In another a lleged incident centered on the Arizona-Mexico border, investigative reporter Michael Webster writes of increasing interaction between the Zetas and an anonymous group known as the Arizona Citizens Militia or ACM. Webster, a world-renowned expert on illicit drugs and terrorism says in his July 20, 2010 report, "Arizona Citizen Militia Responds To Zetas Commanders Death Threats," that a Pima County ACM communication appeared to support a claim by a Los Zetas commander who said that his men "Were shot by crazed American vigilante cowards... using high-powered American rifles."
The incidents adds Webster at Nationalwriterssyndicate.com, has led to a series of traded barbs and threats that has escalated the tension between the two groups. After an ACM spokesman declared, "We are going to hunt the Zetas and destroy them like the vermin that they are," the Los Zetas Cartel officer's response was that the organization would shoot any vigilantes that got in their way.
The threat apparently had little effect on the ACM who responded via their website at Arizonamilitia.com, "God may show them mercy. We will not." All the cartel's commander has done adds the ACM, is to "Awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. We are coming for them," continues the ACM, "and Hell will be following right behind us."
Whether in agreement with a US vigilante group comprised of ex soldiers and police officers or not, the situation is certain to prove even more precarious for US Customs and Border agents, who will be forced to traverse carefully between two deadly sworn enemies. What Los Zetas fails to realize is that with indiscretion comes scrutiny. Seeking the spotlight in such a dramatic and brutal fashion may court infamy, but it also raises the heat on the Zetas organization on both sides of the bor der. Los Zetas not known to back down from a fight, may have to rethink their stance on operations, because increased disregard for those outside of its organization, now sees them having to fight a war on multiple fronts as Suite101.com's, " Los Zetas Expands as the Mexican Cartel Battles on Several Fronts," appears to show.
Read on as a new documentary enters the world of a drug cartel hitman.
Sources:
Loew, Morgan "Los Zetas" Draw Concern Of U.S. Government," KOLD 13 News, Kold.com; 2005, accessed Jan. 05, 2010.
Diaz, Tom "Los Zetas Could be Planning to Murder Multiple U.S. Law Enforcement Officers, DHS Warns," Tomdiazwordpress.com, Sep. 15, 2009; accessed Jan. 06, 2010.
All other sources accessed Jan. 05, 2010.
