U.S. rattled as Mexico drug war bleeds over border

[Ban Hammer 13,342]

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Hit men dressed in fake police tactical gear burst into a home in Phoenix, rake it with gunfire and execute a man.

Armed kidnappers snatch victims from cars and even a local shopping mall across the Phoenix valley for ransom, turning the sun-baked city into the "kidnap capital" of the United States.

Violence of this kind is common in Mexico where drug cartel abductions and executions are a daily feature of a raging drug war that claimed 6,000 lives south of the border last year.

But U.S. authorities now fear that violent crime is beginning to bleed over the porous Mexico border and take hold here.

"The fight in Mexico is about domination of the smuggling corridors and those corridors don't stop at the border," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.

Execution style murders, violent home invasions, and a spiraling kidnap rate in Phoenix -- where police reported an average of one abduction a day last year linked to Mexican crime -- are not the only examples along the border.

In southern California, police have investigated cases of Americans abducted by armed groups tied to the Tijuana drug trade. One involved a businesswoman and her teenage daughter snatched in San Diego last year and held to ransom south of the border.

In south Texas, a live hand grenade traced back to a Mexican cartel stash was tossed onto the pool table of a bar frequented by off-duty police officers in January. The pin was left in it and the assailant fled.

COPING WITH SPILLOVER

Mexican traffickers have always been violent, but the death toll has soared since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006 and sent tens of thousands of troops to fight the country's powerful cocaine cartels.

Soldiers have fought pitched battles with drug gangs in several Mexican towns and overwhelmed police officers have fled municipal forces the length of the border. In many cases, police officers have been paid off by the drug gangs or even joined them.

In a sign of an increasingly desperate struggle to rein in the violence, Calderon this week ordered 5,000 more troops and federal police to Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The cartels have killed 250 people in Ciudad Juarez in the past month, forced the police chief to resign, and shut down the airport with bomb threats.

The struggle by outgunned Mexican authorities to contain the violence was highlighted for Arizona state police last November, when Mexican police officers pinned down in a raging gun battle in Nogales, Sonora, reached out to them with an urgent request for more bullets.

While U.S. authorities stress they have not seen anything like the kind of street battles and horrific beheadings that are now common in Mexico, they are already taking action to curb was has become known as "overspill".

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he wants 1,000 troops to guard the border. The state's Attorney General Greg Abbott is backing legislation to crack down on money laundering and human, drug and weapons trafficking through the state by the warring Gulf and Sinaloa cartels.

Lawmakers in Arizona heard testimony on border violence last week from police and prosecutors, who are seeking more robust measures to seize smugglers' assets, as well as cracking down harder on gunrunning to Mexico.

PLANNING FOR THE WORST

Washington has stepped up support for Calderon, pledging to give Mexico helicopters, surveillance aircraft, inspection equipment and police training under a $1.4 billion plan to beat the cartels in Mexico and Central America.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano -- a former Arizona governor -- told a Congressional hearing last week she was focused on curbing the southbound traffic in guns that are being used to arm the violent cartels.

In a measure of that commitment, a Phoenix gun dealer goes on trial next week on charges he sold hundreds of weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, to smugglers knowing they would send them to a powerful cartel in Sinaloa state on Mexico's Pacific coast.

As the spiraling drug violence shakes Mexican cities and towns along the U.S. border, U.S. Senate lawmakers announced last week they would hold two hearings to assess the ability of U.S. security forces to deal with the rise in crime on the U.S. side.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the homeland security governmental affairs committee, said the panel would assess border security programs already in place and review whether federal, state and local authorities are ready to respond to any serious spillover of the Mexican drugs war.

For the sheriff of Hidalgo County, in south Texas, where the live grenade was thrown into a bar in Pharr, possibly by street gang members armed by a Mexican cartel, that renewed attention to the war on his doorstep can only be welcome.

"It's the first time we've had a hand grenade attack," Guadalupe Trevino told Reuters. "I believe there's more out there that we need to find."

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[justashooter 430]

just commiting the crimes americans aren't willing to.

[Jasman0717 9]

This is outta control

[panamania79 2]

This is outta control

Many of the local colleges(RI is full of them) are telling the kiddies not to go to Mexico for spring break.I wonder where they'll go now because Cancun is cool.

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

there are 2 countries who are the culprits in this mayhem

hint?

1) One supplies the uneducated population who instead of choosing an honest life, prefer to go and commit crimes since it leaves quicker and more income; since they don't have any other means of support (not having any higher education) they choose the easier way to make money (a no-brainer). Also, it's guilty or rewarding corruption by not punishing those who use it on a daily basis, and whose roots reach even the Presidency of this particular country. Not forgetting the fact that it's the main producer of all those "good" exported to different parts of the world including its neighbor to the south.

2) The 2nd country has an insatiable urge to consume the "product" imported from the 1st country, besides this certain country tries to wash its hands by labeling a "crime" abut still millions of its inhabitants disregard that label and keep on consuming this "good." Funny thing is that it thinks that what happens outside its borders is not its problem. Finally, all the income $$ from the sales finance the current hell on earth that is going on in the 1st country.

Guess who

Edited March 2, 2009 by TävôLuDô

[panamania79 2]

there are 2 countries who are the culprits in this mayhem

hint?

1) One supplies the uneducated population who instead of choosing an honest life, prefer to go and commit crimes since it leaves quicker and more income; since they don't have any other means of support (not having any higher education) they choose the easier way to make money (a no-brainer). Also, is guilty or rewarding corruption by not punishing those who use it on a daily basis, and whose roots reach even the President of this particular country. At the same time is the producer of all those good exported to different parts of the words including its neighbor to the south.

2) The 2nd country has an insatiable urge to consume the "product" imported from the 1st country, besides this certain country tries to wash its hands by labeling a "crime" but still millions of its inhabitants disregard that label and keep on consuming this "good." Besides all the income $$ from the sales finance the current hell on earth that is going on in the 1st country.

Guess who

USA and another Latin American country (which I will not mention the name).

Edited March 2, 2009 by panamania79

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

there are 2 countries who are the culprits in this mayhem

hint?

1) One supplies the uneducated population who instead of choosing an honest life, prefer to go and commit crimes since it leaves quicker and more income; since they don't have any other means of support (not having any higher education) they choose the easier way to make money (a no-brainer). Also, is guilty or rewarding corruption by not punishing those who use it on a daily basis, and whose roots reach even the President of this particular country. At the same time is the producer of all those good exported to different parts of the words including its neighbor to the south.

2) The 2nd country has an insatiable urge to consume the "product" imported from the 1st country, besides this certain country tries to wash its hands by labeling a "crime" but still millions of its inhabitants disregard that label and keep on consuming this "good." Besides all the income $ from the sales finance the current hell on earth that is going on in the 1st country.

Guess who

USA and another Latin American country (which I will not mention the name).

That's quick

[HAL 9000 96]

Common denominators rule.

[Jasman0717 9]

This is outta control

Many of the local colleges(RI is full of them) are telling the kiddies not to go to Mexico for spring break.I wonder where they'll go now because Cancun is cool.

Back to Florida, at least it will be safer

[panamania79 2]

This is outta control

Many of the local colleges(RI is full of them) are telling the kiddies not to go to Mexico for spring break.I wonder where they'll go now because Cancun is cool.

Back to Florida, at least it will be safer

Florida is BORING (YAWN).

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

Common denominators rule.

I prefer the term the "usual suspects"

[Jasman0717 9]

Florida is BORING (YAWN).

Hum, let me see, bored or dead, which would I prefer

[HAL 9000 96]

Common denominators rule.

I prefer the term the "usual suspects"

You mean its not really the entire population to blame?

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

Common denominators rule.

I prefer the term the "usual suspects"

You mean its not really the entire population to blame?

Ohh no no no I've never liked to generalize, I'm not one of "those"

[Chica Yeyé 41]

just commiting the crimes americans aren't willing to.

you are such an idiot .

Edited March 2, 2009 by *Len*