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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 13,985
Loc: 
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 Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels
#9719982 - 02/01/09 09:03 PM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels
February 1, 2009 - New York Times
 TUCSON — Drug smugglers parked a car transport trailer against the Mexican side of the border one day in December, dropped a ramp over the security fence, and drove two pickup trucks filled with marijuana onto Arizona soil.
As Border Patrol agents gave chase, a third truck appeared on the Mexican side and gunmen sprayed machine-gun fire over the fence at the agents. Smugglers in the first vehicles torched one truck and abandoned the other, with $1 million worth of marijuana still in the truck bed. Then they vaulted back over the barrier into Mexico’s Sonora state.
Despite huge enforcement actions on both sides of the Southwest border, the Mexican marijuana trade is more robust — and brazen — than ever, law enforcement officials say. Mexican drug cartels routinely transported industrial-size loads of marijuana in 2008, excavating new tunnels and adopting tactics like ramp-assisted smuggling to get their cargoes across undetected.
But these are not the only new tactics: the cartels are also increasingly planting marijuana crops inside the United States in a major strategy shift to avoid the border altogether, officials said. Last year, drug enforcement authorities confiscated record amounts of high potency plants from Miami to San Diego, and even from vineyards leased by cartels in Washington State. Mexican drug traffickers have also moved into hydroponic marijuana production — cannabis grown indoors without soil and nourished with sunlamps — challenging Asian networks and smaller, individual growers here.
A Justice Department report issued last year concluded that Mexican drug trafficking organizations now operated in 195 cities, up from about 50 cities in 2006.
The four largest cartels with affiliates in United States cities were the Federation, the Tijuana Cartel, the Juarez Cartel and the Gulf Cartel.
“There is evidence that Mexican cartels are also increasing their relationships with prison and street gangs in the United States in order to facilitate drug trafficking,” a Congressional report from February 2008 stated. Intelligence analysts were detecting increased Mexican drug cartel-related activity in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Seattle and Yakima, Wash. — areas that used to be controlled by other ethnic networks.
Smuggling is still most conspicuous in the Southwest, which has been home to Mexican traffickers for more than two decades. From Nogales, Ariz., recently, a reporter watched as smugglers across the border, in hilltop stations, peered through binoculars at the movements of American Border Patrol agents. The agents gunned their trucks along the barrier looking for illegal crossings.
About noon, border agents saw a 60-pound bale of marijuana drop over the fence.
“That kind of thing happens every day here,” said Agent Michael A. Scioli, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection.
For the cartels, “marijuana is the king crop,” said Special Agent Rafael Reyes, the chief of the Mexico and Central America Section of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “It consistently sustains its marketability and profitability.”
Marijuana trafficking continues virtually unabated in the United States, even as intelligence reports suggest the declining availability of heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs that require extensive smuggling operations.
By combining smuggling with domestic production, the cartels have sustained the marijuana trade despite the onslaught of enforcement actions on both sides of the border. From 2000 through 2007, Mexican authorities arrested about 90,000 drug traffickers, more than 400 hit men and a dozen cartel leaders, according to a 2008 Congressional report. The United States extradited 95 Mexican nationals last year. Seizures in the first half of 2008 outpaced the average seizure rate from 2002 to 2006.
But the price has been high. Tensions have increased among the cartels, which are warring over lucrative drug routes through Mexican border towns like Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales, Sonora. More than 6,000 people, including hundreds of police officers, were killed by drug-related violence in Mexico in 2008. United States Border Patrol agents are also reporting more violent confrontations with traffickers.
As the Mexican government and American authorities have hardened the border, drug cartels are increasing production just north of it to avoid resorting to smuggling.
Many of the largest marijuana plantations are hidden on federal and state parklands, federal authorities say. Bill Sherman, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent based in San Diego, said the authorities were also finding an increasing number of farms in Imperial and San Diego Counties, an area traffickers traditionally avoided because of the presence of border guards, various police agencies and Camp Pendleton, a Marine base.
“We’re seeing a lot more grows down here now,” Mr. Sherman said. “That is a shift.”
Drug enforcement agents uprooted about 6.6 million cannabis plants grown mostly by cartels in 2007, one-third more than the plants destroyed in 2006. In California, the nation’s largest domestic marijuana producer, the authorities eradicated a record 2.9 million plants by the end of the marijuana harvest in December.
Yet enforcement officials say they see no discernible reduction in the domestic supply. Prices have remained relatively steady even as the potency of marijuana increased to record levels in 2007, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center, a Justice Department analysis agency.
Mr. Reyes also noted that Mexican traffickers in the United States were choosing hydroponic marijuana, which is more potent, profitable and easier to hide because it can be grown year round with sunlamps. (A pound of midgrade marijuana sells for about $750 in Los Angeles, compared with $2,500 to $6,000 for a pound of hydroponic marijuana.) He noted a case last year in Florida in which Cuban growers used several houses in a single Miami tract development to supply hydroponic marijuana to Mexican traffickers.
Kathyrn McCarthy, an assistant United States attorney in Detroit, said Mexican traffickers in Michigan were trading Colombian cocaine for hydroponic marijuana from British Columbia to sell in the United States. In Washington State, now the second biggest domestic producer of marijuana, Mexican cartels are growing improved varieties of outdoor marijuana to compete with BC Bud and other potent indoor plants.
Last year, narcotics officers discovered 200,000 high-quality marijuana plants growing amid leased vineyards in the Yakima Valley. The Northwest has traditionally been the province of Asian hydroponic networks.
Despite increased planting, the cartels still rely on smuggling. Near Nogales, Ariz., Mr. Scioli pointed out several cross-border tunnels, one of which extended from the backyard of a house, under the fence and into Mexico 40 yards away. Another series of cross-border tunnels made use of existing sewer lines or drainage pipes. They were among the nine smuggling tunnels drug enforcement agents have discovered there since 2003.
Despite the fact that the authorities are discovering more marijuana production inside the United States, most of the cartels’ leadership remains in Mexico and, for now, so does most of the violence. Still, recent photographs from Mexico of the decapitated heads of Mexican policemen play in the minds of law enforcement officials on this side of the border, who are vigilant for signs of spillover.
The Mexican police in Sonora “are stuck between two warring cartels,” said Anthony J. Coulson, a federal drug enforcement agent. “The cops are being killed as pawns. They’re being used to show how much power and control the cartels have.”
Mr. Reyes, the special agent, said, “The violence is happening because of the pressure we’ve exacted, but it does not fuel any increase or decrease in marijuana.”
No one sees a quick end of the violence in Nogales, Sonora.
Sheriff Tony Estrada of Santa Cruz County said there was so much violence on the other side of the border that many Mexican police officers and politicians had become virtual refugees in Nogales, Ariz.
“The violence has left a large contingent of police on this side of the border,” Sheriff Estrada said. “The killing will stop when somebody dominates. When somebody takes control.”
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Green_T
Getting to the chopper
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,024
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: veggie]
#9720072 - 02/01/09 09:20 PM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Mr. Reyes, the special agent, said, “The violence is happening because of the pressure we’ve exacted, but it does not fuel any increase or decrease in marijuana.”
You would think this statement alone is a sign we need to change our drug policy.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson
Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
Their vial of acid, which is on the table over there, tastes vile because they're incompetent chemists.
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sh4d0ws
LSx
Registered: 02/26/08
Posts: 545
Loc: Canada 
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: Green_T]
#9720245 - 02/01/09 09:50 PM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Eventually someone is bound to change the countries drug policies..its just a question of how long we all have to wait
the people running the drug war need to open their eyes
Edited by sh4d0ws (02/01/09 09:56 PM)
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 Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 24,722
Last seen: 2 days, 10 hours
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: sh4d0ws]
#9721135 - 02/02/09 02:28 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Amazing how they turn the safest plant known to man into the most dangerous.
All because they are afraid of it, a self fulfilling prophecy.
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neopet nub
Stranger
Registered: 11/29/08
Posts: 2,408
Last seen: 1 year, 2 months
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#9721357 - 02/02/09 05:42 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Lol, that's crazy how strongly committed the DEAgents are to stopping us have marijuana.
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Ego death from weed!
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Shr00mZ
Space Invader
Registered: 04/15/08
Posts: 1,401
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: neopet nub]
#9721413 - 02/02/09 06:20 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Its not he fact they dont want you to have marijuana. Its the fact these ppl are taking money out of ur pockets and sending it back home. Its why our economy is bad. Illegal immigration. I watched this on national geographic channel. The fact is mexican weed isnt very good. Honestly if ppl are going to smuggle in weed you want canadian bud. I country everyday is starting to look like mexico. They say the borders have to be secure because of terrorists, but they dont add is they have to be secure because immigration is hurting this country. If it was cost effective. They should have built a moat not a fence.
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nw_shroomy
NoN-stranger
Registered: 01/02/06
Posts: 1,328
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: Shr00mZ]
#9721520 - 02/02/09 07:17 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
The killing will stop when somebody dominates. When somebody takes control.”
The killing will stop when we make it legal and tax the stuff just like alcohol.
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Spawn Ratio Calculator
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/7803673#7803673
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2end4
Fuckin Immortal
Registered: 02/15/07
Posts: 774
Loc: Aristonda
Last seen: 19 days, 8 hours
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: Alan Rockefeller]
#9721534 - 02/02/09 07:21 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Fuckin Legalize it already!
This shit hits way too close too home!
Arizona is going to be a war zone soon, if it is not already.
There are checkpoints that are like going across the border, where everyone is checked, not just the beans.
Do not carry anything in your car that could be smelled by a drug dog.
God I hate this state.
It is ruined.
Edited by 2end4 (02/02/09 07:26 AM)
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Dr.Myco87
Im a "Reader"
Registered: 12/23/08
Posts: 1,683
Loc: Land of the greedy!
Last seen: 2 months, 19 days
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: 2end4]
#9721632 - 02/02/09 07:47 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Yup, take the profit out of it by legalizing it and all the violence will come to a halt.
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"I don’t do drugs. I am drugs." -Salvador Dali
"I’ve never had a problem with drugs. I’ve had problems with the police." -Keith Richards
"Reality is a crutch for people who can’t cope with drugs." -Lily Tomlin
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Dr.Myco87
Im a "Reader"
Registered: 12/23/08
Posts: 1,683
Loc: Land of the greedy!
Last seen: 2 months, 19 days
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: Shr00mZ]
#9721658 - 02/02/09 07:55 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Shr00mZ said:
Its not he fact they don't want you to have marijuana. Its the fact these ppl are taking money out of your pockets and sending it back home. Its why our economy is bad. Illegal immigration. I watched this on national geographic channel. The fact is Mexican weed isn't very good. Honestly if ppl are going to smuggle in weed you want Canadian bud. I country everyday is starting to look like Mexico. They say the borders have to be secure because of terrorists, but they don't add is they have to be secure because immigration is hurting this country. If it was cost effective. They should have built a moat not a fence.
I don't even know what to say to people like you. Thinking that a 30ft. wide strip of water will stop people and drugs from getting into this country is just asinine. You have to address the bigger issue(the war on drugs) as everyone else has said.
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"I don’t do drugs. I am drugs." -Salvador Dali
"I’ve never had a problem with drugs. I’ve had problems with the police." -Keith Richards
"Reality is a crutch for people who can’t cope with drugs." -Lily Tomlin
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IdeLOLogies
Strange
Registered: 03/26/08
Posts: 407
Last seen: 4 days, 14 hours
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: Dr.Myco87]
#9721882 - 02/02/09 09:11 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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If fills my heart with warmth to watch the "War on Drugs" fail miserably.
Just a shame so many innocent people are killed.
Best keep an eye out for that dangerous Hydroskunk sounds like a good smoke 
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Eva, can I stab bats in a cave?
Remember, God is only interested in harvesting your soul 
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johnnyblaze2316
Registered: 11/05/08
Posts: 3,121
Loc: West coast
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: IdeLOLogies]
#9722364 - 02/02/09 11:34 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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legalize, AND build a fucking wall!!
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Green_T
Getting to the chopper
Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,024
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: johnnyblaze2316]
#9722411 - 02/02/09 11:41 AM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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YouTube the Penn and Teller Bullshit! episode regarding immigration. They get a team of illegals to build a replica wall (in actuality, there was a scandal because they were using illegals to build the wall!), which takes them 8 hours, and then they order them to get over/under/through it which takes 3 minutes.
Walls can't keep people who want to cross from coming here. The only solution is to reduce the desire for them to come here.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson
Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
Their vial of acid, which is on the table over there, tastes vile because they're incompetent chemists.
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johnnyblaze2316
Registered: 11/05/08
Posts: 3,121
Loc: West coast
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: Green_T]
#9722517 - 02/02/09 12:00 PM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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i know,.... you are right....immigration =  ....and i got this earlier today in an email, pretty much goes w/ what your saying.
The Bird Feeder
I bought a bird feeder.. I hung
it on my patio and filled
it lovingly with seed.. It was indeed a beautiful bird feeder.
Within a
week we had hundreds of birds
taking advantage of the
Continuous flow of free and
easily accessible food.
But then the birds started
building nests in the boards
of the patio, above the table,
and next to the barbecue.
Then came the bird sh * t. It was
everywhere; on the patio tiles,
the chairs, the table ...
everywhere!
Then some of the birds
turned mean. They would
dive bomb me and try to
peck me even though I had
fed them out of my own
pocket.
And other birds were
boisterous and loud. They
sat on the feeder and
squawked and screamed at
all hours of the day and night
and demanded that I fill it
when it got low on food.
After a while, I couldn't even
sit on my own back porch
anymore. So I took down the
bird feeder and in three days
the birds were gone. I cleaned
up their mess and took down
the many nests they had built
all over the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like
it used to be ... quiet, serene
and no one demanding their
rights to a free meal..
Now let's see .....
Brown & our government give out
free food, subsidized housing,
free medical care, and free
education and allows anyone
born here to be an automatic
citizen.
Then the illegals came by
the millions. Suddenly
our taxes went up to pay for the
free services; small flats
are housing 5 or more families; you
have to wait 6 hours to be seen
by a doctor in an emergency surgery
because it is filled with illegal non tax payers;
your child's year 12 class is
behind other schools because
over half the class doesn't speak
English.
Corn Flakes now come in a
bilingual box; I have to
'press one' to hear my bank
talk to me in English, and
people waving flags other
than 'The Union Jack' are
squawking and screaming
in the streets, demanding
more rights and free liberties.
Its just my opinion but:
maybe, just maybe,
it's time for the government
to take down the damn bird feeder.
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psycroptic
circle of manias
Registered: 08/31/08
Posts: 138
Last seen: 1 year, 10 months
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Re: Border Proves No Obstacle for Mexican Cartels [Re: johnnyblaze2316]
#9725203 - 02/02/09 07:10 PM (3 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
(A pound of midgrade marijuana sells for about $750 in Los Angeles, compared with $2,500 to $6,000 for a pound of hydroponic marijuana.)
6 grand for a P?
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