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UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLYINSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENT GROUPS ()DAILY BORDER NEWS REPORT FOR 6 DECEMBER 2011COMPILER, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENT GROUPS ()EDITOR, JOINT TASK FORCE NORTH (USA.JTFN) (U) This document is UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY and portions may be exempt from mandatory disclosure under FOIA. DoD 5400.7R, "DoD Freedom of Information Act Program", DoD Directive 5230.9, "Clearance of DoD Information for Public Release", and DoD Instruction 5230.29, "Security and Policy Review of DoD Information for Public Release" apply.(U) FAIR USE NOTICE. This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making it available to recipients who have expressed an interest in receiving information to advance their understanding of threat activities in the interest of protecting the United States. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.(U) Use of these news items does not reflect official endorsement by Joint Task Force North or the Department of Defense.For further information on any item, please contact the JTF-North KnowledgeManagement (KM).Compiled By: Mr. Tom Davidson, Institute for the Study of Violent GroupsEdited by: Mr. Jonathan KauppApproved for Release by: Dr. Rodler Morris CONTENTS: (Note: All active EXTERNAL hyperlinks have been removed)Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u CONTENTS PAGEREF _Toc310911610 \h 11.CANADA AND NORTHERN BORDER STATES PAGEREF _Toc310911611 \h 2A.Calgary Restaurant Search Leads to Drug Charges (AB) PAGEREF _Toc310911612 \h 2B.Cops: Boy, 10 Hid Cocaine for Aunt (ME) PAGEREF _Toc310911613 \h 32.INNER UNITED STATES PAGEREF _Toc310911614 \h 4A.Administration Claims 60 Percent Drop in U. S. Drug Distribution (DC) PAGEREF _Toc310911615 \h 4B.The Week Ahead?: Historic homeland Security Hearing on Capitol Hill (DC) PAGEREF _Toc310911616 \h 5C.Shootings by Maine Police on the Rise (ME) PAGEREF _Toc310911617 \h 63.MEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATES PAGEREF _Toc310911618 \h 7A.Grenades: The Weapon of Choice in the Drug Wars PAGEREF _Toc310911619 \h 7B.Tucson Woman Carrying Pot Crashes Car While Fleeing Checkpoint (AZ) PAGEREF _Toc310911620 \h 10C.Major Arrests Expected to Shake Up Gulf Cartel (TAMPS) PAGEREF _Toc310911621 \h 11D.Norma Andrade Shot: Women’s Activist Hit Twice in Juarez, Mexico (CHIH) PAGEREF _Toc310911622 \h 12E.Barrio Azteca Gang Associates Plead Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy (TX) PAGEREF _Toc310911623 \h 13F.Migrants Say They’re Unwilling Mules For Cartels (MX/US) PAGEREF _Toc310911624 \h 15G.Hidalgo County Sheriff Says Vallucos Gang is a Growing Problem (TX) PAGEREF _Toc310911625 \h 17H.Banks Fuel Cartel-Money Problem (MX/US) PAGEREF _Toc310911626 \h 18I.Attacks in Sinaloa Herald Entrance of Zetas (SIN) PAGEREF _Toc310911627 \h 20J.Mexican Drug Cartels Profiting from High Local Cocaine Prices?: Police (AU/MX) PAGEREF _Toc310911628 \h 22K.Mexico?: Drug Cartel Targets Woman Journalist Through Online Social Media (TAMPS) PAGEREF _Toc310911629 \h 24L.‘Los Zetas’ Gain Growing Control on Mexico-Guatemala Border (MX/GT) PAGEREF _Toc310911630 \h 27M.Customs Agents Seize 11 Kilograms of Cocaine in Hidalgo (TX) PAGEREF _Toc310911631 \h 29N.Military Personnel Dismantle Clandestine Radio Communication Networks (COAH/TAMPS/NL/SLP) PAGEREF _Toc310911632 \h 294.CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA PAGEREF _Toc310911633 \h 31A.How Trinidad is Tackling its Crime Crisis (TT) PAGEREF _Toc310911634 \h 31B.Guatemalan Police Rescue Kidnapped Mexican Boy (GT) PAGEREF _Toc310911635 \h 345.OPINION AND ANALYSIS PAGEREF _Toc310911636 \h 35A.Mexicos Président Calederon says Drug Cartels Threaten Democracy (DF) PAGEREF _Toc310911637 \h 35B.Snipping the Bud: Prep Work is a Payday in the Marijuana Business (CA) PAGEREF _Toc310911638 \h 35C.Democratic Rep from IL: Undocumented Immigrants Should Carry Document Proving Ties to US (DC) PAGEREF _Toc310911639 \h 38D.What Does ‘Illegal immigration’ Really Mean?? PAGEREF _Toc310911640 \h 40CANADA AND NORTHERN BORDER STATESCalgary Restaurant Search Leads to Drug Charges (AB)1 DECEMBER 2011CBC NewsSeveral people face drug charges Thursday following an investigation at a southeast restaurant.Police say they focused on the restaurant because it's close to St. Mary's High School.Last Thursday, a search warrant was issued for Raja Foods and Pizza on First Street S.E.Police said they found cocaine, a taser and more than $8,500 in cash.Officers also searched a vehicle, where they found a 14-inch machete concealed beside the driver’s seat, as well as a “blackjack” club.Three men and a teenager have been charged.The City of Calgary’s chief license inspector suspended the Raja Foods and Pizza business license until there is an official license review hearing and Alberta Health Services ordered the restaurant closed because of Public Health Act Food Regulation violations.Source: [cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2011/12/01/calgary-drug-charges-southeast-restaurant]Return to ContentsCops: Boy, 10 Hid Cocaine for Aunt (ME)5 December 2011Boston HeraldTwo people busted Saturday on cocaine trafficking and gun possession charges in Lowell made matters worse when one of them handed off drugs to her 10-year-old nephew, police said yesterday.Lowell police, who were investigating a drug dealing operation, stopped a man, 30, of Haverhill on Plain Street and found nearly 472 grams of cocaine and a loaded 9 mm handgun inside his blue Mitsubishi Endeavor, Lowell police said in a statement.He was charged with cocaine trafficking within a school zone and gun and ammo possession, cops said.A short time later, detectives saw a 10-year-old boy leave a Barclay Street home carrying a bag, which contained a small amount of cocaine, $3,000 in cash and other “items consistent in the illegal sale of narcotics,” police said. Cops said the boy’s, 30 year old aunt, sent her nephew with the items in the bag across the street to hide the evidence from police. She was arrested and charged with cocaine distribution to a minor. A search of her home turned up a .357 caliber handgun, cash, cocaine, ammo and other illegal items, cops said. The state’s Department of Children and Families will investigate the involvement of the 10-year-old boy, cops said.Source: [news/regional/view/2011_1205cops_boy_10_hid_cocaine_for_aunt]Return to ContentsINNER UNITED STATES Administration Claims 60 Percent Drop in U. S. Drug Distribution (DC)5 December 2011 ExaminerAccording to the latest Department of Justice (DOJ) data, the number of U.S. cities in which Mexican drug cartels distribute illegal drugs through street gangs has been reduced by no less than 1,500 cities.In 2010, the DOJ’s National Drug Threat Assessment stated that drugs were being sold on behalf of the cartels in "more than 2,500 cities."The 2011 National Drug Threat Assessment claims that the cartels are only operating in "a thousand U.S. cities."? So, in one year’s time the Obama administration managed to eradicate all of the cartel operatives and street-level dealers from 1,500 cities? A 60 percent reduction?Where were the press releases?….The 2010 report:"Drug Trafficking by Criminal Gangs""The influence of Hispanic and African American street gangs is expanding as these gangs gain greater control over drug distribution in rural and suburban areas and acquire drugs directly from DTOs in Mexico or along the Southwest Border.In 2009, midlevel and retail drug distribution in the United States was dominated by more than 900,000 criminally active gang members representing approximately 20,000 domestic street gangs in more than 2,500 cities."The 2011 report:"Transnational Criminal Organizations""Mexican-based TCOs were operating in more than a thousand U.S. cities during 2009 and 2010, spanning all nine OCDETF (Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces) regions."….Source: [drug-cartel-in-national/obama-administration-claims-60-percent-drop-u-s-drug-distribution]Return to ContentsThe Week Ahead?: Historic homeland Security Hearing on Capitol Hill (DC)4 December 2011ExaminerDecember 4, 2011 ?All eyes will be on Washington, D.C. this Wednesday, for a?joint hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on "Homegrown Terrorism:?The threat to military communities inside the United States."NY U.S. Rep .Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, and the Independent Senator from CT, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee announced plans to hold the historic, first of its kind joint investigative hearing to examine the homegrown terror threat to military communities in late November. ? ??The Rep. has taken a lot of heat over a series of hearings his Committee has held on the radicalization within the Muslim-American community, some from?members?of his own Committee.?King's efforts have even been compared to those of Senator?Joseph McCarthy?to expose communists in the United States in the 1950s.….??On?Friday, Committee Chair's Rep. and Senator from CT announced the names of the witnesses that they intend to call at the December 7 hearing. ?The?White House?agreed to supply two official witnesses.??Also scheduled to testify is?an officer with the U.S. Army. ?The Director of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Military Academy and career intelligence officer, has served in a variety of special operations assignments in Afghanistan, Iraq, Africa, and South America and actively advises a number of federal, state and local governmental agencies regarding the threat of terrorism.?In addition, a parent is scheduled to testify in front of the committee, he will reportedly tell the panel how his son, a Pvt.?was shot and killed outside a Little Rock, Arkansas recruiting center in 2009. The Pvt. and another soldier who survived the attack were targeted by a Muslim who said he shot the two soldiers in retaliation for U.S. military action in the Middle East.??On March 10, 2011, the defendant’s father testified at the first House Homeland Security Committee hearing in a full show of support for the Rep.’s efforts.?The father said his son grew up a Baptist in Memphis, and then converted to Islam and became radicalized when he left home to attend college in Nashville, Tennessee. ?In 2007, his son traveled to Yemen where he was arrested and deported by Yemeni authorities in 2008. Following his deportation from Yemen in 2009, in retaliation, he attacked the Little Rock recruiting center, killing one soldier and wounding another. The defendant pleaded guilty in July, 2011 in exchange for?life in prison.?During his testimony in March, the defendant’s father said that Americans are "in denial" about a "big elephant in the room" -?radical extremists. Immediately following the hearing, the father of the defendant questioned "why is there so much fear of talking about what is real?" ? ? ???He, emotionally warned other Americans and the world that "what came into his house was at the door of their houses too, and we need to talk about it, the American people."?Source: [homeland-security-in-chicago/the-week-ahead-historic-homeland-security-hearing-on-capitol-hil]Return to Contents Shootings by Maine Police on the Rise (ME)2 DECEMBER 2011Kennebec JournalPORTLAND?— Maine law enforcement officers are firing their weapons more frequently in the line of duty.In November alone, there were four officer-involved shootings in Maine, including Tuesday's fatal shooting of a sheriff's department dispatcher who had gunned down a maintenance man in Dover-Foxcroft.For the year, police have been involved in nine shootings. That compares to an average of three a year during the 1990s and an average of five a year in the 2000s. This year's shootings ended in six deaths and three injuries.Officer-involved shootings have been on the rise because police are facing more threats than ever, said Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association. There are more guns and knives, more drugs, more people with mental illness on the street and more people acting aggressively toward police, he said."I think law enforcement more than anyone would like to find a way so this doesn't happen," said Schwartz, who served 30 years on Maine police departments. "No one wants to shoot at anybody, and no one wants to get shot themselves. That's the bottom line."The uptick in police shootings comes even as Maine crime rates are low. Maine had the lowest violent crime rate nationally in 2010, FBI statistics show.Statistics from the Office of the Attorney General show there were 30 police-involved shooting in the 1990s and not a single police shooting in 1995. There were 51 shootings from 2000-2009. And in the first two years of this decade, there have been a total of 14 shootings. The Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the increase.This year's shootings have taken place across much of the state, involving the York County and Androscoggin County sheriff's departments, Maine State Police, the Maine Warden Service and police departments in Kennebunk, Portland, Belfast, Lewiston and Farmington.Being a police officer is inherently a dangerous job, said Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck. Nationally, 56 law enforcement officers were killed and nearly 54,000 officers were assaulted last year in the line of duty. Maine has not had any officers killed in the line of duty this year.In recent years, Portland police have gotten more calls for service overall and have been arresting more people for weapons violations, Sauschuck said. Criminals are also more likely now than years ago to be antagonistic and come at officers aggressively, he said."There's undoubtedly been an increase in the disrespect level overall," he said.There's no national database on the numbers of officer-involved shootings where police fire their weapons at somebody, said Charles Miller, who heads the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted program for the FBI. But it wouldn't surprise him if the numbers were rising. The number of unprovoked attacks on police has risen 150 percent since 1980, he said, and it stands to reason that police would defend themselves.Source: [news/Maine-police-shootings-on-the-rise-]Return to ContentsMEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATESGrenades: The Weapon of Choice in the Drug Wars30 November 2011Political AnimalFragmentation GrenadesThe weapon of choice between the Mexican drug cartels has become the fragmentation grenade which has a blast radius of up to 200 meters. The first registered grenade attack occurred in Tonala, Jalisco in August 2005. Since then, there have been 159 attacks using grenades which resulted in 118 deaths and 588 wounded. Between January and September 2011, there have been 88 grenade attacks; a 2,000% increase from 2005. The total number of attacks during this period is double the number registered in 2010. In the past five years, authorities have seized over 10,000 grenades. They have also begun to recover toy grenades filled with explosive powder. According to Alejandro Hope, former consultant with the Center for Investigation and National Security and expert on Mexico security, it is logical that there is an increase in grenade usage due to the ease of use and the fact that no special military training is required to use this weapon. Additionally, they cause mass confusion and daze their rivals, which allows an easy escape for the perpetrator. On 28 August, one day prior to the arson at Casino Royale in Monterrey which killed 52 people, there were grenade attacks on two casinos in Reynosa and Saltillo. On 27 September 2011 in Tamaulipas, there were seven grenade attacks in a 24-hour period. Only one person was injured. Almost all occurred in public locations such as a:?Bar?Night club?Salon?Pedestrian pathway?State Attorney General’s Office?Federal Electric Commission headquarters In the past year, the number of attack on public places is higher than the number against government offices, communication companies or specific homes. Attacks have occurred at public locations such as:?Shopping centers?Parking garages?Highways?Town squaresThis year, the percentage of grenade attacks by state is as follows:?Nuevo Leon – 32%?Tamaulipas – 17% ?Michoacán – less than 10%?Jalisco – less than 10%?Coahuila – less than 10%According to Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez, security specialist, the geographic distribution of grenade attacks correlates to the worsening clashes between Los Zetas and rival groups in the northwest region of Mexico.From 2005 to September 2011, 159 grenade attacks were registered32% of these attacks occurred in Nuevo Leon and in second place Tamaulipas with 18%. Coahuila, Jalisco and Michoacán are in third place with 9% of the attacks eachSince 2006, the date Felipe Calderon took office, until September 2011, there was an 8,700% increase in attacks, with 88 attacks already this yearYear /StateState Total from2005 - 2011State Total % from2005 - 2011Total attacks per yearATTACKS BY STATEFrom 2005 to September 2011, 159 grenade attacks were registered32% of these attacks occurred in Nuevo Leon and in second place Tamaulipas with 18%. Coahuila, Jalisco and Michoacán are in third place with 9% of the attacks eachSince 2006, the date Felipe Calderon took office, until September 2011, there was an 8,700% increase in attacks, with 88 attacks already this yearYear /StateState Total from2005 - 2011State Total % from2005 - 2011Total attacks per yearATTACKS BY STATENUMBER OF DEATHS BY STATEYear / StateState Total from 2005 - 2011State Total from 2005 - 2011Total # deaths per stateIn the past seven years, 118 people have died as a result of grenade attacks. Guerrero, Jalisco and Michoacán account for 65% of the victims. NUMBER OF DEATHS BY STATEYear / StateState Total from 2005 - 2011State Total from 2005 - 2011Total # deaths per stateIn the past seven years, 118 people have died as a result of grenade attacks. Guerrero, Jalisco and Michoacán account for 65% of the victims. Spanish Source: [2011/11/granadas-el-arma-de-moda-en-la-guerra-del-narco/]Return to ContentsTucson Woman Carrying Pot Crashes Car While Fleeing Checkpoint (AZ)2 December 2011KVOATUCSON - A Tucson woman attempted to flee an Interstate-19 checkpoint yesterday and crashed her vehicle after a Border Patrol canine team alerted to the presence of drugs - agents found 130 pounds of marijuana stashed in her vehicle.The 29-year-old U.S. citizen was being referred to a secondary inspection area after the canine team alerted to the vehicle, according to a news release from Customs and Border Protection. She fled the checkpoint and crashed her vehicle while exiting the interstate just south of Tucson.Agents then arrested her and found six bundles of marijuana inside the vehicle, weighing 130 pounds.Records revealed a parole violation out of Phoenix, and a lengthy criminal history including marijuana convictions, shoplifting and false reported out of Maricopa County, as well as a criminal trespassing charge in Thatcher County, CBP official’s state. She is being prosecuted on federal drug charges.Source: [news/tucson-woman-carrying-pot-crashes-car-while-fleeing-checkpoint/]Return to Contents Major Arrests Expected to Shake Up Gulf Cartel (TAMPS)1 December 2011KRGVMATAMOROS, MEXICO - The Mexican military has taken down some of the Gulf Cartel’s top leaders. A cartel expert says we'll probably see more violence in Matamoros in the coming days.?The expert say the Zetas see will see these arrests as an opportunity to take advantage of the Gulf's troubles.?Five top power brokers in the Gulf Cartel are in shackles and out of circulation. One of them, Exequiel Cardenas Rivera, is the son of Antonio Cardenas Guillen, better known as “Tony Tormenta.” The Mexican military killed Tormenta in a shootout Nov. 5, 2010.?The Mexican navy took down Tormenta's son and the other cartel leaders outside the Gran Hotel Residencial last Friday. It’s in Calle Alvaro Obregon in Matamoros. The navy says it got an anonymous tip that led them to the hotel.?“You can’t get higher than taking down these kind of individuals,” says former Drug Enforcement Agency supervisor. “They got the financier, they got the head of the plaza, and most important, the higher you go the more disruption you can give to the cartels.”?Jordan says the Gulf Cartel split in two after Tormenta's death. The Rojos support the Cardenas family. The Metros support their business partner Eduardo Costilla, or “El Cos.” The former supervisor says he believes “El Cos” or his people gave up Cardenas Rivera and his group. He says they also led U.S. authorities to Tormenta's nephew Rafael Cardenas Vela in Port Isabel last month.“You have immobilized a segment; you have not won the war,” he said.He says the military may have hit the Gulf Cartel hard, but now they'll have another problem on their hands.“If they know the Zetas are going to take advantage, it presents another significant hit to the military,” he said.He says the military is going after the Zetas, too, with the help of the United States. And it’s also likely that U.S. agents had a lot to do with these recent arrests.?Somebody is already replacing Cardenas Rivera, his money man, his accountants, the head of the Matamoros Plaza and the man who got the drugs into the United States.?The Mexican military and U.S. federal agents are watching the Rojos side of the Gulf Cartel very closely. They're looking for whoever might take over for both the Cardenas nephewsSource: [news/local/story/Major-Arrests-Expected-to-Shake-Up-Gulf-Cartel/l0Uy__mdw0qPY6cA0sOoLQ.cspx]Return to Contents Norma Andrade Shot: Women’s Activist Hit Twice in Juarez, Mexico (CHIH)Updated Article3 December 2011Huff Post WorldCIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Associated Press) — An activist representing relatives of women slain or missing in the border city of Ciudad Juarez was shot Friday in what authorities called an apparent robbery attempt.Chihuahua state prosecutors said Norma Andrade, 51, was shot twice outside her home and was in stable condition in a hospital.Andrade was the second activist to be shot this week in northern Mexico. Anti-crime activist Nepomuceno Moreno was killed Monday in Hermosillo. He had protested the kidnapping of his teenage son.Andrade founded an organization of relatives of women who have gone missing or been murdered in Ciudad Juarez to pressure authorities to solve the cases. Her daughter Lilia Alejandra Garcia Andrade was tortured, raped and killed in 2001 when she was 17.Arturo Sandoval, spokesman for the state Attorney General's Office, said Andrade told investigators that a man approached her outside her house and tugged at her purse. When she tried to hold on to it, the man fired his gun wounding her right hand and left shoulder, Sandoval said.Authorities were still trying to determine whether it was a robbery or a murder attempt, Sandoval said.Andrade's daughter, Malu Andrade, told The Associated Press that teachers at the middle school where her mother works said suspicious men had been asking about her whereabouts Friday morning. The attack happened in the afternoon."Authorities knew that we had been threatened," the daughter said by telephone.A series of eerily similar killings of more than 100 mainly young women began in Ciudad Juarez in 1993, but appeared to had tapered off by late 2004 or early 2005.The killings have been the topic of books, documentaries and the 2006 movie "Bordertown" starring female actress. She received a special recognition in 2007 from Andrade and her organization, Bring Our Daughters Home.Source: [2011/12/03/norma-andrade-shot_n_1127043]Return to ContentsBarrio Azteca Gang Associates Plead Guilty to Racketeering Conspiracy (TX)1 December 2011NewsWASHINGTON—Two associates of the Barrio Azteca (BA) gang have pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, announced Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, FBI Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigative Division and Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).Yesterday, 35 year old man of El Paso, Texas, and today Mexican national Juan Manuel Viscaino Amaro, 41, aka “Porky,” pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, to racketeering conspiracy.According to court documents, the suspect and Amaro were associates of the BA, which began in the late 1980s as a violent prison gang and has expanded into a transnational criminal organization. The BA is primarily based in West Texas; Juarez, Mexico; and throughout state and federal prisons in the United States and Mexico. The gang has a militaristic command structure and includes captains, lieutenants, sergeants, soldiers and associates such as the El Paso resident and Amaro—all with the purpose of maintaining power and enriching its members and associates through drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, intimidation, violence, threats of violence and murder.According to court documents, members and associates of the BA have engaged in a host of criminal activity committed since Jan. 1, 2003, including drug trafficking, extortion, money laundering, kidnapping, and murder, including the March 13, 2010, murders in Juarez of a U.S. consulate employee, her husband and another man who was the husband of a U.S. Consulate employee.The BA profits by importing heroin, cocaine, and marijuana into the United States from Mexico. Gang members and associates also allegedly charge a “street tax” or “cuota” on businesses and criminals operating in their turf. These profits are used to support gang members in prison by funneling money into prison commissary accounts of gang leaders and to pay for defense lawyers or fines. The “cuota” profits are also allegedly reinvested into the organization to purchase drugs, guns and ammunition.During the plea hearings, the defendant and Amaro admitted to working with the BA in buying and selling illegal drugs on the streets of El Paso and that the gang extorted money from drug dealers operating on the gang’s turf.According to the defendant’s plea agreement, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. Under Amaro’s plea agreement, if approved by U.S. District Court Judge he will receive a 12-year prison term. Sentencing dates for the defendants have not been scheduled.Thirty-five members and associates of the BA gang, including the defendant. Amaro and 11 others who have pleaded guilty, were charged in a third superseding indictment unsealed in March 2011 with various counts of racketeering, murder, drug offenses, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Trial is set to begin April 6, 2012.The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section, Trial Attorney of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas-El Paso Division. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico provided significant assistance in this case, including Assistant U.S. Attorney. Valuable assistance was provided by the Criminal Division’s Offices of International Affairs and Enforcement Operations.The case was investigated by the FBI. Special assistance was provided by the DEA; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the U.S. Marshals Service; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Federal Bureau of Prisons; U.S. Diplomatic Security Service; the Texas Department of Public Safety; the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; El Paso Police Department; El Paso County Sheriff’s Office; El Paso Independent School District Police Department; Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission; New Mexico State Police; Dona Ana County, N.M., Sheriff’s Office; Las Cruces, N.M., Police Department; Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility and Otero County Prison Facility New Mexico.Source: [news.gnom.es/news/barrio-azteca-gang-associates-plead-guilty-in-el-paso-to-racketeering-conspiracy]Return to Contents Migrants Say They’re Unwilling Mules For Cartels (MX/US)4 December 2011NPRMexican drug cartels have found a new source of labor to backpack marijuana into the United States: illegal immigrants.Federal agents, prosecutors, defense attorneys and migrants themselves say that traffickers have begun recruiting undocumented immigrants at the border, both voluntarily and forcibly. Now, U.S. courts along the border have to decide what to do with terrified immigrants who come before them and say, "The cartel made me do it."Rodolfo and Jose Luis were fairly typical economic immigrants. Strong, resourceful and poor, they arrived at Ojinaga, Mexico, with the intention of crossing the border and making their way to Colorado to look for work as roofers. But when they arrived at the Rio Grande on Oct. 21, ready for the journey north, they were met by three trucks full of heavily armed young toughs belonging to La Linea, a drug gang based upriver in Juarez."They hit us, threw us on the ground, searched us and took our money," Rodolfo said at the Pecos Criminal Justice Center in Pecos, Texas. "Then they told us if we didn't smuggle drugs for them, they would kill us. They didn't give us any other option."So that's what Rodolfo and Jose Luis did. They each shouldered a 50-pound backpack full of marijuana and carried it across the dry riverbed into Presidio County, Texas. The cartel guide who accompanied them carried a radio, but no weapon. So as soon as they were out of sight of the border, they dropped the dope in the brush and high-tailed it north. The next morning, Border Patrol agents found them tromping through the desert and arrested them for illegal entry."I told the Border Patrol that we were forced to carry it," Rodolfo said. "They told us we were lying. I said, 'No, I'm telling the truth. We'll show you.' So we took them to the place near the river and the marijuana was still there."In November, the prosecutor dropped the charges. Rodolfo and Jose Luis — fearing for their lives — were deported back to Mexico. They asked that their last names not be used in this story.Fear Of Going BackThis is the new calculus for illegal border crossers. They have to deal with criminal syndicates that control all 2,000 miles of the international divide. To them, immigrants are just another income stream. They're robbed, they're kidnapped and their families are extorted, and, increasingly, they're dragooned into helping the gangs."About a year and a half ago, ourselves as well as our investigators started seeing these clients that would say, 'I don't care how long I'm going to get, I can't go home — they'll kill me,'" says a federal public defender in West Texas for 27 years. Rodolfo and Jose Luis were her clients.It's difficult to say how many cases like this are in federal courts along the border. Rogers says most of her backpacker cases these days claim coercion, and they didn't used to. The individual stories vary, but the common denominator is fear."[We] have grown men, rawboned cowboy guys from Chihuahua, begging for protection from deportation," she says.In Tucson, a criminal defense attorney says about one-third of his clients these days are telling him they were unwilling drug mules. Most say they were planning to cross the border, but the human smuggler they were dealing with turned out to be a marijuana smuggler.….The identical story is heard 1,000 miles east in Laredo, Texas."They kind of feel like they don't have a choice because now they've been approached to do this, and you don't really want to say no to people who are committing such violent acts in Mexico," says a federal public defender.…."Oh yeah, they force you to work for them, and if you tell them you don't want to, they'll kill you. They'll use you as a lookout, or a kidnapper, or to carry drugs north," Fernando says. "Some people who don't have family to help them join these gangs because it's the only way they can cross the river. I won't work for them — I won't ask the cartel for help. I ask God to help me."Validity QuestionedThe U.S. justice system is generally skeptical of immigrants who claim "the cartel made me do it."….Rodolfo, the immigrant who crossed the border with Jose Luis, is the exception. Federal agents believed his story only after he volunteered to show them where he dropped the dope. Usually, though, there's no corroborating evidence; all the judge has is the defendant's word.….To test the duress claim, federal investigators look at an immigrant's criminal history and interview co-defendants to see if all the stories match up.….'A Tough Defense'On Oct. 16, the Mexican army rescued 61 immigrants from a safe house in Piedras Negras, across the river from Eagle Pass, Texas. Mexican authorities say the immigrants were being held for ransom and forced to work for the cartel.From a trafficker's perspective, using migrants to smuggle drugs is a reasonable tactic."You're placing the risk onto the migrants as they're coming into the U.S. In essence, you're not exposing your foot soldiers to capture," says vice president for intelligence with the Austin-based global intelligence firm Stratfor.Defense attorneys in three states interviewed by NPR say they are frustrated that the government maintains its longstanding distrust of duress claims, despite the new reality along the U.S.-Mexico border."It's a tough defense because it's another country, and we can't even investigate properly over there. So there's no proof. And that's not to say that they're not true," says branch chief of the public defender's office in Laredo.One immigrant defendant, according to his lawyer, recently blurted out in a West Texas courtroom, "Just kill me here so my family can claim my body. Because if you send me back, I know the narcos will kill me."Source: [2011/12/04/143025654/migrants-say-theyre-unwilling-mules-for-cartels]Return to ContentsHidalgo County Sheriff Says Vallucos Gang is a Growing Problem (TX)1 DECEMBER 2011KRGVDONNA - Three men allegedly involved in an armed robbery in Donna are behind bars. They are all facing charges of aggravated robbery. Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino says the men are a part of a gang that is causing major headaches in his county.?Trevino says the Vallucos are now the largest gang in the Valley. City by city, their grasp is getting tighter around the Valley. A former member of the gang says they may be more dangerous than ever before."They do everything. We've had them for murders. We've had them for kidnappings. We've had them involve themselves in robberies but mostly in burglaries and street level drug dealing," says Trevino.The Vallucos gang has grown in status in recent years. A former gang member that we’ll call “Ricardo” for his safety says they may even be involved with the cartels in Mexico."It’s like you’re playing chess. You got your kings and queens, your knight. It falls down basically. The cartel is basically your king and queen. All the families start falling down beside them in front of them are the pawns, which are basically your street gangs," says Ricardo.Trevino says they haven’t had any confirmed connections between the Vallucos and any Mexican cartel.A 2010 Texas gang threat assessment report says the Vallucos have the strongest relationship with the cartels because of their location. Ricardo says he agrees his former gang was always violent. It's the reason he got out for good."They wanted me to knock one guy out because they thought he was TS member just because he has the initials tattooed on his neck. That can stand for anything," says Ricardo.The ink on his back is still a reminder of his troubled past. He says he's choosing to speak out to save others from making the same mistakes."Don’t do it. Don’t risk your life. Your life isn’t worth for anybody to be put in jail. Worry about your family," says RicardoTrevino says his department's focus right now is taking down these violent criminals, even if they have to do it one at a time.?Trevino says he believes this gang will continue to grow. He says it's a real problem. He believes this former prison-only gang is more of a threat to the security of the Valley then even the cartels.Source: [news/local/story/Hidalgo-County-Sheriff-Says-Vallucos-Gang-Is-a/Dn876qLmF0uZluT7j5cLvw.cspx]Return to ContentsBanks Fuel Cartel-Money Problem (MX/US)5 DECEMBER 2011The Seattle TimesMEXICO CITY — Money launderers for ruthless Mexican drug gangs long have had a formidable ally: international banks.Despite strict rules set by international regulatory bodies that require banks to "know their customer," inquire about the source of large cash deposits and report suspicious activity, they have failed to do so in many high-profile cases and instead have allowed billions in dirty money to be laundered.And those who want to stop cartels from easily moving money express concern that guilty banks get off with a slap on the wrist.Wachovia last year agreed to pay $160 million in forfeitures and fines after U.S. prosecutors accused the banking powerhouse of "willfully" overlooking the suspicious character of more than $420 billion in transactions between the bank and Mexican currency-exchange houses — much of it probably drug money, investigators say.Wachovia was moving money through wire transfers, traveler's checks, even large hauls of bulk cash, investigators said. Some money was traced to purchases of small airplanes used to smuggle cocaine from South America to Mexico, they said."Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations," the U.S. Attorney said last year.Wachovia paid the $160 million in what is called a deferred-prosecution deal; no one went to prison, and the fines were a tiny fraction of the money the bank had filtered. Wachovia acknowledged serious lapses.In a similar case, U.S. regulators are monitoring HSBC Bank after a probe last year focused on bulk cash that its U.S. branch received from Mexican exchange houses, money suspected to be drug proceeds.Some believed regulators might try to use the HSBC case to set an example and prosecute individual bankers. Instead, HSBC agreed to strengthen its compliance program and has said it is cooperating with investigators, without acknowledging wrongdoing.Mexican authorities say they have taken steps to control and monitor money laundering. Regulations in force since 1997 require reporting and canceling of suspicious accounts, and additional measures last year that put limits on dollar deposits in banks tightened restrictions further.Traffickers and their launderers are channeling more money into other sectors, such as real estate and commerce, avoiding banks altogether. Mexican and U.S. officials are trying to plug those plicity by banks has a deep history that resonates in Mexico.Raúl Salinas de Gortari, brother of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, used a maze of accounts in New York-based Citibank and other U.S. banks to secretly transfer millions of dollars to Switzerland in the 1980s and '90s, when he was a middle-ranking bureaucrat. U.S. congressional investigators alleged his wife personally carried check after check to the bank, where Citibank executives asked no questions — despite rumors that linked him to drug lords, and even when he was held on charges that he masterminded the assassination of a top politician.No criminal charges of money laundering or illicit enrichment were ever filed. Salinas is a free and wealthy man today.Source?: [seattletimes.html/nationworld/2016900604_mexbanks01]Return to ContentsAttacks in Sinaloa Herald Entrance of Zetas (SIN)5 DECEMBER 2011In SightA new report?by Sinaloa news magazine Riodoce,?reprinted by Proceso, says that a recent wave of murders in Culiacan, Sinaloa state capital, is a result of the Zetas' incursion into the state. There, the group has linked up with the?Beltran Leyvas, former Sinaloa allies who split with Joaquin Guzman, alias "El Chapo," in 2008; and?the organization?of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, alias "El Viceroy," who has been warring with Chapo’s forces in Juarez.While Sinaloa has long been considered the territory of Guzman and his allies, the reality is a bit more complicated. A large proportion of the nation’s most notorious drug lords use routes in Sinaloa. Aside from being the home of many capos, the state is valued both for its fertile drug-producing in the Sierra Madre mountain range as well as its long coastline and its access to the border cities in Baja California.The Beltran Leyvas never entirely left the region after their split with Guzman, even as they shifted much of their presence south to cities like Acapulco and Cuernavaca. Now, they have set up strongholds in mid-sized Sinaloa cities like Guasave, where public banners or?appearing for months.The Zetas, though originally based in the northeast, have expanded aggressively throughout the nation (and even?beyond its borders), including regions far from their home turf. The appearance of the Zetas in Sinaloa follows their recent incursion into the Pacific state of Jalisco, which is just a bit south of Sinaloa.Although Carrillo Fuentes is originally from Sinaloa, his group (known as the Juarez Cartel), which was initially built by his late brother Amado and his partners in the 1990s, has been based in Juarez for close to two decades. However, the declining violence in Juarez after years of battles with Guzman’s forces, and the reduced power of La Linea, the Juarez Cartel’s enforcement arm, are indicative of radical changes in the region. The appearance of his forces in Sinaloa suggests that Carrillo Fuentes has decided not to bet all his chips on Juarez.What follows is InSight Crime’s translation of selected extracts from the Riodoce article on the recent violence in Sinaloa:The first week of this month, via military inteligence, reports arrived to the office of Malova [Mario Lopez Valdez, governor of Sinaloa] that criminal groups that hadn’t been strong in the central part of the state had managed to bring several groups of gunmen into the territory controlled by the organization of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.According to the information from the state government, the group is the Zetas, which since midway through the year has been fighting to heat up the region along with the Beltran Leyvas Organization, who have established their operational bases in Ahome and Guasave, and the Carrillo Fuentes organization, which has a limited presence in Navolato, Angostura and Salvador Alvarado.Some cells of the Zetas, for their part, had taken southern Sinaloa as their center of operations and their apparent presence was speculated upon in July 2, 2011, when the remains of two decapitated people were tossed on the western steps of the governmental palace.The suspicions of the government regarding the “presence in Culiacan of a large group of Zetas” was confirmed on November 4 when a narco commando unit murdered eight people on a volleyball court in the Colonia Pemex.Although they don’t specify how many there are nor in what areas of Culiacan they operate, the 9th Military Zone, in coordination with the Elite Group [a specialized unit of the state police] and the Mixed Urban Operation Bases implemented a perimeter around the limits of the state capital towards the beginning of November so as to prevent the entrance of more Zetas. Nevertheless, the gunmen managed to slip through to the capital.On November 24, reacting to 24 murders ocurred a day earlier, including the 16 burned bodies, the governor confirmed that “we all know that here the Pacific Cartel [an alternative name for the Sinaloa Cartel] operates and that there are other cartels or local cells that are allied with some of the Zetas, the Beltran Levyas, the Carrillos, that are in conflict ... It’s a product of groups, messages that are sent, that no one is strong or protected enough to prevent all incursions,” he said.In Culiacan, a city previously not included in public security operations by state and federal police, some 300 soldiers were mobilized. Since the afternoon of November 23 they have patrolled the zones considered the most troubled and installed checkpoints in strategic locations.In some cases, such as in the boroughs of Angostura, Salvador Alvarado and Guasave, the mayors were “advised” to tell the population to exercise precaution. One of the suggestions was to avoid being out on the streets, highways, or roadways after eight at night.It was reported that in the community of Palmitas, in the city of Angostura, a commando unit that on Monday in the middle of the night kidnapped three police officers whose burnt bodies appeared in Culiacan on Wednesday morning, left a message threatening the residents that they would have the same luck if they were found outside of their houses at night.That day's wave of violence shook the Sinaloans. It even the government, and on November 22, after newspaper El Debate reported that a daughter of Gerardo Vargas Landeros, general secretary of the government, had been transported from Culiacan to [the coastal city] Los Mochis in a government helicopter, the government said that organized crime poses a threat to government officials and puts them in a vulnerable position.Mario Lopez Valdez revealed that his children have left Sinaloa, “they aren’t here, they have been gone a while,” he added. He then said that “there are signals, information, conversations that when someone important is detained, they try to attack the representatives of the executive branch.”Despite being the city with the highest crime rates in Sinaloa -- 40 percent of the 1,755 murders registered across the state from January through November 24 were committed here -- the presence of state and federal agents was reduced, in contrast to cities like Mazatlan, Los Mochis and Guasave, which since March 2011 have had the deployment of the Elite Group, the Federal Police, and the army.According to information from the Department of Public Security that the state government turned over to the local Congress, in Mazatlan, where the Elite Group stood out since their creation, car theft dropped 40 percent between 2010 and 2011, murders decreased by 21 percent, home robberies were reduced by 31 percent and bank robbery dropped 83 percent.In Ahome, which has also received special attention from Malova’s government, the report of the SSP emphasizes that the criminal index has dropped by 26 percent.In contrast, in Culiacan, where the Elite Group had not entered until "Black Wednesday," the state agency reported that high-impact crimes had risen by 44 percent, robbery of businesses by 138 percent, and car theft by 38 percent.Source: [insight-latest-news/item/1929-attacks-in-sinaloa-herald-entrance-of-zetas]Return to ContentsMexican Drug Cartels Profiting from High Local Cocaine Prices?: Police (AU/MX)6 December 2011The AustralianAUTHORITIES are struggling to combat Mexican drug cartel operations in Australia, with the NSW Crime Commission revealing that importations can get back up and running within months of key players being locked up.The relentlessness of the cartels in trafficking cocaine into the country is proving a major concern for law enforcement agencies, with some bosses never setting foot in Australia, conducting most meetings face-to-face in Mexico and using covert communication methods to avoid interception.In its latest annual report the commission said the "disproportionately large profits" on offer in the local cocaine market - where 1kg of the drug purchased in Mexico for $US12,000 ($11,738) can sell for $US191,000 - had made Australia a very attractive target for international syndicates.The NSWCC said there were many significant organized crime groups now operating in Sydney that were controlled and supplied from overseas."There are numerous instances of key individuals from crime groups being arrested in NSW with significant quantities of prohibited drugs," the report said."But even where this affects the supply chain, new supply chains are quickly established."Such local arrests do not deter the criminal principals who are resident overseas. In a case of a Mexican cartel, despite arrests of a number of individuals in this country and significant seizures of prohibited drugs and cash, the cartel managed to set up a new stream of supply within months."In the past 18 months major arrests over three seizures of cocaine totaling nearly 750kg saw supplies of the drug dry up.In the months following the seizures, cocaine in Australia was only being sold in ounces and was of low purity, with prices rising as a result of the shortage."More recently it has stabilized, indicating that there have been some successful importations of cocaine," the commission said.In its most recent analysis of the drug trade, the Australian Crime Commission, which operates nationally, has put the average price of a gram of cocaine as low as $250 in NSW and between $300 to $350 in other states.Prices usually climb towards $400 when supply is restricted.About 300kg of cocaine was allegedly seized from a yacht off the coast of Queensland last month. Four Spanish nationals have since been charged.The Australian Federal Police yesterday would not confirm or deny that the Spaniards were part of a Mexican-controlled syndicate.The ACC has also warned that Mexican cartels "may also import the violent practices which have been reported overseas".Source: [.au/news/nation/mexican-drug-cartels-profiting-from-high-local-cocaine-prices-police/story-e6frg6nf-1226214560522]Return to ContentsMexico?: Drug Cartel Targets Woman Journalist Through Online Social Media (TAMPS)5 DECEMBER 2011Women News Network(WNN) MEXICO CITY: In less than two months, two women journalists who covered drug-related violence have been killed in Mexico. Yolanda Ordaz a reporter for the Vera Cruz coastal newspaper “Notiver” and more recently, thirty-nine-year-old María Elisabeth Macías Castro, a reporter for the regional newspaper “Primera Hora”, based in the town of Nuevo Laredo located in northern Mexico close to the U.S./Texas border.Macías murder is considered the first documented case in Mexico where the murder is thought to be a direct retaliation for journalism that was specifically posted using online social media. She was also an active Twitter user and was in favor of using social media to post helpful information for society related to organized crime.Her violent early morning murder came with a cryptic well-placed message: “…For those who do not want to believe, this happened to me for my actions, for trusting ‘Sedena’ (Mexico’s Army) and ‘Marina’ (Mexico’s Navy). Thank you for your attention. Sincerely, ‘La Nena de Laredo’ (Elisabeth Macías’ name online)… ZZZZ”. The signature with the letter ‘Z’ suggests a strong link to the notorious criminal cartel named ‘Los Zetas’.Los Zetas has been known as one of the most active cartels in Mexico. The cartel’s headquarters is the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Working as a paramilitary arm of its present drug war rival ‘the Gulf Cartel’ in the 1990s, Los Zetas managed military-like operations. The crime ring is considered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration today to be one of the most? dangerous armed cartels in Mexico.When seasoned crime reporter thirty-two-year-old María Esther Aguilar Cansimbe completely disappeared on November 2009, she was in the process of writing about local police corruption and about the activities of two members of the another active Mexican crime organization called ‘La Familia’. Aguilar vanished from her home in Zamora in south-western Mexico without a trace. Today she continues to be missing.Violence against women journalists in Mexico’s cartel corners mirrors the violence against women in other locations in Mexico that are also controlled by corrupt forces, such as the hundreds of women who have disappeared or were found missing in the border town of Juarez. The ongoing violence against Mexico’s press is another action of intimidation that is the most dangerous in areas where cartels have more control.“Violence against the press has swept the nation and destroyed Mexicans’ right to freedom of expression”, says CPJ – Committee to Protect Journalists in special 2010 report on violence against journalists in Mexico. “This national crisis demands a full-scale federal response”.In regions where cartel violence is high the fear is tangible for those trying to get information out online and in-print about the drug cartels.“With most of the police here you don’t know who you’re talking to—a detective or a representative of organized crime”, said Aguilar’s husband and former police chief David Silva.With cartels now carefully watching internet forums, blog posts and twitter tweets, all journalists and bloggers are in increased danger as they are monitored and identified as online targets. The recent murder of journalist Elisabeth Macías is a case in point.“The fight for territorial control of the border zone is also waged in a new battleground: the internet and its social media”, says the new November 2011 Social Media Manifesto Against Mexican Drug Cartels by a group which calls themselves ‘the Mexican Internet Community’.“We the twitterers and hashtag users of Northeastern Mexico (#reynosafollow, #nuevolaredo, #matamoros, #tamaulipas, #mier, and others who) released this manifesto in response to the murder of our companion, a social media user attacked by a group of drug traffickers, that occurred early this morning in the city of Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Tamaulipas,” continued the Manifesto.“We repudiate and condemn this criminal act that has provoked a state of terror, and we demand justice in the face of the national silence it is meant to impose, and the stage of amnesia and impunity it portends. This murder is the fourth against twitterers and bloggers that has occurred in less than two months”, added the Mexico Internet Community.As the news of Macías murder spread throughout the internet, UNESCO condemned the assassination of Macías and demanded “urgent measures to stop the violence against journalists in Mexico”.“…in practice, there is no efficient defense, investigation or preventing measures. We live in an absolute state of anarchy, of save-yourself, where the journalist has no option but to self-censor”, said Mexican Interior Secretary Francisco Blake Mora in one of Mexico’s most popular daily newspapers?La Jornada.?A few months after his September 2011 statement, Blake died in a mysterious helicopter crash on November11. Investigations are currently looking at the possibility that the helicopter’s fuel may have been contaminated.As social media becomes an important tool for communicating, the already high incidence of violence in Mexico has accelerated rapidly as those who speak out, including numerous women journalists, who have also been particularly daring in their actions in speaking out online, are targeted.“These murders seem to represent an alarming strategy to intimidate internet users to stop communicating information related to violence”, said Amnesty International following a report release on the death of Macías. “The fact that at least eight communicators have been murdered this year indicates the vulnerability of media professionals and the lack of real impact of measures to prevent and punish the aggressions against journalists”, continued Amnesty.Creating a climate of fear and widespread censorship throughout many local in-print news outlets as violence continues, reports on drug trafficking crime, collusion and corruption in the region have almost come to a complete halt. But the citizens of Mexico want to know more about what’s happening in their region. Instead of reading in-print newspapers to get the news many are committed to getting it via social media.The problem is that social media is proving to be more than just an opportunity for muckrakers to speak the truth. As cartels find and target journalists, bloggers, facebook and forum members online who report or comment about drug related crime and crime cartels it is expected that the violence will continue or accelerate.Like the rest of the world Mexico City is jumping on the band wagon in using digital interactive tools that are available to the public online.? HYPERLINK "" \o "Mapa Delectivo crime report website" \t "_blank" Mapa Delictivo?is an online interactive map that reports crimes across the city in real time.“…with the traditional media silenced, Mexicans have gone online in search of news. But now that looks risky too… Although many sites are anonymous, the mobsters seem to be getting better at tracking down contributors, even outside of Mexico”, said?The Economist?in a recent September report. “Last year two Mexican students at Columbia University in New York set up a website to track violence in Monterrey, another troubled city in Mexico’s north. The project was cancelled after the site’s administrator, based in the United States, received a threatening phone call”.Before Elisabeth Macías left her office for the night on September 23 she posted one last comment on her website ‘Nuevo Laredo en Vivo’. “Hunting rats if you see where they run, denounce them”, Macías said.Ten days earlier, on September 13th, two young internet users (a man and a woman), who allegedly informed two Mexican cartel watch blogs some details surrounding criminal activity, were found murdered next to threatening messages signed Z (thought to be the signature of Los Zetas).Their bodies were hanged from a bridge in the same city of Nuevo Laredo where journalist Elisabeth Macías lost her life. A more recent case of a beheaded man’s body found with a similar message also occurred recently on November 9th, 2011. He is believed to be another administrator of the chat forum Macías used to chat and post news.According to Amnesty International these murders and the murder of Elisabeth Macías are a clear threat to social network users who live in the most violent regions of Mexico.Following Macías death, few local newspapers featured the story. Not even the daily newspaper Primera Hora, where she worked, mentioned her on their Sunday editorial. There was only a brief report on the “discovery of an unknown woman, beheaded”. The Tamaulipas Government, through the Justice Department, confirmed the murder the night before.As the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) declared: “Throughout Mexico, but especially in the north, unrelenting violence by criminal groups has terrorized?the local press into silence. In the face of this rampant censorship and a near-complete void of information, Mexican citizens, and many journalists, are turning to social media and online forums to share news and inform each other… The murder of the Mexican journalist in the city of Nuevo Laredo on Saturday marks a potential watershed: It is the first case CPJ has documented in which someone was murdered in direct retaliation for journalism posted on social media”.According to recent CPJ statistics, 888 journalists worldwide have been killed since 1992. Of these, 60 journalists and 4 media workers have been murdered in Mexico. 93 percent were male and 7 percent female. 44 percent were threatened beforehand; 32 percent were taken captive and 20 percent were tortured.Internet and social media provide no longer a safe space for free press in some parts of Mexico, it doesn’t matter if you’re a man, a woman, young or old; if you publish information on traditional media or via internet.“I wouldn’t go to Mexico now. I don’t think its any more dangerous for an American than a Mexican, but the drug violence is so random everyone is at risk”, says a member of an online motorcycle riders forum only four weeks ago.“…ultimately, we feel unprotected in the face such atrocities and we are fearful, because this war has now cost the lives of victims in cyperspace, which is our element”, says a November 9, 2011 statement by the Mexico Internet Community in their new Social Media Manifesto.Source: [search?rlz=1C1TSND_enUS458US459&aq=f&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=nuevo+laredo]Return to Contents‘Los Zetas’ Gain Growing Control on Mexico-Guatemala Border (MX/GT)5 DECEMBER 2011Southern PulseAs the Zetas expand in northern and central Mexico, their control over the entire extension of the Mexico-Guatemala border remains a point of strength for the group. The corridor, particularly the Chiapas-Peten border, helps drive their profits for human and drug trafficking, and provides them a potential safe haven from the Mexican authorities when they increase pressure.A key question entering 2012 will be whether the Zetas consolidate their control over this corridor or begin to lose ground in the face of coordinated government actions. Just this month, the Zetas took two blows at different points along that border, but remain powerful.?First, Mexican authorities arrested Santos Ramírez Morales (alias ‘El Sapo’ or ‘El Santo Sapo’) the leader of Zetas operations in Tabasco and Chiapas. The arrest of El Sapo and 25 other alleged collaborators in Ocozocuautla, Chiapas was based on intelligence work by the Mexican authorities tracking the movements of drugs across the Guatemala-Mexico border. Information divulged during the arrest also revealed details about Zetas operations in the region including a network of construction businesses based in Mexico such as Constructora Limpez, SA de CV, that were used to traffic drugs and launder money. Several vehicles identified with that firm were seized by police following the Zetas arrests.Second, Guatemalan authorities broke up several Zetas cells in the northern part of the country. Police arrested two people accused of providing the Zetas with vehicles, weapons and safe houses in the Zacapa province who helped the Zetas move through northern Guatemala. More troubling, Guatemalan police rescued a thirteen year old Mexican boy who had been kidnapped in Chiapas and trafficked to a Zetas safe house in Huehuetenango on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. The “reverse movement” of kidnap victims from Mexico to Guatemalan safe houses should be troubling to officials in both countries, though this incident remains an outlier anecdote so far.Meanwhile, Mexican and Guatemala authorities search for more cooperation with the election of Guatemalan President-elect Otto Perez Molina. Perez has praised President Felipe Calderon’s offensive against the criminal groups in Mexico, and promised to bring his own style of offensive to his country, along the lines of how former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe took the fight to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Specifically, Perez has promised to increase the use the Kabiles and paratrooper special forces brigades to take on the Zetas. To make the point, he named a colonel from the Kabiles, Ulises Anzueto, as his minister of defense. Anzueto’s first public promise was to dedicate two brigades each of military police and special forces to the task of confronting organized crime.Of course, Alvaro Colom was no dove on the matter. Guatemala’s current president has used the military, declared states of siege, worked with his regional counterparts, and gone as far as making a call for a regional NATO force. However, the general sense is that the organized crime problem, including its infiltration into government institutions and society, has worsened even as statistics about homicide have improved.Perez’s promise to increase military use, particularly the infamous Kabiles who many link with human rights abuses and with desertions to criminal organizations, is exactly what Perez opponents feared and supporters hoped. There are fears among NGOs in the country that Perez will increase the military power and influence across sectors that were previously civilian. However, a large portion of Guatemalan society is young, a majority born after the civil war was over, and they will reward progress on security however it is achieved.One concern with Perez’s policies is that the military focus may miss some of the other border problems. Poverty, poor infrastructure and land disputes all contribute to the poor security situation on the border. Land use, including ranches that may be linked to illicit traffickers, has also degraded the fragile environment in the remote regions of Peten. As InSight Crime?reported?earlier this year, the Zetas have established themselves deeply within businesses and society on the Guatemalan side of the border. Perez needs to recognize that they cannot just be confronted militarily, and other aspects of national power will be needed as well.Source: [id3205]Return to ContentsCustoms Agents Seize 11 Kilograms of Cocaine in Hidalgo (TX)1 December 2011El Siglo de TorreonA shipment of a little more than 11 kilograms of cocaine, valued at more than $(USD) 900,000 was seized by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel at the international checkpoint between Reynosa and Hidalgo, Texas. A spokesperson for the CBP, reported that a driver of a 2006 Equinox truck was marked for a second inspection after certain discrepancies were found in the floor of the vehicle. In the second inspection, federal agents used sophisticated technology and drug sniffing dogs to find the 10 packages of cocaine the driver of the truck was smuggling.The official reported that the 10 packages of drugs were hidden in a compartment in the floor of the vehicle. The cocaine found had a total weight of 11.79 kilograms.The driver of the vehicle was a Mexican national, 28 years old, and resident of Reynosa. He was detained and sent to the Department of Customs and Immigration.Spanish Source: [.mx/noticia/682895.aseguran-11-kilos-de-coca-en-aduana-de-hidalg.html] Return to ContentsMilitary Personnel Dismantle Clandestine Radio Communication Networks (COAH/TAMPS/NL/SLP)1 December 2011SEDENAThe Secretariat of National Defense reported the seizures of radio communication equipment in various operations throughout Mexico. The operations were conducted by military personnel participating in “Operacion Noreste” assigned to the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 12th Military Zones.6th Military Zone (Saltillo, Coahuila):51 antennas43 satellite dishes73 power sources172 radios34 cell phones22 NEXTEL phones9 computers7th Military Zone (Escobedo, Nuevo Leon):38 antennas29 satellite dishes18 power sources418 radios736 cell phones673 NEXTEL phones42 computers8th Military Zone (CD Reynosa, Tamaulipas):76 antennas81 satellite dishes69 power sources655 radios401 cell phones391 NEXTEL phones19 computers12th Military Zone (San Luis Potosi, San Luis Potosi):2 antennas2 satellite dishes6 power sources201 radios135 cell phones268 NEXTEL phones1 computersTotal seizures are:167 antennas155 satellite dishes166 power sources1,446 radios1,306 cell phones1,354 NEXTEL phones71 computersThese seizures led to the dismantling of the communication networks used by organized crime and prevented them from easy access to communicate with one another, which led to more arrests and other seizures.The criminals used this communication equipment to protect the areas of Cerro de La Silla from Military convoys, by alerting the other members of the criminal group when a convoy was in the area.A source reported that the majority of the antennas were found in a rural area. However, it was also reported that antennas were found mounted in el Cerro de La Silla, but the exact locations and dates these were found were not indicated.The radio frequencies were used by the “spies” or “look-outs” who were located at different points and were in charge of alerting the others of military or Federal Police convoys in the area.A source reported that the criminals set up communication systems powered by batteries and solar panels with the help of experts in in the field of radio communications.The solar panels were placed strategically to effectively provide power to the electronic devices.The source also reported that some of the antennas were painted green to camouflage them so they could not be spotted easily.Spanish Source: [sedena.gob.mx/index.php/sala-de-prensa/comunicados-de-prensa-de-los-mandos-territoriales/8104-1-de-diciembre-de-2011-monterrey-nl andlibre/acceso/acceso.htm?urlredirect=libre/acceso/acceso.htm?urlredirect=edicionimpresa/notas/20111202/seguridad/1131673.htm]Return to ContentsCARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA How Trinidad is Tackling its Crime Crisis (TT)3 December 2011BBC News Latin AmericaAs the light fades, the engines of Trinidad and Tobago coastguard vessel TTS Teak come to life.The fast patrol boat and its coastguard crew are about to start their nightly patrol of the territorial waters off the west coast of Trinidad.The country's location just 11km (seven miles) off the South American coast makes it an ideal staging post in the shipment of cocaine to the US and European markets.According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, some 3% of cocaine entering the US comes from sea routes.The Caribbean Sea has declined as a smuggling route but the concern is that it will regain its importance as efforts continue to target trafficking via Mexico.And that is why Washington is renewing its focus on the region.Murder spikeThe US has spent $139m (?89m) since 2010 to train regional security forces. The US Coastguard is providing boats and equipment to some of the smaller Caribbean islands and improving the screening of containers bound for the US.….That impact came to fore in August when there were 11 murders in 48 hours, killings the authorities blamed on a drug gang turf war.In response, the government imposed a state of emergency that gave the army forces the same powers as the police. All were allowed to search and arrest without a warrant.An overnight curfew was imposed on Port of Spain and surrounding areas, and also on the other urban centers considered crime "hotspots".The restrictions were lifted after several weeks, but military checkpoints and searches are still in place.Since the clampdown, the government says cocaine and marijuana with a street value of about $250m has been seized."The criminal elements had a thriving business; they were practically running this country and the government was sitting back," says Gary Griffith, national security adviser to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar."They're upset that we've messed up their business, their trade, their industry, and they plan to retaliate."SkepticismOn 25 November,?Mrs. Persad-Bissessar said the security forces had uncovered a plot?to assassinate her and several government ministers.The nature of the threat was not made clear but Mrs. Persad-Bissessar said the security forces had "thwarted what is an evil, devious act of treason".….Business leaders initially supported the curfew and the state of emergency, as the fallout from crime was estimated to add between 20% to 50% to costs, says Catherine Kumar from the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce.But not anymore."We aren't seeing the benefits, it's time now for us to get back to business as usual," she says.Luxury lifestylesAccording to the government, there have been 305 murders so far this year, down on 443 at the same time last year.The security crackdown had taken 173 weapons off the streets, and 13,000 rounds of ammunition have been seized.But some feel the crime measures are not tackling the heart of the problem.….Mr. Griffith says that going after illicit funds will be the next stage of the fight against the traffickers."When you look into their bank accounts or salary they have ?500 but yet they have luxury cars and boats," he says.Local people are convinced that big business, like in much of the world, is involved in the drugs trade."When you hear of TT$1.5bn of drugs being taken off the road, it's not the small man, they can't afford it. So it doesn't make us feel good that there are members of the business community who are involved," says Ms Kumar.Given the scale of the crime, the prime minister has insisted that the drug traffickers still pose a threat to Trinidad and Tobago.She has also indicated the state of emergency is not likely to continue beyond 5 December, according to local media.But the longer the measure continues, the more polarizing it becomes between those who believe that restrictions on civil liberties are a price worth paying to reduce crime and others who believe that the measures have gone far enough already.Source: [bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15964364]Return to Contents Guatemalan Police Rescue Kidnapped Mexican Boy (GT)5 DECEMBER 2011MenaA boy kidnapped in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas last month was rescued over the weekend by Guatemalan police, who killed and a criminal and arrested three other in the operation, Interior Minister Carlos Menocal said Monday.The 13-year old boy was found on Sunday at a house in La Esperanza, a community in the northwestern province of Huehuetenango, Menocal said.Javier Hernandez, a 33-year old Mexican citizen was killed in the operation, the interior minister said.William Roberto Lopez, 33, Faustino Andes Miguel, 34 and Claudia Leticia Munoz, 21 all Guatemalan citizens were arrested, Menocal said.Rony Daniel Velaso was kidnapped on Oct. 18 in Candelaria, a city in Chiapas, while driving his father’s motorcycle taxi and taken to Guatemala.The kidnappers demanded that the family pay $1.1 million for the boy’s release.Guatemalan Presidant Alvaro Colom called his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon on Sunday to inform him of the boy’s rescue, Menocal said.The teenager was abducted by Los Zetas considered Mexico’s most violent drug cartel, the interior minister said.Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as ‘El Lazca’, deserted from the Mexican army in 1999 and formed Los Zetas with three other soldiers, all members of an elite special operations unit, becoming the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel.After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.The cartel was allegedly behind the massacre of 27 peasants in May at a ranch in Guatemala’s Peten province, which borders Mexico and Belize.Source?: [qn_news_story.asp?storyid=%7B09cb5bfd-1696-4608-9df6-e6b4c20a3fc0%7D]Return to ContentsOPINION AND ANALYSIS Mexicos Président Calederon says Drug Cartels Threaten Democracy (DF)4 December 2011Los Angeles TimesREPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- President Felipe Calderon?acknowledged?Sunday that despite five years of battling drug cartels, criminals today pose "an open threat" to Mexico's democratic order (link in Spanish).In a?candid speech?marking the start of his sixth and last year in the presidency (link in Spanish), Calderon said interference in elections by drug gangs "is a new fact, a worrisome fact." "It is a threat to everyone," he said.He was apparently alluding to last month's local elections in Michoacan, Calderon's home state, where traffickers and their henchmen intimidated voters?and?told people whom to vote for. Those events have led to?fears?about further meddling in July's presidential vote.Calderon?defended?his decision to deploy the military to fight the cartels and scolded "political forces" that don't have the "vision" to support the struggle."This is a problem, friends, that has been developing for decades and that is showing us its true face, a face of violence, a face of evil," Calderon said. Violence and insecurity, he added, "are one of the greatest challenges Mexico has faced in modern history."Since Calderon took?office in December 2006, more than 40,000 people have been killed in fighting with and among drug gangs, and thousands of Mexicans have?gone missing?or been forced to flee hometowns.Source: [latimesblogs.world_now/2011/12/mexicos-president-calderon-says-cartels-a-threat-to-democracy]Return to Contents Snipping the Bud: Prep Work is a Payday in the Marijuana Business (CA)2 December 2011Los Angeles TimesReporting from Sebastopol, Calif. -- In an old, shingled house not far from the center of town, the trim crew hunkered over trays in the living room, snipping away at the strain of the day, Blue Dream. Its pungency knifed the air, like a medley of French roasted coffee beans and road kill skunk.….He was happy to find this particular job, making about $200 a day, with not much risk. "Much better than working with a crazy guy in the middle of the woods with an AK-47," he said.This season his boss was an affable young man with a patchy beard, a wool cap and skinny jeans, who oversaw the operation as "trim manager." He wielded no weaponry; he was a bonsai enthusiast, and preferred audio books and?NPR?to keep minds engaged during the tedious work.The members of his crew, ages 22 to 32, had never met before this job and came here to Sonoma County from as far as Michigan and Louisiana.The rise of the?medical marijuana?industry has brought new growers, new techniques and higher visibility to the Northern California growing scene — both state-sanctioned and pure outlaw — and created a demand for more workers. The "trim circle," once a highly secretive, friends-and-family affair, now draws counterculture pilgrims from around the world.When authorities busted a large grow in Humboldt County in late October, the arrests included trimmers from Spain, France, Ukraine,?Australia?and Canada."We're seeing a lot more of the foreign people coming in," Humboldt Dist. Atty. said. "It's sort of the new Gold Rush."From September through November, trimmers wander the streets of old logging towns with their dusty sleeping-bags and Fiskars, pruning scissors, networking with locals and fellow travelers at music festivals, bars and coffee shops. Some of the bolder ones stand on the side of the road with cardboard signs scrawled in marijuanese: "Have Fiskars, Will Work."In some cases, growers and trimmers openly seek each other out on?Craigslist: "Need helping hand with trimming my 'rose bushes,'" read a posting on Oct. 21 from Arcata. "It's that time of the year, and I need a helping hand with the last bit of trimming. Females are preferred since I am in my 20s, so I like to keep it around my age. I'm a fun guy, and you'd have a great time."….State law allows collectives of patients to grow marijuana for doctor-recommended medical use. The federal government sees all marijuana use and production as illegal and, as part of a recent nationwide crackdown, raided the garden of a collective in Mendocino County that had even the sheriff's blessing.Many in the business suspect the enforcement will drive many growers complying with the state law underground. But how many people fit this category is anybody's guess.With no real state regulation, the line between the medical cannabis market and the plain-old illegal one has been murky. Growers can easily sell to both, trimmers work for both, and consumers can buy from both. During the holiday season, when there is a glut of cheap marijuana after the harvest, dispensaries in the Bay Area report a big drop in business as customers go to the black market.On a recent night, six mostly dreadlocked trimmers from a grow in Calistoga dined at the upscale Sea Thai Bistro in Santa Rosa after a long day of work. They reeked of pot, but no one seemed to care.Their circle came together mostly through the music scene and various peace-love-and-anarchy gatherings. At the world Rainbow Gathering in Argentina in March, a woman, 21, of?Israel?met a German couple, he was 29, and she was 32. The Israeli woman traveled with her sister to Northern California, where she met a grower while listening to a band at a bar. She got a job and invited the Germans to come take part.They joined three others from California and a brother and sister from Alaska.The grow straddled the medical and illicit markets, selling to dispensaries and?an illegal dealer in Kentucky, who paid much more. That didn't matter to them; the line seemed artificial. And while they supported full legalization, at least some suspected it would spell the end to this lifestyle."They would not pay us so good if it was legal," said the German man said. "If it's legal, I won't come back, because it'll be $7 an hour."It's not just that the price of marijuana will plummet, he said. It's that growers pay for trust as much as for labor."If it's legal, they don't need people to trust."The Sebastopol trim operated under the aegis of medical cannabis laws, with the product going to a dispensary in the Bay Area. All the trimmers had joined the collective; they were technically patients.The man from Oregon removed a branch of cured marijuana from a black trash bag, cut off the wizened flower buds and gently placed them in his tray.….The work requires a deft hand.….Paid by the pound, they were, in a sense, competing against each other.….One man from the Bay Area, last worked on a trim circle in Eureka, where he was not allowed to leave the house for two months. "They see anybody coming or going as a liability," he explained. One day, a man in a suit, whom the trimmers took to be a member of the Mexican Mafia, came and took half the crop. he had to fight to get his pay.Another from Massachusetts originally, took leave from his job on a tugboat in Louisiana to go to the Burning Man festival in Nevada, met people who knew the trim scene, and ended up here. Another man was a drifter, working at restaurants and ski resorts and the marijuana harvest.…."Legit" is a relative term. The windows were blocked off for a reason. They asked a visitor to be blindfolded for the final half a mile to the house. This caution was partially in fear of robberies, but just as much to avoid raids by federal law enforcement.….They joked that they were living a season of "The Real World," the long-running reality show in which young adults from different backgrounds are thrust together in a house. On other trims, they worked with people from England, Japan,?Germany,?Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland and Israel.….The youngest trimmer added, "We've all made plans to meet up next summer."By Thanksgiving, the marijuana would be delivered and the trimmers dispersed, back to their old lives — until next fall.Source: [news/local/la-me-1202-marijuana-trim-20111202%2c0%2c2941044.story?page=2&obref=obnetwork]Return to Contents Democratic Rep from IL: Undocumented Immigrants Should Carry Document Proving Ties to US (DC)5 December 2011Huff Post ChicagoWASHINGTON – Democratic Rep from Ill. urged undocumented immigrants on Friday to carry copies of documents that can prove their strong ties to the United States, such as high school transcripts, marriage certificates to U.S. citizens, and U.S.-born children's birth certificates."The local cops are still going to get you for driving without a license, or not coming to a complete stop, or simply making up that your taillight was out," he said at a press conference. "But when they take you to Secretary of DHS officers at ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], what should happen is that you should show them that you have strong ties and when they run your record and it shows you have no criminal history, you should be allowed to go free right there and then."The Rep, a longtime supporter of immigration reform, recently visited Alabama and South Carolina to see the impact of their immigration enforcement laws firsthand. During the Alabama visit last week, a group of House Democrats?heard from residents, including undocumented immigrants, about their experiences with the law.Both state legislatures passed laws that, like Arizona's S.B. 1070, allow police to inquire about immigration status during stops, should they "reasonably suspect" the individual is an undocumented immigrant. The Department of Justice sued both states, along with Arizona and Utah, to block the states' immigration laws on the grounds that they preempt federal authority over immigration. Nearly 40 House Democrats?signed an amicus brief?last week in support of the lawsuit against Alabama's H.B. 56.But some House Democrats want to see the Obama administration do more to block these laws in states. When DHS Secretary meets with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus next week, the Rep said he plans to ask her whether the government is deporting people arrested under the Alabama law."They cannot on one hand fight against the legislation ... and on the other hand deport the very people who are victimized by that law," he said. "There has to be some consistency in how it is we look at the law."In the meantime, he said undocumented immigrants should be sure they can prove ties to the United States that might make them eligible for prosecutorial discretion. Under an Obama administration policy?announced on Aug. 18, some 300,000 deportation cases will be reviewed with the aim of closing those deemed low priority.Undocumented immigrants who are related to military service members, have U.S. citizen spouses or children, who came to the country when they were younger than 18, or are elderly or disabled may be allowed to stay under the policy, as long as they do not have a criminal record.To prove they could benefit from that policy, undocumented immigrants around the country could carry or keep available records of their spouses and children, including documents proving they are related to someone in the military, the Rep from IL said.The congressman knows from past experience that proving strong ties to the United States can help undocumented immigrants get out of detention. He?helped a South Carolina man?get released by immigration authorities this week.?The man was picked up by police for a traffic violation and found to be in the country illegally. He was able to prove, with the Representative’s help, that he had entered the United States as a child, had a citizen wife and children and had no previous arrest record.He was released, but he remains in deportation proceedings.House Democrats said they will continue to fight the Alabama immigration law, although they acknowledged that the best solution, comprehensive immigration reform, is likely impossible during this congressional session."Looking at the chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I doubt very much that we will see the reform that's necessary in this Congress," the Democratic Rep from CA, ranking member of the House Immigration Subcommittee, said at the press conference. "In the meanwhile, [we should] make sure that the Constitution is applied. The laws are unconstitutional."Source: [2011/12/02/luis-gutierrez-undocumented-immigrants_n_1125733.html?ref=chicago&ir=Chicago]Return to ContentsWhat Does ‘Illegal immigration’ Really Mean??5 December 2011NewsworksWhenever I come across a news article on immigration, I see a bunch of comments along the lines of "illegal immigrants are criminals and should be treated as such." This is oft-quoted chapter-and-verse in the anti-immigration jeremiad, and one that deserves a little parsing over.First, let's accept the statement "illegal immigrants are criminals" as true because, like all tautologies, it is. Saying "illegal immigrants are criminals" is like saying "unemployed Americans are jobless"—you are correct, but that doesn't get us any closer to the far more important question of why this is the case. We really need to ask why so many Americans are jobless, and we similarly need to ask why so many immigrants are illegal.Sadly, this is a question that never seems to get raised in the debate over undocumented immigration. The fence aficionados tend to argue that undocumented immigration is morally wrong because it is illegal, but that gets the logic of law backwards. An act is not necessarily unethical because it is illegal—failing to register a car and speeding are both illegal acts, but we certainly wouldn't call those perpetrators criminals. Yet, when the person failing to fill out the proper paperwork or taking a prohibited shortcut happens to be an immigrant, they are demonized as criminals, now on par with drug-dealers and thieves.A question of moralityThe real question—the real debate that we and our elected representatives in Congress must have—is this: Is undocumented immigration immoral? And, if so, how immoral? And what level of retribution does it deserve?What is the appropriate penalty for the young man who risks death crossing a border to be a migrant farm worker? Right now, it's a one-way ticket out of here and an invitation to try again. It's hard to make America less appealing to someone who hungers so much for a better life.How do we stop the undocumented children who grew up here—who've only known life here—from thinking that they, too, are American and deserve the freedom or liberty that comes with an education, even though they egregiously failed to fill out the proper paperwork as a toddler?I'll admit that I really don't care if someone cuts the line into America. I actually do think undocumented immigration is about as awful as failing to get your car registered and inspected. Both serve important purposes, and should give police probable cause to do some extra poking around, but really deserve no more than a fine. Neither one offends my moral convictions, at least not the way robbery, assault, and other similarly punished crimes do.Obviously, we need a secure process to vet immigrants in order to prevent terrorists and criminals from entering. Now, before you start raving about Mexican drug cartels, let me remind you that the vast majority of Hispanic immigrants are law abiding, much like the vast majority of Italian immigrants who, despite the Mafia, were law abiding too.Secondly, the resources we waste tracking down and deporting day laborers could be better spent tracking down and deporting gang members.Job creatorsMore importantly, immigration is actually good for America. Immigrants don't take our jobs, they create our jobs. According to a Small Business Administration study, immigrants are 30% more likely to start a business than non-immigrants.Moreover, one of the key factors in economic growth is population growth. Without immigration, our economy would stagnate because, collectively, Americans are getting older and having fewer kids. A 2009 Cato Institute study found that opening the door to more immigrants would lead to economic gains of $180 billion annually, whereas more enforcement would result in an annual $80 billion in economic loss, marked by fewer jobs, less investment and lower levels of consumption.Now, you may disagree and think, despite the evidence to the contrary, that more immigration is a bad thing. That's fine—let's have that debate, which is a debate worth having. But let us emerge from the endless cycle of "illegal immigrants are criminals" against "we are a nation of immigrants." Sure, they both may be true, but that's not really saying much, now is it??Source: [index.php/speak-easy-archive/item/30725-what-does-illegal-immigration-really-mean]Return to Contents ................
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