Archive for the 'Mexican Cartels' Category

Take careful note folks.

“We’re just gonna wait it out for the next four years and then we’ll be in the clear.”

I’ve run across several professional (former) SpecOps who caution against this approach. For example, there is this example, and then this example with Andy Stumpf and Mike Glover.

So in brief, here is what I think. The gangs appear to me to be toothless when faced with ICE and DEA agents. I understand that the more professional cartel fighters in Mexico are much worse, but as long as SpecOps has means of ingress and egress (insertion and extraction), and strictly follows their protocols, I think the cartel fighters will fold like a cheap suit.

I think if we do this, it should be MARSOC and Delta (“The Unit”). The SEALs will have their hands full with other things: Panama.

But what do I know?

First, Ted Cruz and other senators. I like Ted’s arguments, which focus on the second amendment and the complete unviability of a sovereign nation buckling to pressure from another nation in its own court of law. Here is the brief.

Second, twenty eight state attorneys general. Here is the brief. Here is some prose lifted out of the brief.

The First Circuit’s causation finding relied on two facts: the “‘virtual[] impossibil[ity]’ for criminals to obtain firearms legally sourced in [Mexico]” and that an “increase in gun violence in Mexico correlates with the increase of gun production in the United States[.]” Smith & Wesson, 91 F.4th at 516. But the First Circuit mistakes correlation for causation, and the relevant facts highlight that fallacy. The available evidence shows that increases in Mexico’s gun violence are unrelated to American gun manufacturing. Instead, Mexico’s gun violence epi demic stems from the Mexican government’s crackdown on the cartels—and its reluctance to finish the job. See David B. Kopel, Mexico’s Gun-Control Laws: A Model for the United States?, 18 TEX. REV. L. & POL. 27, 42-44 (2013). The First Circuit believes that American guns are “especially attractive to Mexican drug cartels,” but only a minority of guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico originated in the United States. Smith & Wesson, 91 F.4th at 516; Kopel, su pra, at 46-49. Among those guns, many were sold, not on the American retail market, but to the Mexican government. Id. at 46.

[ … ]

The First Circuit also assumed that “between seventy and ninety percent of the guns recovered at crimes scenes in Mexico were trafficked into the country from the United States.” Smith & Wesson, 91 F.4th at 516. That assumption—again central to the court’s causation finding—fails on two fronts. First, it contradicts public admissions by Mexican officials that American guns comprise a much smaller percentage of Mexican crime guns. Second, it finds—in conclusory fashion—that those crime guns are trafficked from the United States by American gun companies. But that ignores the re ality of how most of these guns end up in Mexico in the first place: purchases by the Mexican government. Starting with the court’s first error, American manufactured weapons constitute a small minority of guns recovered from crime scenes in Mexico. Re searchers believe that only about 12% of the guns recovered at those crime scenes originate from U.S. re tail gun stores. Kopel, supra, at 48.

It goes on and you can read it for yourself. I don’t like this line of argumentation at all. No doubt, all of it is true, but it also doesn’t matter in the least. No sovereign country can buckle to another in its own court. If it does, it is not a sovereign country.

But there is more. Give me some latitude and follow me on this for a moment.

Recall that we have discussed feral hogs before, and how wildlife biologists trained to hate hunters and imagine that there is an endless supply of government cash for trappers claim that hunting won’t even dent the hog population.

This just isn’t true at all. I hunted Groton Plantation twice this year, and in a few short weeks we had put enough of a dent in the population – across 23,000 acres – that while I saw plenty the first trip, I didn’t see any the second trip. It’s true enough that part of the reason for this is that we drove them nocturnal, but we also put enough pressure on the population that the grounds didn’t show the presence of hogs. There were no wallows, and no dug up food plots from hogs.

We are constantly told the truth, that deer won’t fight hogs for food. If you want to hunt deer and want a strong deer herd, you’ll kill the hogs. Kill the boars. Kill the sows. Mow down the piglets when they return to the sows after they have been shot. Kill them all and don’t wait. Do it immediately when you see them. And we do.

Commenter and reader “The Alaskan” has remarked of the hog population in the south, Texas, the Midwest, and even north of the border into Canada (where super hogs are bred who can survive the cold weather), will increase until we want it to decrease. There are feral hogs around because America chooses for there to be feral hogs around.

Too many folks benefit from them for hunting preserves, and too many urban dwellers don’t want to see weapons being openly carried, or don’t want firearms discharge in certain locations, but would rather have to run from them and worry about their children being gored to death than deal with the problem. The same thing is true for Coyotes (or Coydogs, or Coywolves).

Are you still with me?

Now. The Mexican cartels don’t exist because of American weapons. They exist because Mexico wants them to exist. Too many people financially benefit from them, or benefit from the largesse they bring in, or fear them enough to protect and abet them.

In the movie Sicario, which is certainly an entertaining movie, the character Alejandro Gillick, played by Benicio del Toro, makes a remark to the effect that “the appetite of Americans for this stuff always amazes me.” Again, this is an entertaining movie, but he misses the point, just like the court missed the point, just like the brief misses the point.

Appetites can change, or be abated, or be redirected, or be met by other means. The American moral culture is certainly sick unto death, and we’ve covered that in other posts. But the temperance movement failed because of folks making corn liquor in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. The war on drugs in an abysmal failure and always will be. A SWAT team cannot instill moral character and neither can gun control or legal actions against gun manufacturers.

The Mexican cartels don’t just traffic in drugs today. Their most lucrative product is humans. And kidnapping. And extortion. They will be around as long as Mexico wants them around. The cartels exist because Mexico wants them to. No amount of gun control will ever change that. Gun control won’t stop it, nor will it even slow it down. Even if the things the AGs claimed were not true and the Cartels got most of their weapons from American gun manufacturers, it still wouldn’t change anything and shutting down American gun manufacturers wouldn’t affect the Cartels in the least. The AGs have done a nice job of entrapping themselves in a fact- or proposition-structure that could turn against them in light of revised data.

This lawsuit exists because American gun companies and their insurance companies have deep pockets just like any other corporation. Any victory by Mexico in this lawsuit would likely only serve to line the pockets of the cartels anyway, further empowering them to do their evil deeds.

Meanwhile, an awful precedent will have been set where American sovereignty has been defenestrated in favor of fleecing the American buyer. It’s a bad deal all around and not what the war of independence was fought over. The founders wouldn’t have been able to fathom something like Mexico bringing lawsuit against the country they fought to begin. This is what should have been argued in the briefs.

Most of the time I find their videos informative. In this case I already knew much of this, but this is what surprised me. Listen carefully to the rules of engagement (or rules for the use of force) the Texas Rangers were operating under.

What other country on earth makes their people follow such rules of engagement for fear of being dragged before criminal courts in the nation which is hosting the invasion?

How screwed up is America right now?

Source.

The Defend Our Borders from Armed Invaders Act was introduced by Republican Rep. Morgan Luttrell of Texas, a former Navy SEAL who served in the Navy for 14 years.

In the last year, there have been multiple instances of migrants crossing into the U.S. carrying weapons, with some brandishing rifles like the AR-15.

And as the Biden administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott clash over border security policies, this bill, Luttrell claims, will enable the National Guard to better protect the U.S. by using ‘any means necessary’ to stop armed migrants.

I didn’t know that Marcus had a brother.

Anyway, eh, I’ll be convinced when I see them under arming orders and shooting live rounds.

And I’ll be convinced when I don’t see things like this.

Everyone needs to watch this video! #Texas @Allenma15086871 @11DarkKnight11 @AtRealBen @WeAreWoke1776_3 pic.twitter.com/i8ZN4lY7B6

— TestDummy (@TestDummy04) January 27, 2024

News of Chinese influence.

In 2021, China’s policy banks ⁠— the China Development Bank (CDB) and Export-Import Bank (Exim) ⁠— made no loans to Latin America for the second consecutive year. Beijing is now essentially focused on financing Chinese companies to operate in the region.

This shift in strategy and the resulting proliferation of Chinese companies in Latin America will increase the circulation of people and money that are no longer under the direct control of local governments. Based on current trends, Chinese criminal organizations will likely thrive in this new economic environment. Extortion, money laundering through front firms, and smuggling are already increasing, posing a severe threat to the population’s safety in the region.

Drug production is one of China’s fastest-growing businesses in Latin America. After China’s booming export of fentanyl or its precursors to Mexican cartels, a new market has emerged for non-fentanyl synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, also known as benzimidazole opioids such as the synthetic opioid derivative ISO, which are 20 times more potent than fentanyl.

US authorities believe that these drugs are being manufactured in China and shipped to Mexico where they are then smuggled into the US. In March, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody issued a warning against ISO, as law enforcement agencies advised that the drug might be responsible for the recent rise in overdose fatalities. “Isotonitazene is so strong that it can kill just by coming in contact with someone’s skin or being accidentally inhaled,” stated Moody.

Concerns are growing that ISO may be manufactured directly in Mexico or other countries in the region, where Chinese criminal groups have already established production facilities for “creepy,” the name given to a potent cannabis strain popular amongst criminal grow operations, particularly in South America.

Mexico is a failed state, just as are most or all of Central and South American countries (Brazil may be an exception).  Michael Yon has documented the flood of immigrants that will soon overwhelm the Southern border, and are already doing so.  They will crash the American medical system demanding free medical care, and the food and logistics situation won’t fare much better.

Meanwhile, here is the focus of the U.S. Marine Corps: The South Pacific.

Here is the focus of the U.S. Army: Europe.

The Navy is have trouble meeting recruitment and retention goals, as is all of the military.

The U.S. Border Patrol, perhaps the only real police force left in America, isn’t allowed to do their jobs.

If Congress was comprised of anything other than gargoyles, demons and pit vipers, they would hold a vote tomorrow and unanimously declare the Southern border to be a war zone, America to have been invaded, and the military deployed under arming orders to shoot trespassers.

But that won’t be done.  Per a Michael Yon dispatch, this was seen.

Costly food and energy are fostering global unrest https://t.co/HNubS6vrWv

"The Economist has built a statistical model to assess the relationship between food- and fuel-price inflation and unrest." pic.twitter.com/AGpAtyQUJu

— wonkmonk (@wonkmonk_) June 28, 2022

The authorities want chaos and unrest.  They thrive in it.  They need it.  It helps to maintain their authority.  It makes the know-nothings beg for more government intervention and control.  It’s all by design.

Never forget that.  This is all by design.

Thoughts from Matt Bracken, sent from Michael Yon (via WRSA).

Yes.  A reminder that we’re under invasion.

Related: I stumbled upon this blog a couple of days ago.  Borderland Beat.

It’s a website dedicated to reporting on the operations of the Mexican cartels on the Mexican-U.S. border.  The beheadings, violence, buyouts and corruption is everywhere.

Yes, we’re under invasion.  Messing with Russia’s “near abroad” is about the stupidest thing we could possibly do – unless they’re trying to distract you and enrich themselves (or install the rainbow flag over the Kremlin).

Michael Yon sends remarks.

Texas National Guard Is Ineffective on Texas Border

Texas National Guard — Something is WRONG

Am witnessing on the Texas border — Texas National Guard — something is wrong. (Am in Virginia at the moment — just briefed a bunch of Members of Congress and others).

As you know, I spent more time with US forces in combat than any correspondent alive. And my track record on calling the ball where it bounces has been verified time and again with ‘slow motion replay’ as years pass by.

Most Texas National Guard on the border I encounter act like they got something to hide. This is the norm. Say, 80 percent. This is abnormal for troops deployed like this.

My sense is they are not useful on the line and represent a danger to themselves. Something just ain’t right. I’ve gone so far as checking into hotels they stay in and being there night and day watching. (Your donations in actions…sorry, often cannot say exactly what is up…I can give glimpses like this — I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner at the next table, and see them at the border).

Almost certainly the morale and training problems are command failure. I do not know the cause but my experience points directly to command failure. Starting at the President, SecDef, Texas Governor, and working down into the uniformed ranks.

Our border is wide open. We are under invasion. And those we have guarding the border should be relieved and replaced by another force.

He then links this article.

On the evening of Sept. 10, a soldier deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border slid a manifesto under each door in his brigade headquarters and then slipped away.

The frustrated Army National Guardsman assigned to the 110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade headquarters had seen enough.

Three soldiers had died in three months, the most recent in an alleged DUI just five days earlier, and more than a dozen troops from the mission had been arrested or confined for drugs, sexual assault and manslaughter.

“Someone please wave the white flag and send us all home,” the letter pleaded. “I would like to jump off a bridge headfirst into a pile of rocks after seeing the good ol’ boy system and fucked up leadership I have witnessed here.”

The unit never found the author.

The letter was provided to Army Times by another anonymous soldier, who like others for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss equipping, staffing and misconduct issues plaguing the border mission.

For much of 2021, more than 4,000 Guard personnel from 20 states helped monitor the U.S.-Mexico border alongside Customs and Border Protection personnel. The majority were part of a brigade-level ground force led by the 110th MEB known as Task Force Phoenix, a combination of 34 distinct Guard units stitched together with virtually no prior relationships, complicating an already wayward operation. Most returned home in October, when a new Guard task force took over.

• When troops weren’t on duty, most were at hotels in remote locations. Alcohol and drug abuse became so widespread that senior leaders issued breathalyzers and instituted alcohol restrictions that tightened as the misconduct incidents piled up.
• Leaders initiated more than 1,200 legal actions, including nonjudicial punishments, property loss investigations, Army Regulation 15-6 investigations and more. That’s nearly one legal action for every three soldiers. At least 16 soldiers from the mission were arrested or confined for charges including drugs, sexual assault and manslaughter. During the same time period, only three soldiers in Kuwait, a comparable deployment locale with more soldiers, were arraigned for court-martial.
• Troops at the border had more than three times as many car accidents over the past year — at least 500 incidents totaling roughly $630,000 in damages — than the 147 “illegal substance seizures” they reported assisting.
• One cavalry troop from Louisiana was temporarily disbanded due to misconduct and command climate issues — an extremely rare occurrence.
• A 1,000-soldier battalion-level task force based in McAllen, Texas, had three soldiers die during the border deployment. For comparison, only three Army Guard troops died on overseas deployments in 2021, out of tens of thousands.

It sounds like it’s out of control, with no leadership, no accountability, no morals or scruples, no coherent world and life view among the troops, little to no training, little to no expectations, and poor equipment.  In other words, with the U.S. Navy crashing ships into each other, the USMC inviting women into infantry officer training at Quantico, sex change operations the order of the day, the infliction of unconstitutional orders on the military (forced vaccinations), very low morale among the Navy SEALs (something I’ve been told directly by those associated with the SEALs), and on the list could go, it sounds like the NG is in about the same place as the rest of the military.

The U.S. military is disintegrating, perhaps all by design.  Now, compare this assessment of the strict organizational structure of the cartels in Mexico.

The cartels will screw IDs to your forehead.

They aren’t playing a game, and there is no disobedience of orders.  There is full accountability, good equipment, and a consistent world and life view (albeit wicked).

There is no winning a war in which you do not believe.  There is only abject surrender and submission.

But not of course by U.S. troops, who stood and looked while enemies of the U.S. launched machine gun fire into the country from Mexico.

Because no one cares enough to stop it.

Mexican cartels were seen firing automatic weapons across the border and INTO the United States last night. #BuildBackBetter 💩 pic.twitter.com/NjReYHQ0F9

— The Real Queen of Naboo (@dawnstar1776) October 8, 2021

Of course they do.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador quickly rebuffed Trump’s offer, saying his government will seek justice in the case. And on Wednesday, López Obrador’s top security official went further, saying the U.S. could help — by stopping the flow of high-powered weapons into Mexico.

“This is a grave problem we have in the country, the smuggling of arms, particularly from the U.S.,” Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said in an update on the case Wednesday morning. Of the flow of weapons from the U.S., he added, “it’s what has allowed the criminal groups to increase their firepower.”

It doesn’t matter that it isn’t true.  Any chance to blame Americans is a good chance, given that you’re only in Mexico to begin with because you’re polygamists and thus illegal in America.

In other news, the cartels have worked themselves into big business, and could buy fighter jets if they wanted them.

Fuel theft is becoming recognized as a significant organized crime activity. In Mexico, both cartels (e.g., the Cártel del Golfo and Los Zelas) and other criminal gangs known as huachicoleros (such as the Cártel Santa Rosa de Lima or CSRL) are notorious for their illicit/clandestine taps on fuel or hydrocarbon infrastructure.[2] Fuel theft poses operational concerns and hazards (such as explosions) in addition to its economic impact and nexus with corruption.[3] Fuel theft by criminal groups is targeted across the petroleum production, processing, and distribution infrastructure:

• Crude storage and transport,

• Refineries,

• Distribution pipelines; predominately surface but now also including

subterranean pipeline taps,

• Fuel trucks,

• Gasoline/Petrol stations.

The fuel stolen (both crude and processed) is typically sold at a discount to illicit businesses but may also be distributed for point-of-sale purposes to a multitude of individual consumers. Though the processing of stolen crude at gang-owned refineries and/or sales of refined petroleum at gang-owned gasoline stations is not unheard of for profit maximizing purposes.

So don’t give me that crap about American gun owners being the problem.  We’ve heard it, we’ve debunked it, and you can get lost.