“Thousands of troops, backed by armored personnel carriers and quasi-military federal police, are pouring into Jalisco to curb the New Generation Jalisco Cartel,” wsj.com reports, “which officials say has grown rich selling hundreds of millions of dollars of smuggled methamphetamines from Mexico and South American cocaine to consumers in Mexico, the U.S. and elsewhere. The government took the rare step of appointing a general to lead the mission.” While the American media has ignored the heavily-armed and bloody conflict, and there are no “good guys” in this uncivil civil war. In fact . . .
The Mexican military’s deployment into the failed state of Jalisco highlights the fact that America’s War on Drugs is, in fact, a war. With trained troops on both sides . . .
The New Generation cartel is perhaps Mexico’s most audacious and vicious criminal enterprise, after the government captured or killed most leaders of the Zetas gang based in northeastern Mexico, say officials and security analysts. Like the Zetas, originally formed by army deserters, the New Generation gang favors paramilitary methods, and has received tactical training from Mexican and foreign mercenaries, these people say, including the use of rocket-propelled grenades against the helicopter.
“They have ranks and a hierarchy like armies do,” said Alfonso Quintero, a retired Mexican air force captain who now specializes in intelligence issues. “They are very united behind their leader and have made loyalty a supreme value.”
Former members of the Kaibiles, Guatemala’s feared army special forces, and Mexican military veterans have given strategic and paramilitary training to the gang, said Mr. Solorio, the state security commissioner. Captured cartel members also have said an American veteran—“a very aggressive, very wild U.S. Marine”—has also been training the group’s gunmen, he said. “We believe he was paid a fortune to give them training,” Mr. Solorio said.
Despite the Wall Street Journal’s entirely-too-credulous reference to “the U.S. black market” the so-called “Iron River of Guns” supposedly flowing to Mexico from Bob’s Gun Store – once a rationale for U.S. gun control, which justified a multiple-gun reporting requirement still in place in our border states – has sweet FA to do with it.
The cartel’s weapons—rocket-propelled grenades, antitank missiles and 50-caliber sniper rifles—come mainly from Central American and U.S. black markets, officials say. Soldiers have seized makeshift factories in Jalisco’s mountains where cartel members assemble their own assault rifles, the officials say.
borderlandbeat.com gives us another look at the situation at the sharp end:
The troops have been deployed to Jalisco in the strongest show of military might ever seen in Mexico, according to a report today by Milenio.
One week after a criminal gang, believed to be the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel, shot down a Mexican Air Force Cougar helicopter killing six soldiers, the Armed Forces are on the move.
From San José de Avila to Villa Purificación, the municipality where the attack on the helicopter took place, on the highways and on the approaches to towns in the region, usually under the control of the cartels, is an impressive display of military machinery.
French-made Panhard armoured vehicles carrying 12 soldiers are on patrol. Their 50-caliber guns will fire 1,000 rounds a minute.
But how strong is the vehicle’s armor, a soldier is asked. Strong enough to withstand the shot that took down the helicopter last Friday?
The soldier smiles and says, with typical military frugality, “Yes.”
Residents look at the show of force with astonishment, but they’re not displeased. In fact, they’re glad to see it, although none will appear in front of a camera to say so.
“The truth is, we feel calmer seeing the soldiers everywhere with those huge tanks,” says the woman at an Oxxo store.
“It’s like a movie,” says a woman to her husband while soldiers look over their truck at a checkpoint.
But the scene — armored vehicles, soldiers with bazookas on their shoulders and rocket-powered grenade launches ready to fire — is real enough.
It smells like war in Jalisco.
>The New Generation cartel is perhaps Mexico’s most audacious and vicious criminal enterprise
Wrong, that’d be the DEA.
The New Generation cartel is perhaps Mexico’s most audacious and vicious criminal enterprise, after the government captured or killed …
I believe there should be a period after the word government.
Well played, sir.
Oh! Well played indeed.
Check and mate!
Green text doesn’t work here, friend. Hurry back 🙂
I’m starting to think we should open the borders to anyone who wants to change their allegiance from the failed state of Mexico to the principles and nation of the U.S. (not it’s government).
“Did you fear the cartels and government in Mexico because your were disarmed? Come north where you can aem to defend yourself from those threats and, most importantly, if you vote for self reliance and liberty, won’t need to.”
Is this really an anti-cartel op, or the Mexican equivalent of Operation Jade Helm?
Supply and demand. How many drug addicts and others buy these drugs in the U.S. ? The cartels are filling that demand. Knock one cartel out and another will appear. Similar to gun control, prohibition and prostitution. Only way to get rid of these cartels is to get rid of the demand. Legalize the drugs or find ways to stop our citizens from buying the drugs. Personally I think that legalizing the drugs is probably the only option that might work. We have tried, in the past, to get people to stop taking the drugs and that has not worked. License companies to make the drugs here and find a way to distribute them legally. If the drugs are legal and the price drops low enough the cartels will no longer make a profit and will likely go out of business.
Drugs destroy society and ruin lives. Lowering standards doesn’t solve problems as much as it creates new ones.
I am of the humble opinion that if drugs are legalized, you give up any rights to guns, voting, or procreation.
I agree. Darwin’s Law. Why fight nature?
Drugs are ruining lives. Let’s save the drug users by kidnapping them and throwing them in prison.
Brilliant!
According to who do “drugs” ruin lives? The vast majority of drug users aren’t even addicted, let alone abuse their drugs. Less than 5% of the users of Meth abuse it.
You mean re-legalized? We have the same addiction rates now as we did when you could get your pharma-clean opium, morphine, and cocaine through the Sears catalog or OTC at the corner apothecary. At a price comparable to alcohol.
Difference now is that as ST notes, we lock up users and have a bloated bunch of rights tramplers making beaucoup bucks doing it. Not to mention the bloody wars for distribution. All because some prurient assholes think they get to mind someone’s business. There’s already plenty of laws to deal with aberrant behavior from those who can’t handle their recreational chemicals. Some people will always be addicts, the only way to help them is to redirect the worthless prohibition dollars to treatment programs. Making it illegaler does nothing – one can get plenty high in countries where they execute dealers.
Brilliant indeed.
I am of the humble opinion that rights should not be lost. The position that they should be given up based on nothing more than the legal status of some drugs is especially weak.
Wat wat wat
The same argument has been made about alcohol. We tried Prohibition in the 1920s and gave up on it after only 13 years. The cure was worse than the disease.
How is drug legalization logically connected to loss of other rights? If anything, I see the reverse. Militant do-gooders forcing people to do what the do-gooders think is best. And there are more do-gooders than there are rights.
But alcohol and tobacco are a-ok!
No, you have it wrong. Drug laws destroy society and ruin lives. Look at Portugal. They decriminalized drugs and treat addiction as a disease. Drug use plummeted and they don’t have prisons overflowing with non-violent felons.
Basically you’re just anti-freedom across the board. It’s people like you that are ruining America.
Stupid people should win stupid prizes. Have you ever seen a crack baby? How about a baby suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome? You think these people are responsible enough to own and handle guns especially around kids? You would trust a nation to stoned voters? I firmly believe, and the laws back this up, that you do not have unlimited rights. You lose your right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happyness” [sic] when you do stupid things also known as crimes, misdemeanors, or felonies. Legalizing actions that are harmful to society do not make them less harmful. So, it’s a trade off. To give people “freedom” by legalizing drugs means they should lose other rights that if they were exercise while high or under the influence would harm society.
You take the keys away from a drunk, but alcohol is legal.
You give a woman the stink-eye when she’s smoking outside the office door while pregnant.
You lose your freedom of movement if you are a domestic abuser with a restraining order against you.
The lists go on.
We are supposed to be the greatest country in the world, one of the richest nations and our people want to be drugged out? What does that say about us as a people?
This has real world consequences. Let’s send our boys and girls to die for this country. They are fighting for drug rights, illegal migrants, socialized medicine, homosexual unions, legalized prostitution, gambling, and Islamist apologists. That’s not a country I want to die for.
>I firmly believe, and the laws back this up, that you do not have unlimited rights
Translation: I’m a liberty-hating a-hole and my opinions are shared by the robed politicians in the courts, the malignant narcissists in CONgress and the mass murdering liar-in-chief in the Whore House.
Sounds like your drug of choice is statism.
You could make a trip to Disney World sound like a horror show! Now you’re just trolling.
>make a trip to Disney World sound like a horror show
>drug rights, illegal migrants, socialized medicine, homosexual unions, legalized prostitution, gambling, and Islamist apologists
🙂
David B Stupid people win stupid prizes – yup, the complete and utter failure of your freedom-hating ‘War on Drugs’ is proof positive. You do know that alcohol is a drug, no? And that were it invented today it would be Sched II and regulated to death even more than now.
People die doing “stupid” things every day. From skiing, to riding motorcycles, to climbing mountains, to (the most dangerous of all with 300K fatalities a year from medical errors) see a doctor and/or going to a hospital. Guess what? It’s their frakkin’ chioce, not yours to decide what’s best for them.
You have the right to swing your arms until you hit someone else in the nose. Then we have punishments for the victim of your punch. Until then, I give not a single flyin’ eff what makes you nervous. Drugs are, for the vast majority of all users a recreational thing that they dabble in here and there. Ruining lives and funding criminal cabals, and massive government jackboot squads is not what we want. Might be for you, but it’s not the American Way.
“The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. … Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error.” Thomas Jefferson
Though referring in this case to religion, the general sentiment is to apply to all things. Government gets involved after some harm is done. Until a gay guy forces you to marry him, who cares what he does? Even if you do, nunya damn business. Until someone is caused direct harm as a result of your incorrect free speech, you are entitled to it, however repugnant it may be. Until someone forces you to have an abortion, it’s a personal choice. Believe in whatever imaginary god(s) you want. Until you turn Islamo-terrorist it’s you’re right to believe as you wish.
Saudi Arabia might be a better fit for you and your ideals.
Odd that you appeal to the logic of Jefferson while sounding like Balaam’s ass.
“Odd that you appeal to the logic of Jefferson while sounding like Balaam’s ass.”
Dave, the only person on this board who sounds like an ass – Balaam’s, a horse’s, or whom/whatever else’s you wish to mention – is you.
When did law and order go out of style? I find that people who espouse theories have never considered their consequences. None of my examples have been refuted. I have lived in dysfunctional countries–no law, no order. Appreciate what you have. Restraints, or laws, serve a good purpose. Laws that restrict and punish the depraved state of man are good and benefit society. Saying that if my action doesn’t hurt you so why should care is reprehensible and those type of cavils have no place in society.
In terms of gun rights, they are not unlimited. Somebody who makes bad decisions in every other area of their life should not be able to wield such power. We in the gun community should not advocate “more guns” as if it’s a panacea to society’s woes. The power of death should reside in the hands of the moral and not in the hands of the craven or depraved.
Here is an example. We have freedom of worship. A Muslim who otherwise would pass a background test yet promotes, recruits, and/or engages in jihad are not protected under the second amendment.
Or, somebody who poaches and ruins hunting for everybody should not be protected by the 2nd amendment. Stoopid people win stupid prizes.
Tom Gresham, who I consider moderate or middle of the road on gun rights (in a good sense), has said that he will not shoot with anybody who is drinking–even one sip. Why? Because stupid people win stupid prizes.
DavidB, Since you haven’t produced an argument, I’ll guess let’s just summarize…
Since some small part of society cannot handle a natural human right, that we should try to prevent all from exercising that natural human right, we should ban the exercise thereof for all. No matter that we have plenty of laws to deal with you if you do something wrong exercising that right, we should just remove the right entirely or tightly proscribe oppressive and onerous limitations. That’s your stated position.
Love the logic. Does this apply to guns as well? Because not only are you likely in the wrong country, you’re on the wrong site. Balaam subreference? You do realize that you aren’t supposed to even push an elevator button today, let alone use a computer keyboard…
>When did law and order go out of style?
Ever since d-bags like you started using it as an excuse to impose your depraved “morality” on other people.
All laws impose morality. This is nothing new.
There’s a world of difference between laws that punish actual harmful behavior versus laws that purport to prevent harm by punishing victimless drug “crimes”.
The former moral code has a long historical precedent, most recently of Enlightenment ideals. The latter is make-belief morality based on pseudo-science, concocted by politician drug warriors in the 60’s and 70’s to justify their unconstitutional war on the American people.
Don’t try to link the two.
David B isn’t smart enough to understand that making something illegal doesn’t make it unavailable. Heroin is illegal but has seen a huge resurgence over the last few years. The same can be said for methamphetamine. MAKING SOMETHING ILLEGAL HAS NO EFFECT ON THE ABILITY TO GET IT..
DavidB, You’re operating under a premise that’s flawed at it’s base, and your argument therefore fails.
We already have laws on the books for the very small percentage of drug users who commit acts that negatively impact the lives of others. Steal? Get charged. Rob? Get charged. Assault? Get charged.
The vast majority of drug users of ANYTHING from booze to meth are recreational users, who have some fun, then get straight and go to work on Monday. That’s just the science. Were it any other way, we’d have half the nation on a permanent bender, and that just isn’t the case. That huge majority needs to be left to have their harmless (to anyone but themselves) fun.
The bottom line is that until someone gets hurt (other than the user) it is no one’s business but their own. Sorta like owning a gun. Until you shoot someone without legal cause, it’s a fundamental right.
I can’t begin to fathom the twisted logic you have to employ to proffer such bullshit.
What’s the hours of that US black market? Are they having a sale?
“What’s the hours of that US black market?”
24-7, 365… If you have the cash…
” Are they having a sale?”
Discounts can sometimes be negotiated for ‘favors’…
Especially if you are young and attractive.
Contact your local connection for details…
🙂
Prayers for the ‘Fuerzas Autodefensas’ and their families.
A leftist utopia.
‘Captured cartel members also have said an American veteran—“a very aggressive, very wild U.S. Marine”—has also been training the group’s gunmen, he said. “We believe he was paid a fortune to give them training,” Mr. Solorio said.’
He’s probably trying to drum up the cash to pay for treatment, the VA hasn’t been providing.
Laughable….there is no war on drugs. The biggest cash cow in the justice department is cash flow from drug activity. For every dollar the DOJ spends on enforcement they make four through asset forfeiture. 75% profit….the best business opportunity in the U.S.
The reach is the recent story of the IRS seizing a shop owners bank account of 107K because suspected cash deposits less than 10k within 24 hours. A IRS profile suspected drug money deposits. He spent 19k doing an IRS third party audit, hired a lawyer for 4k and spent months negotiating with the IRS….which offered to return half if “did not seek publicity”. An innocent show owner terrorized by our government in the name of war on drugs.
Oh right back to drugs…DOJ makes coin on assets forfeiture, supplied guns to drug organizations, denies public lawful self protection to citizens (San Diego) against drug cartels, allows growing pot in US Forrests, offers illegals (drug runners) a pathway to US Citizenship. And you can get a medical card allowing citizens to legally purchase & smoke it.
Welcome to the land of opportunity… our country has gone mad,
Thanks Eric Holder.
Wouldnt surprise me if our fearless leader sees the Jalisco Cartel as another potential voting bloc..
perhaps putting a car pool lane in at the border will expedite the process.
This is why prohibition never, ever, never, never, ever, ever,ever, NEVER, EVER works to eliminate crime.
It’s the most asinine proposition. When are we going to learn that banning things is stupid.