So I’m sitting by the pool in Orlando, reading USA Today, learning that I’m hysterical. Not only is the U.S. border under control, but crime on the U.S. side has actually decreased. I wanted to ping Nick Leghorn for some statistical deconstruction but A) I’m on holiday (obviously) and B) the rat bastard reckons he’s TTAG’s Top Gun. No need to add to his credibility, then. Upon further reflection, I’d like to point out that while it may be true that the Mexican drug cartels know better than to kidnap, torture, murder and maim north of the border, for now, the U.S. government is standing idly by whilst Mexico spins (OOC) Out of Control. For example . . .
Authorities in Acapulco say two Mexican tourists have been killed in a gun attack at a restaurant on the main oceanfront avenue in the tourist zone of the Pacific resort. Two other people are wounded.
State police say an undetermined number of attackers fired assault rifles and 9-mm pistols early Saturday into El Zorrito. That’s a traditional Mexican restaurant on the city’s main Miguel Aleman boulevard.
The attack came a day after a gunman standing near the shoreline avenue fired at swimmers in the bay, scattering panicked vacationers across the beach. Authorities say he fired at least 10 shots.
A 38-year-old woman visiting from Mexico City was wounded in the right leg and taken to a hospital.
OK, so that’s the warm-up [via the AP]. Here’s the pitch [via laht.com]:
At least 11 police officers and a civilian were killed in an attack by suspected cartel hit men outside a city in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa, an official said.
The slain police were bodyguards of state public security chief Francisco Manuel Cordova, who was not with them at the time of the attack.
The official said Cordova had attended an official ceremony in the city of Los Mochis but later returned to Culiacan, Sinaloa’s capital, by helicopter while his bodyguards traveled by car.
On their return journey, the bodyguards were ambushed near a highway entrance to the Sinaloa city of Guasave, where a passerby also was slain.
That state is the birthplace of many of Mexico’s drug lords, including the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel and Mexico’s most-wanted fugitive, Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman.
Friday’s attack occurred a day after the military reported the discovery of the largest marijuana plantation in the country’s history, a 120-hectare (296-acre) spread that, according to local media, belonged to Guzman.
It had the potential to yield 120 tons of marijuana, which could have been used to make 60 million cigarettes with a street value of roughly $158 million.
The plantation was found not far from the U.S. border, near the main north-south highway in Baja California state.
How could the DEA not know about a 300-acre pot plantation on the U.S. border? They couldn’t. Not know. In other words, they knew. So why didn’t they do anything about it? Because the friend of my friend is my friend. And it sure wasn’t the Sinaloas trying to take out Sr. Cordova.
If you think that doesn’t matter, consider this: most U.S. gun-related murders are gang-related. And how are these gangs financed?