The Borderline

From Officers need assistance at the border: Comments from Law Officer Editor, June 21, 2006 10:39, by Dale Stockton Editor, Law Officer magazine

It was the middle of the day on a Monday and Hudspeth County (TX) deputies had received information regarding a large shipment of drugs. When they spotted three shiny new SUVs filled with large bundles and traveling together, the officers gave chase and were assisted by state troopers. During the 18 mile pursuit, the SUV caravan turned south towards the Rio Grande, the dividing line between the US and Mexico. One vehicle escaped (into Mexico) by driving across the river and one was captured after it blew a tire. The third got stuck in the river and at first, it looked like law enforcement would capture two out of three of the drug transport vehicles.

However, heavily armed subjects, many of whom were dressed in military uniforms, quickly flanked the officers. According to Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, these militarily dressed subjects were approximately 200 yards into American territory. Using a military-like Humvee with a mounted machine gun, the subjects tried to free the stranded SUV. When that failed, the drugs were off loaded and the vehicle set afire. Although no shots were fired, Sheriff West said the cops were seriously outgunned and could do nothing but stand by and watch.

Who were these subjects? At first, a Mexican spokesperson said they were US soldiers dressed in Mexican uniforms to make Mexico look bad. Later, it was claimed they must be drug runners disguised as military. Our federal government has been reluctant to take a definitive position and Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security has downplayed this and other incidents. Sheriff West, who has lived in the area all of his life, says he knows who is responsible. "No doubt in my mind they were Mexcian military," he said. "We've had other contacts with them." As for Secretary Chertoff's comments? The sheriff did not mince words: "Our government and everyone else wants to piss ant around about this. He [Chertoff] has no clue as to what is going on down here."

This is not the first incident of this type. About two months prior, a stop was attempted on a dump truck loaded with an estimated 10,000 pounds of marijuana. The truck headed south towards the river and subsequently became stuck. The driver fled into Mexico. After approximately 1,800 pounds of marijuana were recovered, heavily armed subjects dressed in Mexican military BDUs showed up and took over the scene, using a large front loading tractor to pull the dump truck out of the river and over to the Mexican side. According to TJ Bonner, a 27-year veteran of the US Border Patrol and the President of the National Border Patrol Council, the officers (which included USBP) could only observe as the vehicle and its cargo of contraband were taken away.

This is just one of many persistent allegations that corrupt elements of the Mexican military are involved in smuggling, going so far as to make armed incursions into US territory.

This has implications far beyond drug-trafficking.

If a dump truck can carry several tons of marijuana across the border, it is not difficult to envision the security risk to our nation.

If a dump truck can carry several tons of marijuana across the border, it is not difficult to envision nuclear weapons and dozens of Mujahideen crossing the border.

I was dismayed to discover how heavily into narcotrafficking Al Qaeda and the Taliban are. A tremendous amount of heroin and other narcotics is produced in Afghanistan. A worldwide Islamic Mafia network moves the drugs, causing tremendous damage especially in Europe; the profits return to South Asia to fund terror.

However, that is not the topic of this post.

While perhaps unlikely, the possibility remains that those very drugs that were getting moved across the Rio Grande in the incidents described above may have Al Qaeda's involvement. Regardless of that, it seems clear that at least some of the heroin and related narcotics coming into the United States has its origins in Afghanistan, and profits terrorists in that part of the world.

But, wait! It gets better.

From Terror and the mob, 10/02/2006, by PAT MILTON, Associated Press Writer:

WASHINGTON- The FBI's top counterterrorism official harbors many concerns: weapons of mass destruction, undetected homegrown terrorists and the possibility that old-fashioned mobsters will team up with al-Qaida for the right price.

Though there is no direct evidence yet of organized crime collaborating with terrorists, the first hints of a connection surfaced in a recent undercover FBI operation. Agents stopped a man with alleged mob ties from selling missiles to an informant posing as a terrorist middleman.

...

The traditional mafia has highly developed networks for acquiring goods and services and money, all for a price.

The mob's potential interest in helping a terrorist has nothing to do with ideology or sympathy but with greed, said Matt Heron, head of New York FBI's organized crime unit.

"They will deal with anybody, if they can make a buck," Heron said. "They will sell to a terrorist just as easily as they would sell to an order of Franciscan monks. It's a business relationship to them."
"If the mob has explosives and a terrorist wants them and they have the money, they could become instant friends," he said.

Pat D'Amuro, a retired senior FBI official and now chief executive of Giuliani Security, said a Mafia boss once acknowledged that the mob would help terrorists.

"I am aware of a high-level Mafia figure, who was cooperating with authorities, being asked if the Mafia would assist terrorists in smuggling people into Europe through Italy," D'Amuro said. "He said, 'The Mafia will help who ever can pay.'"

...

[Joseph Billy Jr., the FBI's top counterterrorism official] said his biggest concern remains weapons of mass destruction. While Hezbollah and Hamas are more defined terrorist groups, with a territorial focus and a political platform, al-Qaida is more unpredictable.

"We know they were trying to acquire it prior to 9/11, bin Laden's own words said that," said Billy. "What makes us think they are still not trying?"

If they're not still trying, it is because they have already gotten their weapons of mass destruction in place.

The new ties beginning to form between terrorists and conventional organized crime makes me wonder: Is there no honor among thieves?

After all, organized crime figures live here in America, too, and so do their families. Do they think that only other infidels will suffer, and that they will somehow escape the terror?

From Mexican Army Invades U.S., Wednesday, March 12, 2003, Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com:

It’s the war nobody wants to talk about: well-armed Mexican soldiers storming across America’s southern border, sometimes with guns blazing.

“We are in state of war,” Edward Nelson, chairman of U.S. Border Control, told Soldier of Fortune magazine. “And we are fighting enemies who have brought the battle to our shores. If ever there was a time for the United States to put troops on the border, it is now.”

A blockbuster exposé in the magazine's March issue notes that over the past five years, there have been 120 documented incidents of Mexican military/police incursions, sometimes resulting in the arrest of Mexican army personnel on U.S. soil by Border Patrol agents.

Thousands of Mexican soldiers, often ill-trained draftees, have been moved up to the border allegedly to fight narcotics smuggling. Many times these armed men cross the border chasing drug traffickers.

...

Some of these “anti-drug-trafficking troops” are themselves trafficking in drugs.

...

Said Congressman Tancredo: “There’s no doubt Mexican military units along the border are being controlled by drug cartels, and not by Mexico City. The military units operate freely, with little or no direction, and several of them have made numerous incursions into the Unite States.”

From another article addressing the above-mentioned incident, Mexico Army Likely Part of Border Incident, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2006, NewsMax.com Wires:

EL PASO, Texas -- Suspected drug runners dressed in Mexican military-style uniforms who were involved in an armed confrontation with Texas lawmen were using a Mexican military-issue Humvee and weapons, the Hudspeth County sheriff said Friday.

"It was military," said Arvin West, whose officers were involved in the standoff. "Due to the pending congressional hearings I can't comment further."
West said the determination that the equipment was military-issue came from the federal government, but he wouldn't elaborate. A U.S. Army spokesman said he could not confirm West's statement, and the Mexican Foreign Relations Department said it would have no comment.

...

A California newspaper reported this month that Mexican military units had crossed into the United States 216 times since 1996. It cited a Department of Homeland Security document, but department Secretary Michael Chertoff has said many of those incidents were just mistakes.

From Texas border standoff with Mexican military, January 24, 2006:

Texas law enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents engaged in an armed standoff with Mexican military personnel and drug smugglers just inside the United States along the Rio Grande yesterday afternoon.

According to a report in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., both Texas law enforcement and the FBI stated nearly 30 American agents were part of the incident.

Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department told the paper Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States.

Border Patrol agents called for backup after seeing that Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border – near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso.

And, from Mexican army escorts border drug-runners April 11, 2005:

WASHINGTON – The Mexican army is escorting those attempting to cross over the U.S. border illegally – including known drug-runners – to areas not patrolled by the Minuteman Project near Naco, Ariz., say Border Patrol sources and other officials including a U.S. congressman.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, denounced the action by the Mexican military and called on President Bush to do the same.

(We'll address the Minuteman Project in another post; meanwhile, google it if you're curious.)

Also:

Sheriff insists Mexican military crossed border
February 8, 2006 By Stephen Dinan THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Texas Sheriffs Say Terrorists Entering US from Mexico
August 21, 2006 By Kevin Mooney CNSNews.com Staff Writer


There is nothing new here regarding the increased narcotrafficking activity; ten years ago, this could be seen taking root.

The Mexico/USA Border; A Gathering Storm, 05/28/97 Editorial/Opinion, By C. L. Staten, ENN Publisher:

Specifically in regard to drugs, according to counter-drug officials, an estimated 75% of all cocaine and 40% of all heroin that reaches the streets of America was smuggled through Mexico. DEA agents say that Mexican drug lords have become as powerful or more powerful than those leading the Colombian cartels. A 1996 San Francisco Chronicle article said that there is evidence that the Mexican drug lords are spending in excess of $500 million dollars a year to bribe and corrupt Mexican police and military officials.

Interestingly enough, a much heralded international agreement may also be contributing to this massive infusion of drugs. The NAFTA agreement essentially allows Mexican truckers free access to America's southern borders, in an effort to speed the transit of manufactured goods between Mexico and the United States. U.S. Customs agents say that pressure by officials high in the administration in Washington, to expedite without inspection the movement of thousands of tractor-trailer trucks across the border, can lead to a major importation of illegal drugs. Some more informed members of the U.S. Congress have attempted to renegotiate portions of NAFTA to close these loop-holes which make drug smuggling easier...so far with little avail.

And, least we forget, Mexican drug lords are using everything from Boeing 727 aircraft (purchased for one-way trips to remote runways), to large container ships (like those recently raided and found filled with RPG's and AK-47's) and transiting the Pacific coast for Mexico, to piggy-backed tractor-trailers, to ultra-lite aircraft, in their widely successful efforts to import dangerous drugs to this country. According to one drug enforcement agent who spoke to ENN, "the drug dealers imagination in importation methods is only exceeded by the grotesque amount of money they make in doing so." "It is a vicious circle...they sell drugs and make massive amounts of money...they use the money and violence to corrupt government systems and sell even more drugs...thus making even more money."

...

At least some military analysts are becoming increasingly alarmed at the instability of some areas of the border between the United States and Mexico. They point to "cross-border" raids by "armies" funded by the drug cartels, intimidation of American property owners, and the "almost total corruption of police and some army commanders" in the northern Mexican states. Drug inspired violence in a number of border towns continues to spiral out of control, and reports of multiple homicides are being received by ENN on a frequent basis. Two incidents of border patrol officers being fired upon from across the Mexican border have been received by ENN in recent weeks.

Additionally, evidence continues to surface of ties between Mexican drug cartels and internal "popular revolutionary forces" who would chose to overthrow the established Mexican government by force. Incidents of assaults on Mexican police and military bases continue to be reported with alarming frequency. Often with support from communist or socialist ideologs from other Latin American countries, and now armed and trained by the drug dealers, groups like the Zapatista National Liberation Army, and the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) have had at least some success in carrying out an armed insurgency against the Mexican government.

Worse that these already terrible circumstances are recent allegations that the Mexican cartels are hiring retired or ex-special operations soldiers, law enforcement officers, and intelligence operatives to work for them in their internal security forces. By paying extremely large "tax-free" salaries and offering handsome benefits like free travel and nice housing, it would appear that at least some extremely able American citizens have become mercenary allies of the cartels. If true, the addition of these well-trained and extremely capable American collaborators could add a fearsome and troubling dimension to the already difficult problems on the Mexican/U.S. border.

Finally, it should also be noted that officially unconfirmed reports continue to be received which indicate that large numbers of increasing sophisticated weapons are being imported into Mexico and finding their way into the hands of revolutionary organizations and the private soldiers of the drug cartels. If wide-spread rebellion ensues in Mexico, those combatting it will no longer be facing pistols, single-shot carbines or shotguns. More likely they will be forced to combat state-of-the-art assault rifles, RPG's, SAM's, and other crew-served weapons, being imported from Europe, China and parts of the former Soviet Union.

Now for the icing on the cake!

From U.S. pays Mexico to secure border Dec. 29, 2005, Chris Hawley, Republic Mexico City Bureau:

Like Bush, U.S. officials have repeatedly praised Mexico's efforts to bolster security on its side of the border as the countries try to present a united face against criminals and terrorists in the wake of Sept. 11. But the reality is that U.S. taxpayers have bankrolled much of Mexico's increased border vigilance. From X-ray scanners and helicopters to intelligence training, the United States has been quietly pouring millions of dollars into Mexico in the hopes of bolstering U.S. national security. U.S. spending on military and police aid to Mexico has more than tripled in the past five years to $57.8 million with the hope it will help protect America's southern flank.

That's right! Read 'em and weep!

The US taxpayer, via foreign aid, is paying the salaries of those Mexican military personnel and police who are escorting the drugs across the border and into US territory.

From the United States Constitution

Article I Section 8
The Congress shall have Power...To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions...

Article I Section 10
No State shall, without the Consent of Congress,... engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay...

Article IV Section 4
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion...

Makes me wanna sing...

Borderline

Something in the way you love me wont let me be
I dont want to be your prisoner so baby wont you set me free
Stop playing with my heart
Finish what you start
When you make my love come down
If you want me let me know
Baby let it show
Honey dont you fool around

Just try to understand, Ive given all I can,
cause you got the best of me

Chorus:

Borderline feels like Im going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline

(repeat chorus again)

Keep on pushing me baby
Dont you know you drive me crazy
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline

Something in your eyes is makin such a fool of me
When you hold me in your arms you love me till I just cant see
But then you let me down, when I look around, baby you just cant be found
Stop driving me away, I just wanna stay,
Theres something I just got to say

Just try to understand, Ive given all I can,
cause you got the best of me

(chorus)

Keep on pushing me baby
Dont you know you drive me crazy
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline

Look what your love has done to me
Come on baby set me free
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline
You cause me so much pain, I think Im going insane
What does it take to make you see?
You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline