Author Topic: Shooting war on the border  (Read 612 times)

RadioFreeSeaLab

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Shooting war on the border
« on: April 28, 2006, 09:44:12 AM »
This was posted at THR, but if you're like me, you don't go there too often.  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=LV1WA150ODU11QFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2006/04/28/wus28.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/28/ixworld.html


   

Squaring up for a drugs war on streets of Laredo
By Francis Harris in Laredo
(Filed: 28/04/2006)

On the far side of the Rio Grande, a Mexican drug runner raised his AK47 at US lawmen.

The man and five companions were goading the Americans, 100 yards across the border.
Deputies Abel Hinojosa and Morcos Pampa beside the Rio Grande
Deputies Hinojosa and Pampa beside the Rio Grande

"Hey! We're ready to play now," screamed the gunman, who was probably trying to recover the marijuana abandoned on the American side after a chase earlier that day.

The threat didn't work. The Texan sheriff's deputy, Abel Hinojosa, stayed where he was, with the drug gang in his sights and his finger tightening on the trigger of his rifle.

Reliving the moment, he said quietly: "There was no doubt in my mind - if the guy had fired a round, I'd have shot him."

A fire fight across a border, even when provoked by drug runners, would spark an international incident. Yet the bloodshed on Mexico's northern border is now so serious that an international showdown could hardly make matters worse.

The Americans at the sharp end, the lawmen patrolling 2,000 miles of border, are profoundly anxious. With narcotics gangs controlling swathes of northern Mexico and the forces of the state in retreat, they are the next target and some have already been shot.

Sheriff Rick Flores, whose area covers a vast border region, said he would not be intimidated: 'They're testing us, pushing and pushing. The Border Patrol has started shooting back and we're going to do the same."

Drive-by shootings have begun on the American side, weaponry is being seized and safe houses uncovered. Sheriff's deputies who once wore only side arms, now shoulder machineguns and body armour.

According to Sheriff Flores the drug-runners are even better equipped.
    

Is it a war? "Oh yeah, it's a war. These people are sophisticated and they are organised. They wear body armour and helmets, just like our soldiers in Iraq. They have no respect for life and are not afraid of law enforcement on this side.

"Over in Iraq, you have Iraqi militias willing to give up their lives just to cause us harm - these people are the same way," he said.

Two gangs are reportedly battling for control of a critical route through which an estimated $14 billion (£8 billion) worth of drugs pass annually.

Interstate 35, the great highway which runs from Laredo to the Canadian border, is the main artery for South American drugs.

Whoever controls the Mexican side controls the last distribution point before drugs enter the American market.

Across the border lies Nuevo Laredo, described by many as the drug cartels' heart of darkness. The body count this year stands at 88. Officials predict it will hit 300 by the year's end, double last year's figure.

Killers walk free and half the local police have been fired for links to cartels while the other half are either too cowed to act or still in the pay of the gangs.

One police chief was murdered eight hours after taking the job.

Americans from the twin city of Laredo do not visit the narrow streets or the pretty plazas of the old town any more, even though many have relatives there.

Despite close ties of blood and affection there is only a vague sense of what is really happening on the far side of the Rio Grande.

The anxiety is being fed by an effective media blackout in Nuevo Laredo, following a machinegun attack on the newspaper office there.

Sheriff Flores said his sources spoke of a huge gun battle among the cartels in recent weeks with 15 or so men shot, but said that no word of the battle appeared in print. Diana Fuentes, the editor of the Laredo Morning Times, the American town's lively newspaper, said she too heard rumours of the battle, but could not confirm it.

She said the Mexican authorities were unable to match words with action, despite the deployment of hundreds of agents and troops to Nuevo Laredo. "The feeling is that the Mexican authorities are just not in control."

Otherguy Overby

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Shooting war on the border
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2006, 02:10:01 PM »
Quote
Sheriff Flores said his sources spoke of a huge gun battle among the cartels in recent weeks with 15 or so men shot, but said that no word of the battle appeared in print. Diana Fuentes, the editor of the Laredo Morning Times, the American town's lively newspaper, said she too heard rumours of the battle, but could not confirm it.

She said the Mexican authorities were unable to match words with action, despite the deployment of hundreds of agents and troops to Nuevo Laredo. "The feeling is that the Mexican authorities are just not in control."
Sounds much worse than our last grand experiment with prohibition...
Guns
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Jeeps
Never enough!