Nogales, AZ Police Chief Jeff Kirkham recently announced that his department has been warned by a Mexican drug cartel that his officers will be targeted for murder if they carry out another off-duty drug bust.
In early June, two off-duty Nogales officers riding horseback came upon a smuggling operation, which resulted in the seizure of 400 pounds of marijuana.
Chief Kirkham told reporters: “The warning was … that the officers, if they are off duty, are to look the other way and ignore any drug trafficking loads that are coming across the border, otherwise they will be targeted.”
This was only the latest in a series of outrageous acts taken by the cartels against the U.S., demonstrating the boldness with which they feel will go unanswered by a weak U.S. government.
In April, someone tossed an explosive device onto the grounds of the U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo. The bomb broke windows and caused some minor damage, but no injuries were reported.
Nuevo Laredo is just across the river from Laredo, TX.
In March, U.S. consulate employees in Juarez were murdered in targeted attacks, after leaving a child’s birthday party.
On March 13, in two separate attacks, cartel gunmen murdered two Americans attached to the U.S. consulate in Juarez.
Lesley Enriquez Redelfs, a consulate employee, along with her husband, Arthur Redelfs, a detention officer with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department were gunned down on as they were leaving a child‘s birthday party. The couple was murdered after being chased-down by the hitmen. Their baby daughter who was in the backseat survived the assault.
Also shot to death in the coordinated attacks was the husband of consulate worker, Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, after the gunmen boxed-in his car. His wife, Hilda Antillon, was traveling in the car behind him was uninjured, though the couple’s two children were wounded in the attack.
The hit squads used AK-47s as well as 9mm handguns.
A member of the Mexican drug gang known as the Aztecas has been arrested for the murders.
President Obama failed to respond to either the bombing of our consulate, or to the coordinated murders of U.S. consulate employees. That inaction, combined with his unwillingness to defend the border has undoubtedly sent a message of weakness to the cartels, and will likely result in the deaths of more U.S. law enforcement officers.
Of course, Obama’s predecessor was equally weak on this issue. The threats began in earnest under the Bush administration, as assaults on Border Patrol agents began rising at unprecedented rates. By 2007, assaults (which include shootings) had tripled from 2001, with 987.
In 2007, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported that they had obtained a confidential Department of Homeland Security memo. The function of the document was to issue an Officer Safety alert to U.S. Border Patrol agents that human smugglers were bringing MS-13 gang members into the country for the sole purpose of murdering the agents.
The alert reads: “Unidentified Mexican alien smugglers are angry about the increased security along the U.S./Mexican border and have agreed that the best way to deal with U.S. Border Patrol agents is to hire a group of contract killers.”
A Border Patrol agent speaking on the condition of anonymity said: “It’s not just people coming over here to pick lettuce. These gang members, criminals, are endangering American lives.” He went on: “Our vests won’t stop a rifle bullet, and many of us feel like sitting ducks.”
On August 25, 2008, federal and local law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that Mexican drug cartels are now sending hit men into the U.S.
Officer Chris Mears of the El Paso Police Department told reporters: “We received credible information that drug cartels in Mexico have given permission to hit targets on the U.S. side of the border. One of the first things we did was to notify all officers in our department of the situation.”
In July 2008, police in New Mexico and Texas received a cartel hit list, uncovered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The list contained the name of at least one New Mexico police officer.
Luna County Sheriff’s Capt. Arturo Baeza told the press: “We have been concerned for quite some time that this thing will spill over here.”
Snipers, who at one time, operated only on the Mexican side of the border, now move about freely. They fire a few shots at agents, then move to cover–only to fire again from another location. The tactics are typical of military sniper training. More than likely, the snipers are creating a diversion so that the smugglers can cross in another location. They know that the U.S. agents cannot pursue them into Mexico, and their own government is seemingly powerless to stop their activities.
In 2005, Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame said: “We believe the vast majority of these assaults are directly tied to alien and drug smugglers based in Mexico.”
Of course, Mexico´s drug cartels are now operating within the interior of the U.S.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the cartels have set up shop in 231 U.S. cities. Atlanta, for instance, has been transformed into a major hub from which Mexican methamphetamine is distributed throughout the east coast.
With a largely unprotected border, and a President and a Homeland Security chief who seem oblivious to the threat posed to American cities, it is very easy for cartel hit men to cross into the U.S.
If Obama does not begin to take seriously his oath of office, we must install a Congress which vows to impeach the man who seems more concerned with golf than with the safety of U.S. citizens.
Obama’s weakness only encourages the violent cartels, now in control of Mexico.
