Big Fat Story
Mexico’s top drug kingpin, Joaquín Guzmán Loera made international news this month when he was included in Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people. The magazine estimates his net worth at about $1 billion. At 5 feet 8 inches tall, Guzmán has been nicknamed “El Chapo,” or “Shorty.” He’s the head of the Sinaloa cartel, a powerful drug-trafficking organization with operations in the U.S., Mexico, and Central America. Apprehended in 1993 and sentenced to 20 years in a Mexican prison, Guzmán managed to break out in 2001 by hiding in a laundry van. In the years since his escape, El Chapo has reestablished himself as the top mobster in Mexico, according to a U.S. State Department report. Now Mexican media are reporting that Guzmán’s criminal operations have reached as far north as Canada. His subordinates have allegedly been involved in up to 29 shootings in Vancouver since January, resulting in at least 12 deaths.
Heiress to the most powerful cartel of the '80s and '90s.
The Arellano Felix Organization has long been considered one of the most violent drug-running operations in the Southwest. Based out of Tijuana, the family-run cartel has been a major player since the 1980s. At the helm of the business today is an enigmatic, crafty woman named Enedina. Little is known about her, but Mexican and U.S. authorities believe she has taken control since the deaths and arrests of her brothers—the most recent in October 2008. Unlike other female mobsters, Enedina has kept a low profile. An article in Mexican newspaper La Crónica describes her as reserved, calculating, and very intelligent. A keen administrator, she has focused on diversifying the family’s operations to include hotels and real estate. Her current whereabouts are unknown. Mexican and U.S. governments have boasted that the AFO has been damaged beyond repair, but she is still considered to be the single most powerful woman in the drug-smuggling business.
Guzman’s right-hand man, sought by U.S. and Mexican authorities.
The rise to power of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, Mexican mobster Joaquín Guzman’s right-hand man, has coincided with the demise of the Arellano-Felix Organization. After the arrest and deaths of many of the AFO’s leaders left the family insolvent, Zambada stepped in and gained the trust of Colombia’s top cocaine producers. According to the U.S. State Department, “the Zambada-Garcia Organization receives multi-ton quantities of cocaine, via maritime means from Colombian sources of supply,” and his operations in the U.S. are believed to reach as far north as Chicago and New York. The U.S. government has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest. As part of the Mexican government’s crackdown on organized crime in the last year, El Mayo suffered two serious setbacks: His brother, Jesus “The King” Zambada, was arrested in October following a shootout in Mexico City. And just last week, police apprehended his son, Vicente Zambada Niebla.
Meet Mexico's Drug Lords
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Mexico put the media glare on the escalating drug war south of the border. While Clinton is blaming the spiraling violence on America’s “insatiable demand for illegal drugs,” it’s clear that organized crime in Mexico is out of control. Who are the Mexican mobsters running the show?
An outlaw army of elite soldiers, they have crossed the border into the US.
This band of professionally trained former soldiers acts as the Gulf cartel’s private army. The violent means they use to intimidate rivals and settle scores with people who owe the cartel money have become legendary. They paint their faces black, wear dark clothing, and travel in heavily armored SUVs. Even petty criminals now claim to be “Zetas,” seeking to instill fear in their victims. It is believed that most of them are former members of the Mexican army’s elite squad, Grupos Aeromóviles de Fuerzas Especiales. They have also recruited dissenters from a unit of the Guatemalan army known as Kaibiles. These are “particularly brutal fighters trained in unconventional tactics, [and] infamous for forcing recruits to bite the heads off live chickens during training.” According to a recent Washington Times article, Los Zetas are now active in the U.S., and the FBI believes they have been instructed by the cartel to “engage law enforcement with a full tactical response should law enforcement attempt to intervene in their operations.”
The fallen “queenpin” of the Pacific used sex and family to gain power.
Brains, charm, and beauty helped Sandra Avila Beltrán become one of Mexico’s most powerful drug “queenpins.” Using sex and family connections to secure alliances, she established herself as “La Reina del Pacífico,” controlling trade routes from Colombia to the U.S. along Mexico’s Pacific Coast. She has been described as “very ruthless,” never shying away from using “the typical intimidation tactics of Mexican organizations,” which include beheadings and public shootings. Avila is the niece of Miguel Angel Félix Gallardo, the fallen godfather of the Mexican mafia. In her quest for power she has pursued love affairs with key figures in the drug-smuggling business, including Colombian drug lord Juan Diego “The Tiger” Espinoza and Mexican fugitive Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. The queen fell in September 2007, when she was arrested outside a coffee shop in an upscale area of Mexico City. Accustomed to the pampered life of a millionaire, she has filed a complaint with the Mexican Commission on Human Rights, citing bedbugs and other “noxious fauna” in her cell.
Named by the U.S. Treasury as the head of a major money-laundering operation.
Blanca Margarita Cázares Salazar, aka “La Emperatriz,” is a devout Catholic. She was last seen on Dec. 12, 2007, leaving the temple of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Culiacán, Sinaloa. A local celebrity, she posed for photographers along with her granddaughters. That same day, she was designated as a key money launderer for narcotics traffickers by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. “She was a pretty little blond ranch girl who wore tight clothes and white jeans,” a local journalist told Mexican newspaper El Universal. She started out young, changing foreign currency on the streets. According to the Treasury, her financial empire now “operates throughout Mexico and in California, and is run by members of her immediate and extended family.” But she has taken a few hits in the last year. Her husband was arrested in March 2008, just weeks after filing divorce papers. Her son was shot outside a shopping center in May, and her brother was gunned down at a volleyball game in October.
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THE US HAS ONLY A FEW OPTIONS TO KEEP THIS COUNTRY FROM FALLING INTO THE SAME 3RD WORLD NATION THAT MEXICO HAS BECOME. A. MAKE ALL DRUGS LEGAL IN THE US & TAX POT & GIVE AWAY AT SPECIAL CLINICS ALL OTHER DRUGS AT NO COST. B. PUT BEHIND BARS ALL ILLEGALS CAUGHT BREAKING THE LAW IN THE US FOR 50 YEARS WITH NO PAROLE & HAVE THOSE PRISONS IN THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN OF THE LAW BREAKER. ANY COUNTRY THAT DOES NOT TAKE & IN-PRISON THEM WILL BE BARRED FROM ANY IMPORTS OR EXPORTS OF GOODS AS WELL AS NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAVE ANYONE FROM THEIR COUNTRY SO MUCH AS VISIT THE US. ONCE THE BAD GUYS KNOW THAT THE US IS SERIOUS THEY WILL STAY OUT & FIND WAYS TO MAKE MONEY & KILL & MURDER "FAR AWAY FROM US". (THE COUNTRY THAT THE LAW BREAKERS COME FROM WILL FOOT THE WHOLE BILL FOR KEEPING THEM IN PRISON FOR THE WHOLE FO THE 50 YEAR TERM. NO EXCEPTIONS.
I don't have a problem legalizing pot. But whatever we do down the road, we need troops on the border now.
We have to legalise the purchase of what are now illegal drugs in the United States. OBVIOUSLY there is a massive number of people in america sipping from this forbidden cup. Why lie about what Americans really want. They want to get high. Let them.. and tax it to high heaven.
Has anyone been checking the green cards of this Los Zetas. You can get in serious trouble in the U.S. unless you have a legal green card.
While our troops are away, Mexico will play.
We should put the Army on the Mexican border and bring draconian laws to bear on American drug users who are making the Drug Cartel enormously wealthy.
Anybody who can still say that drug use is a personal choice, hurts no one, and ought to be decriminalized are ignoring the drug funded warlords at our border.
The solution to fighting this drug trade/war is too simple, so simple that the fraking politicians and law "un-enforcement" don't want to see an end to their gravy train. Let's look at this problem from the bottom up.
Every street dealer is looking for one thing when getting into drug dealing and that is, cold hard cash.
So why is the most advance country in the world, still using cold hard cash, when debit is the way that the world's largest financial intuitions do business?
The only reason that I can come up with why this country is still using cash is so that people that want to get away with illegal activities can do so without that accumulation of cash being traced. (Remember, even cops mark their money during a sting operation).
Just imagine if the U.S. Government quit printing money within the borders of the USA. How long would it take for drug trafficking to come to a COMPLETE STOP? How many other acts of crime would just disappear?
How many cops would we need, or how many more prisons would the tax payer have to pay for as well as the inmates they would house. Think about it, the drug trade is a multi-billion dollar business, multi-billion, and we're paying to help keep it going.
Obviously Martyz42 has no idea what s/he is talking about.. 3rd world country? lol... you've never been there obviously... and if we really want these problems to stop, the consuption of illegal drugs is what needs to be eradicaded... legalized? pleeeeease... we have enough dealing with car accidents by drunken people... the last thing we need is to deal with legally potheads behind the wheel...
Hang the Drug Tsar for Treason. I want his head served to me on a silver platter.
Join US or DIE!
The solution to fighting this drug trade/war is too simple, so simple that the politicians and law "un-enforcement" don't want to see an end to their gravy train. Let's look at this problem from the bottom up.
Every street dealer is looking for one thing when getting into drug dealing and that is, cold hard cash.
So why is the most advance country in the world, still using cold hard cash, when debit is the way that the world's largest financial intuitions do business?
The only reason that I can come up with why this country is still using cash is so that people that want to get away with illegal activities can do so without that accumulation of cash being traced. (Remember, even cops mark their money during a sting operation).
Just imagine if the U.S. Government quit printing money within the borders of the USA. How long would it take for drug trafficking to come to a COMPLETE STOP? How many other acts of crime would just disappear?
How many cops would we need, or how many more prisons would the tax payers have to pay for as well as the inmates they would be housed, feed and medically taken care of. Think about it, the drug trade is a multi-billion dollar business, multi-billion dollar; and we're paying to help keep it going.
Reform immigration to help reduce illegal border crossing as it acts like a smoke screen for other illegal activities. If people in Mexico felt it was a better option to cross legally they wouldn't cross illegally.
Launch a new add campaign that directly links the use and purchase of illegal drugs to the loss of life in Mexico and near the border on the US side. Turn it from an unfortunate personal choice into an unpatriotic act of disloyalty in the minds of the people.
Legalize, tax and regulate Marijuana to take a huge bite out of the drug lord's profits. By keeping it in the shadows we only encourage criminals to take advantage.
Pressure Mexico into reforming their corrupt law enforcement agencies and into taking responsibility for their side of the border.
Ban assault weapons. Guns for self defense and hunting are one thing, but there is no reason for weapons like these to be in civilian hands. With how little we regulate guns in some states it's no wonder they end up being smuggled across the border to fuel this drug war.
It's like Colombia all over again, but what a minute, don't these drugs come from Colombia? So, now instead of Druglords like Escobar and the Ochoas we now have these lowlifes to worry about. It's pretty obvious we like our Coke in the USA so what if there's some blood involved. And the banks don't mind it either.
Nobody ever mentions that the United States helped train the Zetas.
Thank you.
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