BLOODY MEXICAN GANGS MAKE IT 'OFFICIAL,' WITH UNIFORMS, INSIGNIA

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2011/04/mexican-drug-cartels-in-2500-american.html
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Those remarks buttress the 2010 Drug Threat Assessment by the U.S. Justice Department, which stated that street gangs, which “acquire drugs directly from [drug-traffickers] in Mexico or along the Southwest Border,” are distributing narcotics in “more than 2,500 cities.”

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“They want to wear the disguise that will allow them to carry out their activities more successfully,” noted George Grayson, author of "Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?"

He pointed to a rash of successful prison escapes two years ago in which members of Los Zetas dressed in police and federal uniforms to help spring fellow members from jail. According to reports, the Zetas pretended to carry out “inspections” and, with aid from guards on the inside, were able to get to the inmates, open the cells and allow them to just walk away.

In one of the most notorious cases, Zetas dressed up like members of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) and had successfully released their friends from a prison in the northern state of Zacatecas within five minutes.

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Bloody Mexican Gangs Make It 'Official,' with Uniforms, Insignia

By Kelley Vlahos

There are places in Mexico where residents don’t know who the real police are.

Shadowy kidnappers and men committing grisly crimes in broad daylight are often dressed in formal police or military gear, suggesting no difference between the good guys and the bad guys, between the drug cartels and the government trying to stop them.

According to a growing number of reports out of Mexico today, the major drug trafficking operations (DTOs) – like Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel, La Familia Michoacana and its latest incarnation, Caballeros Templarios (Knights Templar) -- are not only donning uniforms but brandishing insignias, badges, even decals on their vehicles that are indistinguishable from that of the federal or local police forces.

“This has been going on for about five or six years and perhaps even longer – members of Mexican cartels impersonating the cops … or dressed in some sort of dark, scary uniforms,” said Howard Campbell, a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas El Paso.

“They want to wear the disguise that will allow them to carry out their activities more successfully,” noted George Grayson, author of "Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?"

He pointed to a rash of successful prison escapes two years ago in which members of Los Zetas dressed in police and federal uniforms to help spring fellow members from jail. According to reports, the Zetas pretended to carry out “inspections” and, with aid from guards on the inside, were able to get to the inmates, open the cells and allow them to just walk away.

In one of the most notorious cases, Zetas dressed up like members of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) and had successfully released their friends from a prison in the northern state of Zacatecas within five minutes.

“They accomplished a blitzkrieg of a prison escape, aided by those uniforms,” said Grayson, who noted that “there is a big black market for military uniforms” and other official gear, including weapons, in Mexico today.

More recently, Mexican police are still looking for the gunman behind the brazen daylight murder of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agent Jaime Zapata in February in San Luis Potosi.

Reports say Zapata and fellow ICE agent Victor Avila, who was wounded in the attack, may have stopped their armored SUV and rolled down the driver’s window before they were shot, suggesting they believed they were being approached by friendly forces. Police are looking at members of Los Zetas as possible suspects in the case, according to news reports.

Subterfuge like this is not new – even insurgents in Afghanistan have been known to use official military or police uniforms in bold attacks against coalition forces. In Mexico, where the reputation of the police is almost as bad as the gangs themselves, it is smart strategy. It confuses witnesses.

“The default position is you always suspect the police are engaged in illegal activity, so it would not surprise the average Mexican one scintilla to see a ‘police officer’ committing a crime,” Grayson said.

But Campbell points out that the DTOs are not only employing the uniforms and insignia as tactical deception. They are using them out in the open to identify themselves in places where the gangs have nearly total control. Increasingly, the gangs are becoming the government, and they are taking their new roles very seriously, he added.

“They might as well wear uniforms because they are the people in charge,” said Campbell, noting the uniforms serve at least two different functions -- to intimidate local residents and to reflect a system of hierarchy and pride among members.

A video released in April by the Mexican blog Videos Policiacos shows at great length the official patches and insignia of the Zetas, the Gulf Cartel, Knights Templar and their regional affiliates emblazoned on hats, shirts, flak jackets, trucks and SUVs – plus endless caches of weapons, helmets and other security gear – including gold-plated AK-47s and diamond encrusted handguns.

See video below:

Experts say this is only a reflection of how badly the Mexican government’s war against DTOs is failing today. Last year, Mexican lawmakers admitted that some 71 percent of municipal governments in Mexico were under the influence of criminal organizations. The drug-related death toll in 2010 hit a new high of 15,273, compared to an estimated 2,800 in 2007, according to numbers released in January.

Government officials continue to insist that the drug war is working and that the high body count reflects the government taking the fight directly to the cartels.

Alejandro Poire, President Felipe Calderon's spokesman for security issues, told The Dallas Morning News recently that 20 out of 37 top cartel leaders identified by the government have been brought down in the last two years. “These criminal organizations have been weakened, have been significantly weakened," Poire said.

Though Poire denies it, experts like Campbell say the northeastern gulf state of Tamaulipas – where a total of 183 bodies in mass graves were found this spring -- is completely overrun by DTOs, particularly Los Zetas. Similarly, multiple cartels have been fighting for control of Ciudad Juarez, a murder-wracked city in Chihauhua state located right across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Recent reports have highlighted the Zetas’ control of Nuevo Laredo, a Tamaulipas city also near the Texas border. In effect, the gang taxes and regulates the operation of local businesses through extortion, steals from or rations local resources like gasoline and imposes order through an elaborate network of spies and enforcers, says Campbell.

The gangs outfitting themselves like the government is just another way for them to announce that the official Mexican leadership has lost its authority in those places.

“This is not only about drug running,” Campbell said, “but about becoming regional powers repackaging the Mexican government.”

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GET THIS BOOK AND THEN TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHY OBAMA CONTINUES TO SABOTAGE OUR BORDERS FOR MORE ILLEGALS! THE MEX DRUG CARTELS ALREADY OPERATE IN 2,500 CITIES

BOOK:

Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State?

GEORGE W GRAYSON

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Characterized by exhaustive research, rare in-depth knowledge of the subject outside Mexico, and compassionate wit, George Grayson's new book confirms him as one of the most distinguished scholars of Mexican politics and history. No other publication to date has unpacked and analyzed so thoroughly the labyrinthine and brutal underworld of Mexico's feared drug cartels and their complex relationship with the country's authorities and society." --Dr. Francisco E. Gonzalez, Riordan Roett Chair in Latin American Studies, The Johns Hopkins University

"William and Mary Professor George Grayson ranks among the most knowledgeable and insightful analysts of Mexican society and politics writing today. His new book on Mexico's bloody and brutal drug cartels constitutes a major contribution to the growing body of research on the "drug thugs" who are making billions by trafficking drugs in Mexico and through their country into the United States while wreaking havoc on both sides of the border. His detailed case studies of Mexico's major drug "cartels" or organized crime families active in the lucrative illicit narcotics trade - the leadership and internal dynamics of the major criminal organizations, the rivalries and shifting alliances among these ruthless groups, and the shockingly violent tactics they employ against each other, the Mexican government and the Mexican people - make for a fascinating but sobering read. Concisely written and painstakingly documented, Grayson's book is a must for anyone interested in understanding what is happening in the United States' besieged southern neighbor and the implications that Mexico's current crisis holds for American society, American security and U.S-Mexican bilateral relations." --Bruce M. Bagley, University of Miami

"One of the greatest fallacies committed today amongst those who discuss and write about organized crime in Mexico is a limited understanding of Mexico's political history, especially how and why the country's leaders have engaged with criminal actors for decades. George Grayson's review of this history is a crisp, concise explanation that expertly frames Mexico today: a country struggling to confront unprecedented narco-violence. Grayson layers this historical backdrop with a full account of Mexican organized crime; it is one of the most thorough discussions of Mexican organized crime that I have ever seen, in English or Spanish. This book is a must read for anyone interested to know why thousands die in Mexico every year and what we can expect to see in Mexico for the rest of President Calderon's term and beyond." --Samuel Logan, Journalist | Writer

Product Description

Bloodshed connected with Mexican drug cartels, how they emerged, and their impact on the United States is the subject of this frightening book. Savage narcotics-related decapitations, castrations, and other murders have destroyed tourism in many Mexican communities and such savagery is now cascading across the border into the United States. Grayson explores how this spiral of violence emerged in Mexico, its impact on the country and its northern neighbor, and the prospects for managing it. Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled in Tammany Hall fashion for seventy-nine years before losing the presidency in 2000 to the center-right National Action Party (PAN). Grayson focuses on drug wars, prohibition, corruption, and other antecedents that occurred during the PRI’s hegemony. He illuminates the diaspora of drug cartels and their fragmentation, analyzes the emergence of new gangs, sets forth President Felipe Calderón’s strategy against vicious criminal organizations, and assesses its relative success. Grayson reviews the effect of narcotics-focused issues in U.S.-Mexican relations. He considers the possibility that Mexico may become a failed state, as feared by opinion-leaders, even as it pursues an aggressive but thus far unsuccessful crusade against the importation, processing, and sale of illegal substances. Becoming a "failed state" involves two dimensions of state power: its scope, or the different functions and goals taken on by governments, and its strength, or the government’s ability to plan and execute policies. The Mexican state boasts an extensive scope evidenced by its monopoly over the petroleum industry, its role as the major supplier of electricity, its financing of public education, its numerous retirement and health-care programs, its control of public universities, and its dominance over the armed forces. The state has not yet taken control of drug trafficking, and its strength is steadily diminishing. This explosive book is thus a study of drug cartels, but also state disintegration.