The Barrio Azteca, an enforcement arm of the Juarez cartel, is gunning down cops in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico -- just over the border from El Paso, TX -- as reported by Christopher Looft for InSight. Eight crime fighters have been murdered over the last month, and the narco terrorists have threatened to murder a cop a day until the city's police chief resigns whom they accuse of protecting rivals from the Sinaloa cartel.
The drug cartels never have balked at killing law enforcement, and they repeatedly have targeted American officials on both sides of the border: in March 2010 the Juarez cartel whacked U.S. consulate employee Lesley Ann Enriquez and her husband El Paso sheriff's deputy Arthur Redelfs as they were returning home from a child's birthday party in Ciudad Juarez; in December 2010 the Sinaloa cartel murdered U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry in southern Arizona; and in Feburary 2011 Los Zetas killed ICE agent Jaime Zapata and wounded his partner who were driving along a highway in the state of San Luis Potosi in a vehicle with U.S. diplomatic tags.
*** In Austin, TX the Texas Mexican Mafia loses sixteen of its members to prison where they collectively will serve more than 300 years: "the gang was heavily involved with drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, prostitution, weapons trafficking and murder."
*** Five Barrio Azteca members collectively sentenced to more than 50 years in prison in El Paso, TX:
The Barrio Azteca gang profits by importing heroin, cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico. Gang members and associates allegedly charge a street tax, or "cuota," on businesses and criminals operating within their boundaries. The profits from the drug sales and street tax are then used to support gang members in prison. The money is then allegedly placed into accounts of gang leaders to pay for their lawyers or other fines.
*** Street gangs use social media to recruit kids over the internet: "Facebook and YouTube have affected street gangs as much as they have popular culture, according to police officials, who say social networks have helped introduce gang culture to a wider youth audience."
In some parts of Chicago, violent street gangs and pols quietly trade money and favors for mutual gain. The thugs flourish, the elected officials thrive—and you lose.
*** Twenty suspected gangbangers from five different crews busted for their alleged roles in a joint venture drug ring in Buffalo, NY "the street gangs -- 9th-N-Wild, 8th Street Boys, 20th-N-Center, GMN, and Stash Team -- had joined together to form a 'hybrid' gang."
*** Street gang members busted for their alleged roles in a $2 million identity theft ring which "targeted some of New York's wealthiest residents and high-end charities":
Authorities said the scammers -- including members of the Brooklyn gang the Outlaws, the Bloods and the Crips -- used insiders at the UJA, Chase Bank and Akam real estate to get the financial information of well more than 1,000 people. They used the information to either drain money from their victims' accounts or sell to other crooks.
*** Bloods leader gets 15 years in prison following racketeering conviction in Norfolk, VA: "he admitted drug dealing and committing a number of violent crimes, including the armed robbery of a Sonic restaurant in Chesapeake, a home invasion robbery and a shootout with a rival gang."
*** Bloods member gets 10 years in prison following racketeering conviction for conspiring to murder a rival gang member in Jersey City, NJ.
*** 3-N-G leader gets 30 years in prison on drug convictions in New Orelans, LA: "federal agents, along with members of the NOPD, have chipped away at the gang in recent years, netting convictions of several members who are now serving lengthy prison sentences."
*** The Hustle Boys busted for allegedly hustling pain pills in Detroit, MI: "according to the indictment, the Hustle Boys gang was formed in 2007 to promote nightclub events in metro Detroit."
*** Nearly 100 suspected gang members with alleged ties to the Mexican Mafia in Southern California were indicted last July, and among those charged was Peter "Sana" Ojeda who allegedly has been calling the shots for La Eme behind bars.
*** The feds hit 15 suspected Mexican Mafia members with racketeering charges involving drugs, extortion and attempted murder in Del Rio, TX.
*** Mexican drug cartels have "broadened their reach into the US" through violent street gangs according to the FBI's 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment:
Among the American gangs drawing closer to the Mexican crime armies are several Latino mobs such as the Barrio Azteca, which was formed in Texas prisons, and the Mexican Mafia, or "Eme," which is dominated by Californians of Mexican descent. * * * With the closer links, Mexican gangsters are getting American street gangs to carry out more jobs for them beyond the traditional drug selling on street corners, the report said. The cartels now "use street- and prison-gang members in Texas and California to protect smuggling routes, collect debts, transport illicit goods, including drugs and weapons, and execute rival traffickers," it said. They pay the gangs in money and drugs.
*** An appeals court upholds the constitutionality of a civil injunction which prohibits members of the North Side Oakland gang from associating with each other in a designated "safety zone" in Oakland, CA.
*** Two dozen suspected members of the Belizean Bloods have been busted on drug trafficking, passport fraud and other charges in Chicago, IL: they "allegedly used fake U.S. passports while shipping cocaine and other narcotics from Belize to the Chicago area and several other cities.
*** Reputed G-Shine Bloods leader indicted with 13 others on racketeering and drug charges for their alleged roles in running open-air drug markets in South Camden, NJ.
*** In NYC nineteen suspected members of the Harlem gang The Goodfellas are charged with running guns from Virginia: "the investigation by the NYPD, FBI and Manhattan district attorney's office also yielded a cache of weapons, including a Tec-9, a semiautomatic Chinese SKS military rifle and dozens of other guns."
In March U.S. prosecutors charged ten reputed members of Barrio Azteca for their alleged roles in the ambush murders last year of U.S. consulate employee Lesley Ann Enriquez and her husband El Paso sheriff's deputy Arthur Redelfs as they were returning home from a child's birthday party in Ciudad Juarez.
The hit against the American couple allegedly was ordered by Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez a/k/a El Diego who is the suspected boss of Juarez cartel puppet gang La Linea. El Diego was arrested last July, and confessed that Enriquez and Redelfs were killed under the mistaken belief they were working for the rival Sinaloa cartel.
The U.S. State Department warned yesterday that the Juarez Cartel may target its consulate office in Ciudad Juarez -- just over the border from El Paso, TX -- or other U.S. interests as reported by Mary Forgione for the Los Angeles Times. The "emergency message" states:
Information has come to light that suggests a cartel may be targeting the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez or U.S. Ports of Entry. In the past, cartels have been willing to utilize car bombs in attacks.
Earlier this month a drug cartel in Ciudad Juarez spray painted a public warning to U.S. DEA agents as reported by The Associated Press: "Gringos (D.E.A.). We know where you are and we know who you are and where you go. We are going to chop off your (expletive) heads."
The U.S. government warned last April that "its employees and citizens could be the targets of drug gangs in three Mexican states" as reported by Nicholas Casey and Jose de Cordoba for The Wall Street Journal: "the little-noticed warning . . . said U.S. officials had 'information that Mexican criminal gangs may intend to attack U.S. law-enforcement officers or U.S. citizens in the near future in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí.'"
The warnings are not idle. Last February ICE agent Jaime Zapata was killed and his partner wounded in a shooting ambush in the state of San Luis Potosí, and in March 2010 three Americans tied to the U.S. Consulate were killed in a shooting ambush in Ciudad Juarez in the state of Chihuahua. U.S. and Mexican officials allege that Los Zetas was behind the San Luis Potosi incident, and the Barrio Azteca gang, an enforcement crew for the Juarez cartel, was behind the Ciudad Juarez incident.
Moreover, the Mexican drug cartels have murdered U.S. law enforcement officials on the north side of the border. In December 2010 border patrol agent Brian Terry was shot and killed after encountering several suspects in a southern Arizona smuggling corridor.
The drug smugglers rake in $50 billion a year by peddling their product throughout the United States, and they already have proven willing to kill anybody on either side of the border in protecting their racket.
And yet President Obama sees no need to secure the border, and no evidence of spillover violence.
In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico -- just over the border from El Paso, TX -- a drug cartel spray painted a public warning to U.S. DEA agents as reported by The Associated Press: "Gringos (D.E.A.). We know where you are and we know who you are and where you go. We are going to chop off your (expletive) heads."
Last February ICE agent Jaime Zapata was killed and his partner wounded in a shooting ambush in the state of San Luis Potosí, and in March 2010 three Americans tied to the U.S. Consulate in El Paso, TX were killed in a shooting ambush in Ciudad Juarez in the state of Chihuahua. U.S. and Mexican officials allege that Los Zetas was behind the San Luis Potosi incident, and the Barrio Azteca gang, an enforcement crew for the Juarez cartel, was behind the Ciudad Juarez incident.
The U.S. government warned last April that "its employees and citizens could be the targets of drug gangs in three Mexican states" as reported by Nicholas Casey and Jose de Cordoba for The Wall Street Journal: "the little-noticed warning . . . said U.S. officials had 'information that Mexican criminal gangs may intend to attack U.S. law-enforcement officers or U.S. citizens in the near future in Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí.'"
