Friends of Ours

Mexican Drug Cartels Diversify To Become Full-Blown Criminal Enterprises

The Mexican drug cartels have become full-blown organized crime organizations with military might, and they're recruiting U.S. kids as their soldiers according to a report by Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven C. McCraw as reported by Diana Washington Valdez for the El Paso Times:  "According to the experts, the activities of Mexican criminal enterprises now include the thefts of petroleum, agricultural crops and cargo, counterfeiting and piracy, kidnapping and extortion, and import-export fraud."

Meanwhile, in Monterrey, the capital city of Nuevo Leon state about two hours south of the Texas border where Los Zetas and the Gulf cartel are battling for turf, "five youths between the ages of 17 and 20 were shot and killed early Saturday" as reported by the Latin American Herald Tribune:  "the five youths had 'the look of gang members' and had each been shot multiple times."  They were sprayed with "dozens of bullets from AK-47s and AR-15s" as "they ordered dinner at a highway-side hot dog stand" as reported by The Associated Press.

Drug Cartels Discover Black Gold

The Mexican drug cartels long have siphoned product from the state-owned petroleum company Pemex for resale on the black market, and now the energy giant has been forced to shut down operations in the key Burgos Basin natural gas fields in the northern border state of Tamaulipas following the kidnapping of five workers as reported by Tracy Wilkinson for the Los Angeles Times:  "'In the Burgos project, there are areas we cannot access,' Carlos Morales Gil, director of exploration and production for Pemex, said during a news conference in the Tabasco city of Villahermosa in July. It was a startling admission."

U.S. Oil Companies Investigated For Cartel Ties

The Wall Street Journal reports that the "U.S. government is investigating whether several U.S. companies took part in a cross-border scheme to siphon oil products from Mexico's state oil company" in a racket operated by the Gulf drug cartel:

Oil theft has been common on both sides of the border for decades. But the breadth of the smuggling operation, extending from Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico's state oil company, to U.S. companies, is a troubling sign of the growing reach of cross-border organized crime, as well as the efforts by Mexican drug cartels to diversify their business. John Morton, the assistant secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Tuesday that his agency was looking into whether U.S. refiners knowingly bought the stolen products. He declined to name any of the refineries or other companies because the investigation is continuing. "People are going to jail," Mr. Morton said at a news conference Tuesday in San Antonio. "Fines will be paid."