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MEXIDATA . INFO
Column 122109 Brewer

Monday, December 21, 2009

U.S. Anxiety due to Mexico's Expanding Drug Violence

By Jerry Brewer

A revamping of initiatives, as is now apparent in the targeting of

drug cartels and their kingpin hierarchies by law enforcement
authorities, is an action that can bring about intense reactions
by U.S. law enforcement personnel and their facilities.

Federal agencies are certainly more prepared for potential

threats due to the realities of terrorism. Through world terror
events and the intense analysis of the modus operandi and
“signatures” of terrorists, the U.S Department of State, along
with other elements of the intelligence community, have worked
diligently to educate and prepare federal offices and our
embassies abroad.

Arturo Beltran Leyva, a Mexican drug kingpin known as the

"boss of bosses," and notorious for ruthlessly having his
enemies beheaded, was recently killed by authorities — along
with three of his cartel members — south of Mexico City in
Cuernavaca. Leyva, a major target of the U.S. DEA, was also
referred to as “Mexico’s third most wanted man.”

The Leyva news follows October announcements of “Project

Coronado,” a nearly four year U.S. multi-agency police
operation of federal, state, and local agencies that targeted a
drug distribution network from Mexico known as La Familia.
Over 300 arrests were made and millions of dollars were
seized.

The strategies in targeting criminal cartels via their hierarchies

are critical elements of organized criminal interdiction.
Dismantling organizations by toppling their position and status
within the vast narcotics industry abyss helps to create major
chaos and the re-posturing of underlings trying to regroup and
hold onto territories, routes, and distribution networks that are
seen by rivals as new potential turf. With this hysteria, and not
so clear thinking, come not only mistakes but too massive
retaliations.

And now, unfortunately, more blood will flow. With all of this
recent action against narcotraffickers and their leaders, coupled
with the actual and potential future losses in billions of U.S.
dollars, the sophistication of the narcoterrorists and their
massive firepower, and reach within U.S. cities, is something to
expect and prepare for.

U.S. local law enforcement agencies, regardless of size (and

especially along the U.S.-Mexico border), need to immediately
and effectively begin to secure their facilities for terror-style
retaliation attacks. Too, police officers must receive training in
espionage-type tradecraft in surveillance detection and counter
surveillance in their official duties, as well as their private lives
and personal security.

Is this just premature knee-jerk conjecture to frighten a nation

and/or its police? Let's review the history and handwriting on
the wall, signed for a world to see in the border town of Nuevo
Laredo as far back as 2005.

On July 28, 2005, Mexican officials in Nuevo Laredo,

Tamaulipas, attacked a drug cartel’s safe house and intercepted
an arsenal of police uniforms, police and federal insignia,
bulletproof vests, gas masks, firearms, ammunition, handcuffs,
night vision equipment, ski masks, and related gear. All this
apparently used by narcoterrorists in official and unofficial
disguise to spread their reign of terror. This seizure included
unusually advanced weaponry, with an arsenal of automatic
weapons such as AK-47 assault rifles, bazookas and hand
grenades.

U.S. police must take critical note of the following: during that
raid, on the safe house across the border from Laredo, Texas,
investigators found numerous photographs of municipal police
officers, along with an apparent hit list of police and city officials
targeted for death. Further intelligence revealed that each of
the photographs listed police officer’s assigned locations, beats
and work schedules, plus maps to their homes.

Such levels of sophistication, along with the superior weaponry,

is “terrorist oriented” tradecraft. Obviously, patient surveillance
strategies were utilized to gather routines, routes (family
members were also identified), and associated intelligence.
Much of this comparable to the “terrorist’s planning cycle” that is
well known by counterterrorism specialists.

Police administrators and their middle management

counterparts/leaders have a responsibility to ensure the
counterintelligence aspects of their respective organizations and
facilities. Perimeter security must also be enhanced to monitor
potential threats beyond simple patrol techniques. Organized
drug cartels are notorious for penetrating the protective shields
of government and law enforcement, especially those
enforcement elements working against them. Sometimes this is
as simple as significant cash to an internal administrative
employee with access to needed information.

The Nuevo Laredo violence was enough to force the temporary

closure of the U.S. Consulate, as police officers and authorities
throughout Mexico were subsequently executed. Nuevo Laredo
City Councilman Leopoldo Ramos Ortega, who also chaired the
council’s security committee, was shot dead as he sat
innocently in his truck.

The important message here is not to be complacent and

believe that these incidents only occur south of the border, or
that crimes like supposed gang-related drive-by shootings are
routine and old hat. We must always be on the alert for
terrorist-styled attacks with highly sophisticated weaponry and
explosives, while also remaining vigilant for potential intense
retaliation.

——————————
Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International
Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Miami,
Florida. His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.
jbrewer@cjiausa.org