From Borderland Beat
Anonymous said…
Los Zetas the deadly paramilitary terrorist hit men and enforcers for the Mexican Drug Cartels (MDCs) is now operating and extorting American businesses on the U.S. Side of the border. Federal law enforcement investigators believe that goons of the MDCs has apparently begun to threaten businesses in the United States.
Federal government officials on both sides of the border are reported to be investigating the mafia style extortion plots. Two American city police departments L.A. and El Paso are investigating. Other cities police departments with similar problems believed looking into the matter is Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, and other smaller towns bordering Mexico.
Edgardo Note:This is an anonymous comment, but there have been many unconfirmed reports of kidnappings in the US and also of extortion and ransome demands. One thing that has been confirmed is that Americans or those in the United States have been extorted by gangs that have kidnapped and are holding their relatives in Mexico. I might be wrong but I don’t think so that extorting people in the United States is a crime. Neither Mexico or the United States seem to share much concern.
This is a short excerpt for Homeland Security Today:
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) revealed that reports of such kidnappings go back to at least 2007. And the numbers are astounding. According to the commission’s figures, 10,000 migrants were kidnapped between April and September 2010. In general, these crimes have not been investigated, and whereabouts of most of the kidnapped migrants are unknown.
The kidnappings target the thousands of Central Americans who travel through southern Mexico, hanging on to the sides and tops of northbound freight trains with the hope of reaching the United States. But as characterized in the Mexican press, many migrants find themselves living their worst nightmare long before they reach the American dream.
The story of one migrant who managed to escape, a Honduran man named Eimar, was told in El Excelsior newspaper. He said he was forced off the train and taken to a safe house where there were more than 200 other migrants. They were beaten and sometimes tortured to force them to call family members already living in the United States and demand ransoms of US $2,000 to $4,000 each.
Los Zetas are reportedly the main organized crime group controlling the traffic of Central Americans migrating to the US, and it is estimated this criminal activity brings in millions of dollars in profits. The chairman of CNDH, Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, was quoted in La Jornada newspaper in January saying that in many cases there is evidence of police officers and immigration agents participating in “apparent collusion with criminals.”
This from Borderland Beat. It seems spillover violence is flooding in:
According to information from an El Paso newspaper word of the threats has put the El Paso police on alert. At least two businesses in El Paso have reportedly received threats by a man identifying himself as a commander of Los Zetas. One businessman said that the man “demanded in an intimidating voice” a payment of $50,000 to be paid immediately or “the next time we meet will be at the funeral of a loved one.” While such tactics are routine in neighboring Cd. Juarez, but never before have American businesses been extorted from thugs from a foreign country and is a new problem for American businesses to have to deal with and apparently extortion has crossed into the US.
U.S. businesses are receiving threats by extortionists claiming to be members of MDCs, a sign that criminal tactics common in Mexico are showing up north of the border.
This week alone, at least two El Paso businesses reported to police calls they had received from a man identifying himself as a Zetas commander working for the Gulf cartel.
One man, in a “bullying voice,” called an El Paso businessman and demanded “$50,000 immediately, or the next time we’ll see you, it will be at the funeral of a loved one,” the businessman said.
The businessman spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concerns for his safety and that of his family. The family said it reported the incident to police.
El Paso police spokesman Javier Sambrano said he believes the incident is a “scam”, but an investigator had been assigned to the case, and he acknowledged that other businesses had been threatened in the past few days, but he refused to say how many.
Last year the El Paso Police Dept. did not think that the killings in Juarez would spill over into El Paso. They have been proved wrong as assassinations by MDCs of American citizens have taken place in El Paso and other cities around the country. Its believed many other Americans have been kidnapped and forced to Mexico where they were tortured and killed by MDCs murderous gang members and hired hit men. U.S. law enforcement believe American gang members also participate in many of those kidnappings and murders and follow the orders of the MDCs.
