[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 72 (Tuesday, May 12, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H5449-H5450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SINALOA DRUG CARTEL WANTS OLD WEST SHOOT-OUT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, according to the Los Angeles Times, 
the Mexican Attorney General's office has informed U.S. authorities 
that the Sinaloa drug cartel of Mexico has been ordered by its leader 
Joaquin ``El Chapo'' Guzman, also known as Shorty, to use guns and 
shoot it out, if necessary, with American law enforcement. This has 
been ordered by the drug kingpin to protect his drugs from seizure and 
capture by U.S. authorities.
  Law enforcement officials in Arizona have received two alerts that 
the Guzman smugglers have been told to, quote, use their weapons to 
defend their loads at all costs.
  The threat of escalated violence is for several reasons. One, El 
Chapo no longer can afford to lose drugs because of his connections and 
partnerships with Colombian drug cartels that are making greater 
demands on him for successful smuggling into the United States. Also, 
El Chapo is competing with rival drug cartels and attempting to take 
their business, their territory and their drugs. Thus, he wants to make 
sure his smugglers outgun the competition old west style.
  Another reason for more violence is the drug smugglers no longer will 
get paid unless they deliver the goods to a U.S. destination. 
Therefore, they are becoming more trigger happy.
  A few weeks ago a shoot-out between two drug smuggling groups took 
place on a road leading to Phoenix, Arizona. The criminals were trying 
to hijack each other's loads.
  United States Border Patrol in Tucson has stated that confrontation 
between law enforcement and suspected traffickers has grown more 
violent. The L.A. Times reports weapons-related assaults against U.S. 
border agents rose 24 percent last year as compared to 2007.
  Besides using weapons, the criminals throw rocks at our Border Patrol 
and ram their vehicles into agent vehicles.

[[Page H5450]]

  Recently, again, according to the Times, agents stopped a vehicle in 
Douglas, Arizona, and drug traffickers on the Mexican side of the 
border laid down suppressive gunfire to pin the U.S. border agents 
down, which allowed the smugglers to retreat to the Mexican side of the 
border with their drugs intact.
  The Tucson sector alone reports about 25 assaults a month on border 
patrol agents.

                              {time}  1945

  Madam Speaker, there seems to be an all-out border war between the 
drug cartels and the Mexican-U.S. law enforcement personnel. But not 
much is being said about this border war.
  Madam Speaker, this border war is real. Our government should protect 
our Nation from these gun-toting drug smugglers. Our border protectors 
should be given enough personnel and equipment to fight these violent 
cartels, including being able to use the National Guard. Our border 
protectors should also know that our government will support them in 
their lawful protection of our border, and when a violent conflict 
occurs, be more concerned about our border protectors than the outlaw 
drug smugglers.
  In other words, we must not let more agents suffer an unjust fate 
like Border Agents Ramos and Compean, who were persecuted and 
prosecuted for political reasons for shooting a drug smuggler they 
believed to be armed.
  The violence on the border will continue to grow unless the likes of 
Joaquin ``El Chapa''--``Shorty''--Guzman and his border bandits know 
the United States will not go away into the darkness of the desert 
night and simply surrender our border to them by silently doing nothing 
to prevent their unlawful invasion into the United States.
  And that's just the way it is.

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