[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19112-19116]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        SOUTHERN BORDER VIOLENCE

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
the violence that continues to plague our southern border region by 
Mexico's well-armed, well-financed, and very determined drug cartels.
  Last weekend, I went to Yuma, AZ, and met with Border Patrol and 
Customs and other law enforcement agents who do such an outstanding job 
for our country.
  By the way, the temperature was approximately 115 degrees, and our 
men and women, who are serving so well, were out there trying to secure 
our border and keep our country safe.
  Despite the increased efforts of President Calderon to stamp out 
these bloodthirsty and vicious drug cartels, violence has increased 
dramatically, claiming over 6,000 lives in Mexico last year alone. The 
murderers carrying out these crimes are as violent and dangerous as any 
in the world. Many have extensive military training and carry out their 
illegal activities with sophisticated tactical weapons and no regard 
for human life.
  Last week, the Washington Post reported that 12 Mexican Federal 
agents were murdered and left alongside a mountain road in retaliation 
for the arrest of the leader of the country's most violent drug cartel, 
La Familia. According to the article, this act represents ``the highest 
one-day death toll for Federal forces in the 3-year-old drug war.'' The 
article provides the deadly details of the violent attack, reporting:

       The attacks began at dawn on Saturday . . . shortly after 
     the arrest of the right-hand man of La Familia founder 
     Nazario Moreno Gonzalez. After La Familia gunmen were 
     repelled in their attempt to free (the leader), they went on 
     what police described as a shooting rampage to ``avenge'' his 
     capture. The attacks, in which convoys of gunmen mounted 
     surprise assaults on government positions in eight cities, 
     went on for 10 hours Saturday and continued sporadically 
     Sunday.

  The bodies of these brave law enforcement officers were accompanied 
by a note promising future violence from La Familia if the Federal 
Government continues its law enforcement efforts. I remind my 
colleagues that this is the same drug cartel that, according to the 
Washington Post, ``announced its presence 2 years ago by rolling five 
decapitated heads into a dance hall.''
  Earlier this month, two American citizens with dual citizenship were 
dragged out of their homes and shot several times in the head in the 
Mexican state of Chihuahua. The reason was that the victims, according 
to the Associated Press:

       helped lead the town's approximately 2,000 inhabitants in 
     protest against a May 2 kidnapping. The residents refused to 
     pay the $1 million ransom kidnappers requested and 
     demonstrated in the Chihuahua state capital to demand 
     justice. Even after (the kidnapped victim) was released 
     unharmed a week later, the (town's) people continued to lead 
     marches demanding more law enforcement in the rural, isolated 
     corner of Chihuahua state. They also set up a committee to 
     report any suspicious activities in town to police, quickly 
     becoming an example for other Chihuahua communities.

  Yesterday's Washington Post front-page story about these events 
states:

       Chihuahua today is the emblem of a failed state, run by 
     incompetent authorities who have little ability to protect 
     the citizens.

  The violence that has terrorized Mexican citizens continues to seep 
across the border, devastating families and crippling communities. In 
my hometown of Phoenix, there have been over 700 reported kidnappings 
in the past year. This has led to Phoenix

[[Page 19113]]

being declared the ``kidnapping capital of the United States,'' second 
only to Mexico City in the world. In many cases, kidnap victims are 
intertwined with criminal elements of society, involved with illegal 
cross-border smuggling operations.
  The police chief of Phoenix testified in April before the Senate's 
Homeland Security Committee that Phoenix is a transshipment point for 
illegal drugs and smuggled humans, both coming to Phoenix before being 
shipped to other points throughout the United States.
  Immigrants illegally crossing the border with paid ``coyotes'' are 
treated like expendable cargo to be bought, sold, traded, or stolen. In 
many cases, the immigrants' families are ransomed for additional funds 
by bajadores, or takedown crews, to guarantee safe delivery of their 
loved ones.
  As detailed in a Newsweek article from earlier this year:

       Kidnap victims have been found bound and gagged, their 
     fingers smashed and their foreheads spattered with blood from 
     pistol whippings. When the bajadores abduct illegal 
     immigrants--hoping to extort more money from relatives--they 
     will sometimes kill someone off immediately to scare the 
     others. There was a case last year where they duct-taped the 
     mouth and nose of one individual and had the others watch 
     while he asphyxiated and defecated on himself.

  These are not pleasant things. They are not pleasant things to 
describe. But they are going on right now as we speak.
  Aside from the horrible toll these cartels extract from their victims 
and the victims' families, they also severely tax the resources of law 
enforcement agencies of border communities. The police chief of Phoenix 
also testified that the Phoenix police receive a kidnapping report 
almost every night, which can require the efforts of up to 60 officers 
to find, rescue, and protect kidnap victims.
  Lest you believe these activities are limited to border communities, 
last year the bodies of five Mexican men were discovered bound, gagged, 
and electrocuted in Birmingham, AL, in an apparent hit by a Mexican 
cartel. In recent years, arrests of Mexican cartel members have 
occurred across the South, including Tennessee, North Carolina, and 
Georgia.
  There is no sign that the number of these drug-related arrests will 
abate in the near future, which is why I support efforts to complete 
the proposed 700 miles of double-layer fence. But, as we have seen, 
fencing alone fails to take into account the realities of the southern 
border and should not be treated as a panacea. These criminal smuggling 
enterprises are very sophisticated and are not easily deterred, which 
is why we must work to truly secure our border, not merely fence it.
  This past weekend, as I mentioned, I visited the border in Yuma, AZ, 
and witnessed the extraordinary lengths these cartels go to smuggle 
their goods across the border. One cartel spent upwards of $1 million 
using sophisticated GPS-directed drilling equipment to develop their 
tunnel far below the surface to move goods underneath fencing and out 
of sight of law enforcement agencies.
  In Nogales, AZ, drug traffickers have used the city's sewer system to 
channel drugs across the border. Every other month tunnels are 
discovered underneath the border. Since 1990, 110 cross-border tunnels 
have been discovered. Twenty-four tunnels were discovered in 2008 
alone.
  Not to be deterred, our outstanding law enforcement officials have 
developed investigative strategies and tunnel detection equipment to 
locate and identify subterranean cross-border tunnels.
  The latest, by the way, on the part of the drug cartels, is the use 
of ultralights. Ultralights now are being flown at extremely low 
altitude, loaded with drugs, across the Mexico-Arizona border and all 
across the border.
  We must also increase personnel on the border to put an end to 
illegal immigration and protect our citizens from the drug cartel 
violence occurring in Mexico. For this reason, I was disappointed that 
the administration rejected Arizona Governor Brewer's request--and the 
requests of the Governors of California, New Mexico, and Texas--who 
also requested National Guard troops to bolster the Joint Counter-
Narcotics Terrorism Task Force. But, as we know, the coyotes are 
aggressive and creative despite our efforts to secure the border with 
more personnel, more fencing, and more surveillance technology.
  The United States must keep its focus on securing our southern border 
and doing all it can to assist President Calderon in his efforts 
against these violent drug cartels. The prosperity and success of 
Mexico is essential to the prosperity and success of our own country. 
We share a border, our economies are intertwined, and we are major 
trading partners with each other. The United States must show its 
support for our neighbor to the south and support the Mexican people 
and the Calderon administration in this fundamental struggle against 
lawlessness and corruption.
  We have a big problem. We have a big problem with these drug cartels. 
The Mexican Government now has a problem. They just lost an election 
because the people of Mexico, many of them, believe these drugs are 
just going through Mexico, intended for the United States of America.
  Violence is at an incredibly high level not only on the border but 
throughout the country of Mexico and, tragically, corruption reaches to 
very high levels in the government. We have the Merida Initiative. We 
are working with the Mexican Government. But there is no time like the 
present, in my view, because we need to not only enforce and increase 
our efforts on our side of the border but also work as closely as 
possible with the Mexican Government and people.
  It is horrific what is taking place: beheadings of people, bodies 
hung from overpasses. These are amongst the most cruel and terrible 
people who inhabit this Earth. It is a lot about drugs. It is a lot 
about a $16-billion-a-year business, of drugs coming into the United 
States of America. That is how they can afford to spend easily $1 
million to build a tunnel underneath the border between Yuma, AZ, and 
Mexico.
  I know we have a lot of issues that are affecting the future of our 
country, including two wars, including relations with countries, 
including the Iranian situation, but I hope we can focus a lot of our 
attention on the problems that are bred on our border by the drug 
cartels and the human smuggling and the terrible mistreatment of people 
on both sides of the border as a result of that.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the articles in the Washington 
Post and Newsweek be printed in the Record, and I yield the floor.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Post, July 23, 2009]

                         Ambushed by a Drug War

                           (By William Booth)

       Colonia Lebaron, Mexico--Mormon pioneer Alma Dayer LeBaron 
     had a vision when he moved his breakaway sect of polygamists 
     to this valley 60 years ago: His many children would live in 
     peace and prosperity among the pretty pecan orchards they 
     would plant in the desert.
       Prosperity has come, but the peace has been shattered.
       In the past three months, American Mormon communities in 
     Mexico have been sucked into a dust devil of violence 
     sweeping the borderlands. Their relative wealth has made them 
     targets: Their telephones ring with threats of extortion. 
     Their children and elders are taken by kidnappers. They have 
     been drawn into the government's war with the drug cartels.
       This month, a leader of their colony was abducted by 
     heavily armed men dressed as police, then beaten and shot 
     dead 10 minutes from town. Benjamin LeBaron, 31, whom 
     everyone called Benji, had dared to denounce the criminals, 
     while refusing to pay a $1 million ransom demanded by 
     kidnappers who had grabbed his teenage brother from a family 
     ranch in May.
       Amid the blood and mesquite at the site of his last breath, 
     Benjamin LeBaron's killers posted a sign that read: ``This is 
     for the leaders of LeBaron who didn't believe and who still 
     don't believe.''
       ``We're living in a war zone, but it's a war zone with 
     little kids running all around in the yard,'' said Julian 
     LeBaron, a brother of the slain leader. Like most members of 
     the Mormon enclave, he has dual Mexican-American citizenship 
     and speaks Spanish and English fluently.
       These Mormons, some who swear and drink beer, are the 
     latest collateral damage in the

[[Page 19114]]

     Mexican government's U.S.-backed war against criminal 
     organizations.
       Here in Chihuahua, the border state south of Texas and New 
     Mexico, conditions are rapidly deteriorating. The violence 
     has left more than 1,000 dead in Ciudad Juarez this year, 
     even though the government has sent 10,000 troops and police 
     officers into the city.
       Increasingly the violence is moving from the big cities 
     into the small, usually placid farm towns of the rugged 
     desert mountains. Criminal bands have ambushed the governor's 
     convoy along the highway, and they have assassinated local 
     police at stop lights and political leaders at will. Gunmen 
     executed the mayor of Namiquipa last week.
       ``The northeast of Chihuahua is now a zone of 
     devastation,'' said Victor Quintana, a state lawmaker, who 
     reports an exodus of business people fleeing kidnappers and 
     farmers refusing to plant their crops because of extortion.
       The columnist Alberto Aziz Nassif wrote in El Universal 
     newspaper, ``Chihuahua today is the emblem of a failed state, 
     run by incompetent authorities who have little ability to 
     protect the citizens.''
       Many of the Mormons have fled north to the United States, 
     and Julian LeBaron said he fears for his life. He has reason. 
     In Ciudad Juarez, a three-hour drive to the north, hand-
     painted banners were hung from overpasses last week 
     threatening the extended clan.
       ``All we want to do is live in peace. We want nothing to do 
     with the drug cartels. They can't be stopped. What we want is 
     just to protect ourselves from being kidnapped and killed,'' 
     said Marco LeBaron, a college student who came home for the 
     funeral of his brother, the slain anti-crime activist. Marco 
     LeBaron is one of 70 Mormons who have volunteered to join a 
     rural police force to protect the town. The Mexican 
     government has given them permission to arm themselves.


                        Dragged Into Drug Fight

       For all the violence swirling around them, the Mormons have 
     mostly stayed out of the fight. Their ancestors first settled 
     in Mexico in the 1880s, during the reign of dictator Porfirio 
     Diaz, who offered the religious outcasts refuge from the 
     harassment and prosecution they faced in the United States 
     for their polygamist lifestyles. Some men in Colonia LeBaron 
     and surrounding towns continue to follow what early Mormon 
     prophets called ``the Principle,'' marrying multiple wives 
     and having dozens of children, though the custom here is 
     fading. Polygamy was banned by the Church of Jesus Christ of 
     Latter-Day Saints, the official Mormon Church, in 1890.
       The Mormon community based in Colonia LeBaron, numbering 
     about 1,000, has one motel, two grocery stores and lots of 
     schools. There are no ATMs and no liquor sales. Many Mormons 
     are conspicuous not only for their straw-colored hair and 
     pale skin, but also for their new pickup trucks, large 
     suburban-style homes with green front lawns, and big tracts 
     of land for their pecans and cattle. They are wealthy, by the 
     standards of their poor Mexican neighbors. Most of the Mormon 
     men make their money working construction jobs in the United 
     States; a young Mormon might work 10 years hanging drywall in 
     Las Vegas before he has enough money to buy a plot of land to 
     start his own pecan orchard here.
       The Mormons were dragged into the drug fight on May 2, when 
     16-year-old Eric LeBaron and a younger brother were hauling a 
     load of fence posts in their truck to their father's ranch in 
     the Sierra Madre. According to the family's account, five 
     armed men seized Eric and told his brother to run home and 
     tell his father to answer the telephone. When the kidnappers 
     called, they told Joel LeBaron that if he ever wanted to see 
     Eric again, he must pay them $1 million.
       The next day, 150 men gathered at the church house in 
     Colonia LeBaron to debate what to do. They had no confidence 
     in the local police. One of their members, Ariel Ray, the 
     mayor of nearby Galeana, reminded them that someone had put 
     an empty coffin in the bed of his pickup. Some men argued 
     that they should hire professional bounty hunters from the 
     United States to get Eric back. Others wanted to form a 
     posse.
       ``But we knew the last thing we could do was give them the 
     money, or we would be invaded by this scum,'' Julian LeBaron 
     said.
       Another brother, Craig LeBaron, told the Deseret News in 
     Salt Lake City: ``If you give them a cookie, they'll want a 
     glass of milk. If we don't make a stand here, it's only a 
     matter of time before it's my kid.''
       A caravan of hundreds of the LeBaron Mormons, along with 
     Mennonites and others, went to the state capital to protest 
     the crime. This kind of public advocacy is almost unheard of 
     among the Mexican Mormons, who keep to themselves. Led by 
     Benjamin LeBaron, the protesters met with the governor and 
     state attorney general, who quickly dispatched helicopters, 
     police and soldiers to the area. The government forces 
     erected roadblocks and searched the countryside.
       Eric LeBaron was freed eight days after his abduction. His 
     kidnappers simply told him to go home. But soon after, 
     another member of the community, Meredith Romney, a 72-year-
     old bishop related to former Republican presidential 
     candidate Mitt Romney, was taken captive. The state governor 
     sent Colombian security consultants to LeBaron. The Mormons, 
     led by an increasingly public and outspoken Benjamin LeBaron, 
     formed a group called SOS Chihuahua to organize citizens to 
     defend themselves, report crimes and demand results from 
     authorities. LeBaron was featured prominently in the local 
     media. He gave a speech to a graduating class of police 
     cadets. He staged rallies. He got noticed.


                         Attack on Family Home

       Early on July 7, four trucks loaded with men passed through 
     a highway tollbooth, where they were recorded on videotape 
     outside Galeana, where Benjamin LeBaron lived in a sprawling, 
     new stucco home with his wife and five young children. Two 
     trucks stopped at the cemetery outside town and waited. Two 
     pickup trucks filled with 15 to 20 heavily armed men, wearing 
     helmets, bulletproof vests and blue uniforms, came for 
     LeBaron.
       They smashed in his home's windows and shouted for him to 
     open the door, as his terrified children cried inside, 
     according to an account given by his brothers. LeBaron's 
     brother-in-law Luis Widmar, 29, who lived across the street, 
     heard the commotion and ran to his aid. Both men were beaten 
     by the gunmen, who threatened to rape LeBaron's wife in front 
     of her children unless the men revealed where LeBaron kept 
     his arsenal of weapons.
       ``But he didn't have any, because I promise you, if he did, 
     he would have used them to protect his family,'' Julian 
     LeBaron said.
       LeBaron and Widmar were shot in the head outside town. A 
     banner was hung beside their bodies that blamed them for the 
     arrest of 25 gunmen who were seized in June after terrorizing 
     the town of Nicolas Bravo, where they burned down buildings 
     and extorted from business owners. According to Mexican law 
     enforcement officials, the gunmen are members of the Sinaloa 
     drug cartel, which is fighting the Juarez cartel for billion-
     dollar cocaine-smuggling routes into El Paso.
       After the men killed LeBaron and Widmar, a video camera 
     captured their departure at the highway tollbooth--the make, 
     model and year of their vehicles and the license numbers, 
     according to family members. There have been no arrests.
       Who killed Benji LeBaron--and why? These questions are 
     difficult to answer in Mexico's drug war, and the unknowns 
     fuel the fear of those left in Colonia LeBaron.
       The state attorney general, Patricia Gonzalez, blamed the 
     group La Linea, the Line, the armed enforcement wing of 
     former police officers and gunmen that works for the Juarez 
     cartel. A few months ago, Gonzalez said La Linea was an 
     exhausted remnant of dead-enders whose ranks had been 
     decimated by infighting and arrests.
       After Gonzalez said the Juarez cartel was responsible for 
     the killings, banners appeared in Ciudad Juarez that read: 
     ``Mrs. Prosecutor, avoid problems for yourself, and don't 
     blame La Linea.'' The message stated that the LeBaron 
     killings were the work of the Sinaloa cartel. On Wednesday, 
     another banner was hung from an overpass, suggesting that 
     Benji LeBaron was a thief: ``Ask yourself where did all his 
     properties come from?''
       At the LeBaron funeral, attended by more than 2,000 people, 
     including the Chihuahua state governor and attorney general, 
     Benji's uncle Adrian LeBaron said, ``The men who murdered 
     them have no children, no parents, no mother. They are the 
     spawn of evil.''
                                  ____


                     [From Newsweek, Mar. 14, 2009]

                            The Enemy Within

                 (By Eve Conant and Arian Campo-Flores)

       As Manuel exited the Radio Shack in Phoenix with his family 
     one afternoon last month, a group of Hispanic men standing in 
     the parking lot watched him closely. ``Do it now, do it 
     now,'' one said to another in Spanish, according to a 
     witness. One of the men approached Manuel, pointed a revolver 
     at his head and tried to force him into a Ford Expedition 
     parked close by. ``Please, I'll get into the car, just don't 
     touch me,'' Manuel pleaded as he entered the vehicle, his 
     wife told police. Nearby, she said, another man in a Chrysler 
     sedan aimed a rifle or shotgun out the driver's side window. 
     At some point, shots were fired, said witnesses, although 
     apparently no one was hit. Then the vehicles tore off with a 
     screech of tires.
       Later that evening, the phone rang. When Manuel's wife 
     picked up, a male voice said in Spanish, ``Don't call the 
     police,'' and then played a recording of Manuel saying, 
     ``Tell the kids I'm OK.'' The man said he'd call again, then 
     hung up. Despite the warning, Manuel's wife contacted the 
     cops. In subsequent calls, the kidnappers told her Manuel 
     owed money for drugs, and they demanded $1 million and his 
     Cadillac Escalade as ransom.
       When two men later retrieved the Escalade and drove off, 
     the cops chased them and forced them off the road. Both men, 
     illegal immigrants from Mexico, said they'd been paid by a 
     man (who authorities believe has high-level drug connections) 
     to drive the vehicle to Tucson. So far, police say, Manuel 
     hasn't reappeared, and his family has been reluctant to 
     cooperate further with law enforcement. ``He's a drug dealer, 
     and he lost a load,'' says Lt. Lauri Burgett of the Phoenix 
     Police Department's recently created kidnapping squad. ``He 
     was probably brought to Mexico to answer for that.''

[[Page 19115]]

       Surprising as it may seem, Phoenix has become America's 
     kidnapping capital. Last year 368 abductions were reported, 
     compared with 117 in 2000. Police say the real number is 
     likely much higher, since many go unreported. Though in the 
     past most of the nabbings stemmed from domestic-violence 
     incidents, now the majority are linked to drug-trafficking 
     and human-smuggling operations that pervade the Arizona 
     corridor. It's still unclear to what extent the snatchings 
     are being directly ordered by Mexican cartels, but 
     authorities say they're undoubtedly a byproduct of the drug-
     fueled mayhem south of the border. ``The tactics are moving 
     north,'' says assistant police chief Andy Anderson. ``We 
     don't have the violence they have in Mexico yet--the killing 
     of police officers and the beheadings--but in terms of 
     kidnappings and home invasions, it has come.''
       That raises an unnerving prospect: that the turmoil in 
     Mexico--where drug violence claimed more than 6,000 lives 
     last year--is finally seeping across the border. According to 
     a December report by the Justice Department's National Drug 
     Intelligence Center, Mexican drug-trafficking organizations 
     have established a presence in 230 U.S. cities, including 
     such remote places as Anchorage, Alaska, and Sheboygan, Wis.
       The issue is preoccupying American officials. ``This is 
     getting the highest level of attention,'' including the 
     president's, says Homeland Security Secretary Janet 
     Napolitano. She tells NEWSWEEK that the administration is 
     dispatching additional Customs and Border Protection and 
     Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel to the border, 
     and it's reviewing requests from the governors of Arizona and 
     Texas for help from National Guard troops. Earlier this 
     month, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
     Staff, visited Mexico to discuss assistance and to share 
     potentially relevant lessons that the United States has 
     learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, says a senior Pentagon 
     official familiar with details of the trip who wasn't 
     authorized to speak on the record.
       All the attention has stoked public debate on a 
     particularly fraught question--whether Mexico is a failing 
     state. A U.S. Joint Forces Command study released last 
     November floated that scenario, grouping the country with 
     Pakistan as a potential candidate for ``sudden and rapid 
     collapse.'' Such a comparison is excessive, says Eric Olson 
     of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute in 
     Washington, D.C., though the Mexican government confronts 
     ``real problems of sovereignty in certain areas'' of the 
     country. Administration officials are striving to tone down 
     the rhetoric and focus on ways to help. Among the priorities, 
     says Olson: to cut American demand for drugs, to provide 
     additional training and equipment to law-enforcement and 
     military personnel in Mexico, and to clamp down on drug 
     cash--an estimated $23 billion per year--and assault weapons 
     flowing into the country from the United States.
       As the violence continues to spiral in Mexico, reports of 
     cartel-related activity are on the rise in American cities 
     far removed from the border. Last August the bodies of five 
     Mexican men were discovered bound, gagged and electrocuted in 
     Birmingham, Ala., in what was believed to be a hit ordered by 
     Mexican narcotraffickers. A few months later, 33 people with 
     cartel ties were indicted in Greeneville, Tenn., for 
     distributing 24,000 pounds of marijuana. In neighboring North 
     Carolina, ``there are cartel cells . . . that are a direct 
     extension from Mexico,'' says John Emerson, the Drug 
     Enforcement Administration's special agent in charge in the 
     state.
       Law enforcement in Atlanta, where a maze of interstates 
     provides distribution routes throughout the Southeast, has 
     dubbed the city ``the new Southwest border.'' ``All those 
     trends are coming here,'' says Fred Stephens of the Georgia 
     Bureau of Investigations. ``We are seeing alarming patterns, 
     the same violence.'' He ticks off a spate of cartel-linked 
     crimes in the state--assaults, abductions, executions. Last 
     May authorities in Gwinnett County found a kidnap victim, 
     along with 11 kilos of cocaine and $7.65 million in shrink-
     wrapped bundles, in a house rented by an alleged Gulf cartel 
     cell leader. A few months later, a suspected drug dealer in 
     Lawrenceville was abducted by six men, dressed commando-style 
     in black, and held for a $2 million ransom (he escaped).
       Nothing rivals the rash of kidnappings in Phoenix, however. 
     As border enforcement has tightened the screws on the 
     California and Texas crossings, Arizona has become a prime 
     gateway for illicit trafficking--in both directions. ``The 
     drugs and people come north, the guns go south,'' says 
     Elizabeth Kempshall, the DEA's special agent in charge of the 
     Phoenix division. Arizona is mostly dominated by the Sinaloa 
     cartel, which authorities say is trying to assert greater 
     control over the U.S. drug trade. Yet analysts believe the 
     organization has fractured--most notably last summer, when 
     the Beltran Leyva brothers reportedly split from leader 
     Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman.
       That internecine conflict, along with cartel encroachment 
     north of the border, has created something of a free-for-all 
     in Phoenix's criminal underworld. Among the groups that have 
     stepped into the breach: roving Mexican gangsters called 
     bajadores, or ``takedown'' crews, who are responsible for 
     many of the city's kidnappings. Often operating in packs of 
     five, they typically cross the border to commit crimes, then 
     retreat south, say police. Some work as enforcers for the 
     cartels, collecting payment from dealers who have stiffed the 
     capos or lost their loads. Others function as freelancers, 
     stealing shipments of drugs or illegal immigrants from 
     traffickers. ``We've seen an uptick in the bajadores since 
     last summer,'' says Al Richard, a Phoenix police detective. 
     ``We are seeing a lot more professionals coming up here 
     now.''
       Bajadores are renowned for their ruthlessness. Kidnap 
     victims have been found bound and gagged, their fingers 
     smashed and their foreheads spattered with blood from pistol-
     whippings. When the crews abduct illegal immigrants--hoping 
     to extort more money from relatives--''they will sometimes 
     kill someone off immediately to scare the others,'' says 
     Richard. ``There was a case last year where they duct-taped 
     the mouth and nose of one individual and had the others watch 
     while he asphyxiated and defecated on himself.'' Some 
     bajadores have branched out to home invasions. In one 
     incident last June, a gang broke into a home, outfitted in 
     Phoenix police gear and Kevlar vests--a hallmark of criminal 
     enterprises across the border.
       To combat the problem, police in Phoenix created the 
     kidnapping squad--known officially as Home Invasion 
     Kidnapping Enforcement--last September. Led by Lieutenant 
     Burgett, the team of 10 lead investigators has already busted 
     31 crime cells and made more than 220 arrests. But ``it never 
     stops,'' she says. ``It's like a Texas ant hill.'' One of the 
     squad's main objectives: to keep the abductions confined to 
     the criminal world. ``Most of the time, our victims are as 
     bad as our suspects,'' says Sgt. Phil Roberts. ``We give them 
     five to 10 minutes to hug their wife, and then they are off 
     to jail themselves.'' If average citizens begin to get 
     ensnared, the result could be widespread panic. ``We don't 
     want what happens in Mexico to happen here, where they are 
     kidnapping bank presidents,'' he says. ``We don't want the 
     president of Wells Fargo to need a bodyguard.''
       Last Tuesday afternoon, the squad was working a case 
     involving a suspected marijuana middleman. As police later 
     learned, a few days earlier, he'd allegedly brokered a deal 
     between a group of sellers and two buyers for 150 pounds of 
     pot. But when the parties gathered at a suburban house, the 
     two buyers held up the others and made off with $40,000 worth 
     of dope and cash. The man tried to escape, but a woman at the 
     house pulled a gun on him. ``You're not leaving,'' she said, 
     according to the middleman's subsequent account to police. 
     ``You set up this deal.'' The stolen goods were now his debt. 
     Eventually released, he scrambled to cobble together $40,000 
     worth of possessions--three vehicles, 10 pounds of pot, some 
     cash--while a man who called himself ``Chuco'' rang him every 
     hour. But it wasn't enough. On Tuesday morning, Chuco arrived 
     at the man's house. ``I've got to go,'' the man told his 
     girlfriend, according to her statements to police. ``If I 
     don't pay, they're going to hurt me.'' His abductors, he 
     said, worked for El Chapo (an unconfirmed allegation).
       Later that day, the man's girlfriend arrived at the police 
     station. Sleepless and frantic, she fielded repeated calls 
     from her boyfriend, who pleaded for her to raise additional 
     cash. The cops urged her to remain calm. ``I know you are 
     stressed, but you need to keep talking,'' said one of the 
     detectives. ``You are the only one who can do the 
     negotiating.'' She had already called some family members and 
     asked them to draw money from an equity line. But it wasn't 
     arriving quickly enough. ``I don't have it yet, baby,'' she 
     told her boyfriend on a subsequent call, as he grew more 
     distressed. ``I'm doing everything I can.''
       Unbeknownst to the woman, the kidnapping squad had received 
     information on her boyfriend's possible location. As cops 
     approached the suspected house a little after midnight, an 
     SUV suddenly sped away. Police pursued it and pulled it over. 
     ``Tell us where he is!'' a detective told the passengers. 
     Just then, a Chevy Impala took off from the house. Another 
     chase ensued, and eventually the driver was forced to stop. 
     Inside were four passengers, with the middleman in the rear, 
     flanked by two men armed with weapons. Back at the station, 
     detectives questioned the parties; as of late last week, 
     charges were likely against four abductors, but not the 
     victim, due to a lack of evidence in the suspected marijuana 
     deal. But now he's on the cops' radar, says Burgett. ``We do 
     proactive follow-up on victims as well.''
       Though much of Phoenix's kidnapping epidemic stems from 
     alleged drug deals gone awry, plenty are linked to the human-
     smuggling trade. That work used to be dominated by small 
     ``mom and pop'' outfits, but in time, the cartels have 
     muscled in on it. Any group that wants to use their 
     trafficking routes has to pay up--about $2,000 per week for 
     Mexicans and $10,000 per week for ``exotics,'' like Chinese 
     and Middle Easterners, says Richard, the Phoenix detective. 
     That added business cost has encouraged some smugglers to try 
     to extort more money from their human loads--known as pollos, 
     or

[[Page 19116]]

     ``chickens''--once they've crossed the border. More and more, 
     pollos may change hands several times among duenos, or 
     ``owners''--a new, more violent breed of smugglers. The drop 
     houses used to stash immigrants are also becoming more 
     barbaric.
       One recent night, the Human Smuggling Unit of the Maricopa 
     County sheriffs office received a tip on a drop house in a 
     middle-class neighborhood in Phoenix. Relatives of an 
     immigrant being held there had received an extortion call 
     demanding $3,500. Joined by a SWAT team, the unit made its 
     move, breaching windows and doors, which were boarded up (a 
     typical precaution taken by smugglers). A half dozen men 
     tried to escape but were grabbed, says Lt. Joe Sousa, the 
     unit commander. Inside were several dozen illegal immigrants, 
     all shoeless and famished. Authorities confiscated two 
     pistols, a sawed-off shotgun and a Taser-like device--''used 
     against people when they're put on the phone, begging their 
     relatives for cash,'' says Sousa. It was a good bust, he 
     says, but ``within a week or two, that same organization will 
     be back up and running.'' Sousa moved to Phoenix because he 
     thought it was a nice place to raise a family. But the 
     violence is out of control, he says. ``Soon as I retire, I'm 
     out of here.''
       Many area residents who have had encounters with the 
     smuggling world share the sentiment. At a takedown of a 
     suspected drop house a few days earlier in nearby Avondale, a 
     neighbor became inconsolable describing the terror he 
     experienced living next door to what locals fear is a home to 
     ruthless criminals. ``It's been hell,'' said the man, who 
     refused to be named because he was scared. ``I have five 
     kids. I've been sleeping with two machine guns under my bed 
     for two years.'' He's planning to foreclose on his property 
     and flee with his family as soon as possible. Despite the 
     bust, the smugglers ``will be back,'' he said. ``Right now, 
     they are headed to the border, they'll chill out for a month, 
     and they'll be back.'' As overwrought as he may have been, he 
     was probably right.
                                  ____


               [From the Washington Post, July 15, 2009]

                 12 Federal Agents Are Slain in Mexico

                           (By William Booth)

       Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico, July 14.--Mexican authorities 
     said Tuesday that a super-violent drug cartel called La 
     Familia was responsible for torturing and killing 12 federal 
     agents whose bodies were found dumped alongside a mountain 
     road in the western state of Michoacan late Monday.
       The agents, who included one woman, had been investigating 
     organized crime in Michoacan, where gunmen launched a series 
     of highly coordinated commando attacks against police 
     officers and soldiers over the weekend.
       The abduction, torture and execution of such a large group 
     of federal agents marks a steep escalation in President 
     Felipe Calderon's war with the drug cartels. Though drug 
     mafias often clash with local police officials they fail to 
     intimidate or corrupt, a direct counterattack against federal 
     forces is almost unheard-of. The 12 agents represent the 
     highest one-day death toll for federal forces in the three-
     year-old drug war.
       Placed beside the corpses of the agents, who were off-duty 
     when they were abducted, was a sign threatening police, Monte 
     Alejandro Rubido, a senior federal security official, said at 
     a news conference.
       Federal officials say they think the attacks by La Familia, 
     a mini-cartel that announced its presence two years ago by 
     rolling five decapitated heads into a dance hall, were 
     carried out in retaliation for the capture of one of the 
     group's leaders.
       The attacks began at dawn Saturday in Michoacan's capital, 
     Morelia, shortly after the arrest of Arnold Rueda Medina, 
     reported to be the right-hand man of La Familia founder 
     Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, known as ``El Mas Loco,'' or the 
     Craziest One.
       After La Familia gunmen were repelled in their attempt to 
     free Rueda, they went on what police described as a shooting 
     rampage to ``avenge'' his capture. The attacks, in which 
     convoys of gunmen mounted surprise assaults on government 
     positions in eight cities, went on for 10 hours Saturday and 
     continued sporadically Sunday.
       Mexican law enforcement officials say La Familia is a 
     different kind of cartel, combining a code of extreme 
     violence with a commitment to protect Michoacan residents 
     from outsiders--which would include federal agents and army 
     soldiers.
       Members of La Familia are recruited from rural militias and 
     drug treatment centers. Federal authorities swept into city 
     halls in Michoacan and arrested 10 mayors in May on suspicion 
     of colluding with the gang.
       La Familia is fighting for control of cocaine-smuggling 
     routes that lead from the port of Lazaro Cardenas toward the 
     United States. The group also operates clandestine 
     methamphetamine labs and marijuana farms in the mountains.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas is 
recognized.

                          ____________________