[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 21]
[House]
[Page 28195]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          THE DRUG CARTEL ARMY

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, The Washington Times recently reported 
that Mexico's two most deadly drug cartels have more than 100,000 foot 
soldiers in their criminal cartel armies. That massive firepower does 
battle with each other and battle with our Border Patrol and our border 
sheriffs. They fight for control over the drug and human smuggling 
routes into America.
  The killing is rampant in Mexico, with over 7,000 murders this year. 
Law and order are absent in parts of that nation.
  The two biggest and most violent criminal cartels control territory 
along the border at Laredo, Texas. Now, they are considering combining 
their criminal enterprises. These two groups, the Zetas and the 
Federation, if they unite, their 100,000-man army will be almost as big 
as the entire Mexican Army.
  The threat keeps building at our southern border. Mexico is our 
border neighbor, and we had better be as concerned about the stability 
of that government and the security of our mutual border as we are 
about the stability and the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________