Pubdate: Fri, 06 Jan 2006
Source: East Valley Tribune (AZ)
Copyright: 2006 East Valley Tribune.
Contact:  http://www.eastvalleytribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2708
Author: Bill Richardson, Retired Mesa master police officer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/mexico

PUBLIC CORRUPTION - WILL MORDIDA PUT BITE ON ARIZONA?

Scale Of Bribes With Which Drug Cartels Can Tempt Officials Is Cause
For Concern

La mordida (the bite, or squeeze) - bribery reaching into the highest
levels of government.

It's what has allowed the Mexican drug cartels to grow into
multi-billion-dollar a year businesses that control much of the
hemisphere south of the US. border. It's a way of life in Mexico.

The recent arrests in Arizona of fifty U.S. officials by the FBI on
corruption charges are cause for very serious concern. An explosive
wave of organized crime and corruption is coming to America, and as
usual our elected leaders seem to be "stuck on stupid." "Build the
fence, don't build the fence." Maybe 25 years ago a fence would have
kept the illegals out. By the time the U.S. government could even get
enough American citizens to work on such a massive project most of
Mexico will have already been living here, happily and illegally.

And what about all of the political posturing by Gov. Janet
Napolitano, Attorney General Terry Goddard, Valley mayors, city
councils and law enforcement officials over controlling cold medicine
in a purported effort to control methamphetamine production? Maybe a
good move decades ago, but more than 90 percent of the meth in the
U.S. is now manufactured in Mexican "super labs" with shiploads of
chemicals from China. Mexico can surely produce all of the meth the
U.S. demands.

Arizona politicians are always a day late and dollar short, unless it
comes to their political war chests. For most politicians, who
wouldn't know an illegal from a legal, or meth from heroin, it's all
about the "M" word. They constantly yell "Meth" and "Mexicans" to get
Media attention and Money.

Will mordida become one of Arizona's favorite "M" words? The ongoing
FBI investigation into corruption is directly related to the drug
trafficking and organized crime that are also a big part of Arizona's
booming economy.

The 50 the FBI has arrested so far have been lowlevel crooks who
transported small loads of narcotics and sold drivers licenses. These
little fish were easy prey. One old-time cop said catching these mopes
is easier than fishing with hand grenades at a trout farm.

In the early '80s, the FBI's Operation Greylord used similar tactics
in a narcoticsbased investigation of official corruption in Chicago.
Greylord targeted and caught the big boys in the public corruption
food chain who had sweeping powers to compromise the integrity of much
of the system. That's a far cry from the flunkies who have been
arrested so far in the ongoing corruption investigation.

Hopefully the FBI is looking a little higher up in government, as they
did in Chicago. The Mexican drug cartels are making billions of
dollars every year and have a very successful record of corrupting
people at the highest levels of government and business throughout
Latin America.

Judging on state and federal history, some of our own politicians,
high-ranking law enforcement officials, judges, lawyers and their
political operatives have taken their fair share of mordida. It's been
15 years since the Phoenix police and Maricopa County Attorney's
Office conducted the AzScam investigation into corrupt officials who
took payoffs to help organized crime.

The AzScam investigation targeted and captured many at the highest
levels of Arizona government. It wasn't that hard to get some of the
state's most trusted leaders to take what they thought was the mob's
blood money. Some AzScam crooks went to jail; others snitched and some
walked away scot-free. It was the last investigation that targeted
Arizona's power brokers who were suspected of selling out.

Those who want to compromise our system of laws today could offer
mordida in the hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of dollars,
not the few thousand or a couple hundred that changed hands during
AzScam.

The threat of public corruption by Mexican drug cartels won't stop at
the border no matter how tall the fence is or how many border
patrolmen there are. The only stop the cartels will make is to drop
off the cash to ensure nothing interferes with their business and
growing profits. While politicians and law enforcement officials try
to give the appearance of action and leadership on emotional issues,
you have to wonder if official corruption and la mordida are slowly
becoming a way of life in Arizona.

The FBI won't be able to stop it alone. One mobbusting FBI agent said
vice has been around forever. It'll never go away.

The real evil is the money it can generate to enable the corruption of
public officials.

Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin