Pubdate: Fri, 01 Dec 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
Note: Retired Mesa master police officer
Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley

DEALING WITH GLOBAL DRUG DEALERS

Washington Isn't Focused on the Real Threat of Cartels Joining Forces

The people elected the Democrats to fix what was broken in 
Washington. The fact that new Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi even 
considered assigning Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings as the chairman of 
the House Intelligence Committee is frightening.

Hastings is the impeached federal judge who was taking payoffs from 
drug dealers at a time when the Colombians controlled Florida's drug 
trade. It took Pelosi almost a month to distance herself from 
Hastings. Pelosi's support of Rep. John Murtha for house majority 
leader is also telling. During the ABSCAM congressional corruption 
investigation, Murtha failed to make an affirmative rejection to a 
bribe by undercover FBI agents posing as Middle Eastern thugs.

It's the same old Washington with the same old politics, where almost 
anything and anyone can be bought. And there are people out there who 
have the money to buy whatever they want.

During the recent campaign, we heard continual hoopla and tough talk 
from many who -- until the 2006 campaign -- had shown little or no 
interest in our southern border, the "no man's land" that runs for 
2,000 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

We got tough talk about immigration from politicians who demonstrated 
they had no clue to the enormity of the border problems and the 
threat from Mexican organized crime.

Retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Sergeant Richard 
Valdemar, one of the most respected experts on organized crime and 
criminal gangs in America, told FullDiclosure.com, "The Mexican drug 
cartels have infiltrated several city councils and political 
campaigns in Los Angeles County." Valdemar said "with the money the 
cartels have, they can literally buy local elections and infiltrate 
governments under the guise of being local businessmen." In the past 
couple of years, Arizona FBI agents have arrested more than 50 public 
officials for corruption. Corruption is here and so are the cartels. 
Retired Drug Enforcement Administration special agent and former head 
of the El Paso Intelligence Center Phil Jordan told me: "The Mexican 
drug cartels, or the Mexican Drug Federation as we called it at EPIC, 
control the 2,000-mile-long border and several cities on both sides." 
It could get worse.

Jordan went on to say, "The nightmare that I fear is a marriage 
between the Mexican godfathers and the radical factions of Islam who 
produce heroin in Afghanistan. A marriage between Islamic terrorists 
and the Mexicans would make the current Colombian-Mexican drug cartel 
marriage look like a wedding rehearsal. American law enforcement and 
our youth have already paid a heavy price for America having allowed 
the Colombian-Mexican merger to be consummated." Jordan added, "The 
drug cartel's continuing attacks on Mexican law enforcement, public 
officials and judges can be compared to Colombia where the drug 
cartels declared war on the government in the 1980s and '90s. The 
killing fields of Mexico could soon be in American border towns and 
major metropolitan areas." The Mexican cartels are used to getting 
what they want no matter what it takes to get it.

According to a 1998 report, the United Nations Drug Control Program 
said the illegal drug market is worth $400 billion per year, 
equivalent to 8 percent of world trade. The U.S. drug trade was worth 
$100 billion per year. It's gone up since 1998.

Who controls our hemispheric drug trade, the Mexican cartels? Why 
wouldn't the Mexican cartels buy local governments and anyone else 
they can to enhance their operations in the United States? They've 
done it at all levels of government in Mexico, why not in America, 
the land of opportunity?

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported recently 
"Afghanistan accounts for 92 percent of world supply of opium that is 
fuelling insurgencies and feeding international mafias." MSNBC 
reported on Sept. 2 that, "Afghanistan's opium cultivation rose a 
staggering 60 percent this year enough to make 610 tons of heroin 
outstripping the demand of the world's heroin users by a third." 
According to Jordan, South American terrorist groups already work 
with the Colombian drug producers who've partnered with the Mexicans. 
Someone has to move the heroin into the United States, why not a 
partnership between Afghan terrorists and the Colombian-Mexican 
cartels that Jordan fears could become a reality? Cartels buying 
public officials, partnerships between worldwide drug producers, 
international mafias and terrorists, billions in profits -- it's a 
very real picture of our future unless it's stopped.

Does Washington even have a clue what exists outside of the beltway? 
It's an ugly and dangerous world out there, especially in states 
along the Mexican border.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Elaine