How bad can it get in Mexico? Let's hope this is finally bottom. Just hours after the memorial service of a national hero, drug-cartel assassins gunned down his mother, brother, a sister and an aunt. Another sister was in serious condition. It was obvious payback for the government having killed Mexican drug-cartel leader Arturo Beltran Leyva. He was called a "boss of bosses." And it came with a clear message from drug lords: Intimidate those in the armed forces so they fear not only for their own lives, but for the lives of their families. [continues 255 words]
When it's said," follow the money," that shouldn't mean just until it passes by on a southbound lane into Mexico. Especially many billions of dollars from the illegal drug trade. Our efforts to stop illegal drug shipments into the U.S., and illegal arms into Mexico, are being negated because we stop so little of the money that fuels it all. The Associated Press reports that $99.75 of every $100 the drug cartels ship south is getting through. That means confiscated drug booty is negligible. [continues 189 words]
Stopping the manufacture of illegal chemical drugs is like "squeezing mud," says one author on the subject. This comes amid reports that seizures of drugs show the Mexican cartels are back to making methamphetamine in the style of bathtub chemists some 40 years ago. Take one drug-making ingredient off the shelf and there's a recipe for another way to produce the same thing. In other words, you can burn a marijuana field, but you can't take everything off the store shelves. [continues 182 words]
AUSTIN -- El Paso's clout as a Democratic stronghold drew two major gubernatorial candidates to the city Sunday, each promising that they could tackle border issues. Hair care mogul Farouk Shami, 66, and Houston Mayor Bill White, 55, are both hoping to earn the Democratic Party's nomination in the March 2 primary. Shami, a political newcomer, did not stray from the platform he has pushed during most of his campaign stops. The Palestinian-American said Texas needs to create more jobs and should look to a businessman, not a politician, to accomplish that task. [continues 798 words]
Mexico says it accepts a high court's condemnation for its handling of brutal murders of young women; its government accepts being shamed. It sounds like a proper rebuke. But now what? It's not like this condemnation by the Interamerican Court of Human Rights can do much other than embarrass Mexico for its lack of diligence. And since Mexico's lack of diligence goes back some two decades, what's to make the government start being diligent in solving Juarez murders now? [continues 271 words]
Starting next year, the Harris County District Attorney's Office no longer will file state jail felony charges against suspects found with only a trace -- less than a hundreth of a gram -- of illegal drugs, District Attorney Pat Lykos said Tuesday. Instead, people found with crack pipes with nothing more than residue inside or other drug paraphernalia, would face a ticket for a class C misdemeanor, which carries a maximum fine of $500. Not surprisingly, the pending change was hailed by defense lawyers, but criticized by police officers. [continues 513 words]
Revelations about a rising number of corruption cases in federal law-enforcement agencies don't exactly raise confidence about the border violence and smuggling. U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, said, "As the federal government has increased the number of Border Patrol agents on the ground, drug cartels are having greater difficulty smuggling drugs across the border and have had to resort to other tactics, such as bribery and infiltration." It's bothersome, but not really surprising. Cartels have a lot of money to throw around and that can be awfully tempting to a lot of people who won't see that kind of money in a lifetime. [continues 168 words]
EL PASO - Mexican drug cartels are helping elect and influence politicians in U.S. communities to advance their criminal activities, an expert on international gangs alleged. Richard Valdemar, a retired California law enforcement officer, said authorities in California gathered intelligence showing that the cartels are corrupting American politicians to gain a foothold in the Southwestern United States. Previous investigations showed that the Carrillo Fuentes, Arellano Felix and Sinaloan drug cartels targeted Southern California cities including South Gate, Hawaiian Gardens and Bell Gardens. [continues 986 words]
Business, Culture, War People on both sides of the United States-Mexico border used to routinely discuss drug trafficking with UTEP professor Howard Campbell as if it were just a fact of life -- no big deal. Then, drug-related killings in Juarez started spiraling out of control two years ago, and the illegal drug trade became something more sinister. The situation in Juarez has become a war, in Campbell's words, a mercenary business where people are sacrificed for money or even because of suspicions that they know something they shouldn't know. [continues 556 words]
DENVER -- Inside the green neon sign, which is shaped like a marijuana leaf, is a red cross. The cross serves the fiction that most transactions in the store -- which is what it really is -- involve medicine. The U.S. Justice Department recently announced that federal laws against marijuana would not be enforced for possession of marijuana that conforms to states' laws. In 2000, Colorado legalized medical marijuana. Since Justice's decision, the average age of the 400 people a day seeking "prescriptions" at Colorado's multiplying medical marijuana dispensaries has fallen precipitously. Many new customers are college students. [continues 596 words]
DENVER -- Inside the green neon sign, which is shaped like a marijuana leaf, is a red cross. The cross serves the fiction that most transactions in the store -- which is what it really is -- involve medicine. The U.S. Justice Department recently announced that federal laws against marijuana would not be enforced for possession of marijuana that conforms to states' laws. In 2000, Colorado legalized medical marijuana. Since Justice's decision, the average age of the 400 persons a day seeking "prescriptions" at Colorado's multiplying medical marijuana dispensaries has fallen precipitously. Many new customers are college students. [continues 508 words]
A program that was supposed to make truckers' border crossings speedier and more secure is apparently having the opposite affect. Under the U.S. program, companies agree to embrace certain security measures, such as putting their workers through background checks, track where their trucks are going and have secure, fenced-in facilities. The theory is that with tight security in place where the trucks are loaded, there's less chance of smugglers getting in on the action. This enables the trucks to stop for as little as 20 seconds when entering the United States. That's a good thing because it speeds up commerce. [continues 256 words]
Let's think about what's legal in the U.S. Tobacco and alcohol are both legal despite causing dependency and serious health risks. Guns are legal. The death penalty is legal. Abortion is legal. Pre-emptive war is legal. Pesticides and other carcinogens in our food, water and air are legal. What is illegal? Drugs and prostitution? These are crimes of self-indulgence. As a lover of the eroded values of liberty and privacy, I believe that whatever substances an adult knowingly puts into his or her own body (be it glacier milk or rat poison) is his or her own business. [continues 114 words]
As a newsroom, we've been spending a bit more time in Ciudad Juarez, trying to widen our perspective on the ongoing drug war that is paralyzing El Paso's twin city. Two of our journalists worked a 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift in Juarez one day last week, and they came back struck by the emptiness of the city once darkness hit. They saw little evidence of any nightlife after 9 p.m.; bewildering, because they've known Juarez to have a vibrant after-hours scene. [continues 394 words]
EL PASO -- The Customs and Border Protection employee arrested on bribery and marijuana smuggling charges was an administrator at the Ysleta Port of Entry, a prosecutor said Monday. Martha Alicia Garnica, 43, a former CBP inspector and El Paso police officer, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Mesa for a detention hearing. Mesa said he would withhold a decision on bond for Garnica until Dec. 1. Mark Randazzo, a special agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testified that between April and November, Garnica met and spoke on the phone with a drug trafficker several times. He said Garnica and the drug trafficker instructed and paid a CBP officer to allow drugs and undocumented immigrants into the country. Randazzo did not say the drug trafficker's name. [continues 417 words]
Ciudad Juarez is at war. From the lips of Richard Nixon in 1971, the U.S. War on Drugs has transcended metaphor and emerged on our doorstep as a too-real war. Like Afghanistan and Iraq, it is a war with guns, soldiers, tanks and unrelenting death. With the world watching, 15,000 people have died in Mexico over the past three years in a multi-faceted war between drug cartels and the Mexican army. In Ciudad Juarez alone, drug violence has killed nearly 3,800 people in two years. [continues 540 words]
Ranking a Contrast to Violence Across Border EL PASO -- A new ranking shows El Paso moved up to the second-safest large city in the nation even while a vicious drug cartel war has turned Juarez into one of the deadliest cities in the world. El Paso trailed only Honolulu for the lowest crime rate for cities with more than 500,000 population in an annual publication released Monday by CQ Press. The ranking is based on crime data for 2008. Civic leaders lauded the rating, saying it counters a negative perception that El Paso is a violent place because of the killings across the border. [continues 511 words]
AUSTIN, Texas -- Implementing "smart justice" can help ease the criminal case load on prosecutors and keep society safe, Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins told a federal sentencing commission Thursday. That means using programs for youthful first-time offenders who can work toward getting their charges dismissed or fast-tracking of repeat low-level offenders into state jails, said Watkins, who is known for working to free wrongly convicted inmates. Watkins said in his nearly three years in office, he has worked to implement such "smart justice." "At the end of the day the goal is public safety," he said, adding that it's smart use of taxpayer money to attempt to ensure that imprisoned inmates don't repeat their crimes when they get out of jail. "The goal is rehabilitation, as opposed to just punishment." [continues 407 words]
Inside Texas
