By Michael Webster: Investigative Reporter May 15, 2008 8:00 AM PST

As reported executively in the Laguna/El Paso Journal the Calderon administration was expected to rush more Mexican Army troops to the border cities of Juarez, Tijuana, Mexicali, Palomas and others. The first leg of that troop enforcement became an reality yesterday — Hundreds more Mexican army soldiers arrived in Juárez under the cover of darkness as part of Joint Operation Chihuahua, intended to augment the Mexican governments war against the Mexican Drug Cartels operating in Mexico. Juarez has been particularly hard hit with 300 plus murders that has rocked the city since the beginning of the year. Click on or Google:  Mexico’s National Security Cabinet expected to declare a state of emergency

It is estimated that Mexico has 36,000 troops fighting the Mexican drug cartels and their Para-military units throughout the country. With the expected injection of more soldiers being sent to the U.S. Mexican border cities those troops will number near 40,000.

Calderon is seeking U.S. military aid under the provisions of the Merida Initiative, a multiyear $1.4 billion anti-narcotics package proposed by President Bush. Click on or Google: Merida Initiative Will It Work?

In recent months, and after Mexican president Caldron dispatched the Mexican army and federal police to many interior cities and to Mexican cities on the Mexican U.S. border the level of violence has risen substantially, with some of it spilling into the United States. According to Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

“It’s almost like a military fight,” Ahern said. “I don’t think that generally the American public has any sense of the level of violence that occurs on the border.”

As the cartels fight for territory, this carnage spills over to the U.S., Ahern said — from bullet-ridden people stumbling into U.S. territory, to rounds of ammunition coming across U.S. entry ports.

At least Three Mexican border city police chiefs barely escaping with their lives have requested political asylum in the U.S. as violence escalates on the U.S. Mexican border where the Mexican drug wars are spilling across the U.S. border, a top Homeland Security official told The Associated Press.

In the past few months, the police officials have shown up at the U.S. border, fearing for their lives, according to Ahern.

They’re basically abandoned by their police officers or police departments in many cases,” Ahern told AP.

Ahern said the Mexican officials — whom he didn’t name — are being interviewed and their cases are under review for possible asylum.

U.S. humvees retrofitted with steel mesh over the glass windows patrol parts of the border to protect U.S. Border Patrol agents against guns shots and large rocks regularly thrown at them. At times agents are pinned down by sniper fire as drug and human smugglers try to illegally cross into the U.S.

In the last few weeks, the Mexican government began military operations on its side of the border against Mexican drug cartels and their gangs who are engaged in smuggling drugs into the United States.

LAGUNA JOURNAL ARCHIV

BY MICHAEL WEBSTER SYNDICATED INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Nov 24, 2008 at 12:01 AM PST

Corruption on both sides of the U.S. Mexican border runs deep and can be found in the highest levels of both the Mexican government as well as the U.S.

A high ranking member of the Caldron administration who want to remain unknown says, “there is corruption in regards to Narco trafficking in both governments and when there is unlimited cash available that cash finds its way to the powers to be and has no borders when it comes to influence.”

With an estimated yearly income worldwide of over $300 billion in illegal drug sells, no wonder with that amount of cash it allows for an enormous amount of that cash to be distributed and liberally passed around to make things happen.

With cash like that available it should be no surprise that tons of illicit drugs find its way into the U.S. where the very agencies that are charged with stopping that drug flow are often the very ones who the Mexican drug cartels pay off with cash, and lots of it.

On March 23, 1983, Vice President George W. Bush took charge of the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System (NNBIS). Bush was put in charge of the entire drug interdiction effort of the United States under the than President Ronald Reagan administration. This is the same Bush who was also the Director of the CIA and the Ambassador to China. All considered very powerful appointments. And he ultimately became the President of the United States.

The United Nations Drug Control Program noted the inevitable risk of drug-related corruption “wherever there is a well-organized, illicit drug industry, there is also the danger of corruption.” According to the international monitoring group Transparency International, “Mexico’s police and armed services are known to be contaminated by multimillion dollar bribes from the transnational Norco-trafficking business. It is widely considered to have attained the status of a national security threat.”

One retired border patrol officer with more than 3 decades of experience patrolling the U.S. Mexican border who shall remain anonymous because he fears retaliation says” why do you think the border is so porous with all the manpower of the border patrol, national guard, and with all the latest and most sophisticated technology which include satellite, ariel spy craft the robotic killing machines are currently in operation with the BP, cameras, and other detection equipment, millions of dollars of drugs still find there way into the United States annually undetected. In addition to all the drugs millions of illegal aliens have crossed into the United States. Ask yourself how is that possible? In my opinion we as a government could stop the flow of drugs and illegal’s if we could just stop the huge amount of money being paid to the powers to be who actually hold the good guys back from enforcing the law and help keep that flow of drugs and illegal’s coming.”

There seems to be no U.S. Government agency immune from corruption the FBI, DEA, CIA, IRS, DOD, National Guard, Federal Air Marshals, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs, U.S Marshalls, ICE, Dept of Commerce, U.S. Justice, U.S. State, and even our state and federal Judiciary and others, many of which are answerable to the top U.S. agency “Homeland Security” This powerful organization was created during the current Bush administration and its power reaches around the world. They all ultimately answer to President Bush and therefore give Bush control over all of them.

The Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations, Committee on Foreign Relations, chaired by Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, heard abundant testimony by drug dealers and pilots about CIA connections to cocaine smuggling. The report concluded that the United States allowed foreign policy objectives to interfere with the War on Drugs.

House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice reported that Bekaa Valley heroin traffickers have close ties to the Syrian government and Army, and that President Bush ignored this problem in his policy towards Syria.

Drug-related corruption has plagued federal, state and local law enforcement in many ways. While the United States draws attention to corruption outside our borders, we do not focus enough attention on corruption at home.

Just recently Mexico arrested its head of Interpol for allegedly working for a powerful drug cartel. Ricardo Gutierrez was Mexico’s representative to Interpol, the world’s largest international police force, and the latest top police officer to be locked up on suspicion of working for drug traffickers.
In October, two leading anti-drug agents were jailed for taking bribes of “up to $450,000 a month” from the Beltran Leyva crime group to leak intelligence about police operations.

The Beltran Leyva brothers recently split from the Sinaloa drug cartel run by Mexico’s most wanted man, Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, and also were bribing Gutierrez, prosecutors said.

Widespread corruption among Mexico’s badly paid police is undermining President Felipe Calderon’s army-backed war on drug gangs, which has claimed more than 4,300 lives this year.

Police corruption forced Calderon to turn to the army, which is seen as less corrupt, when he launched an all-out crackdown on violent cartels after taking office in 2006.

Across the United States, our local communities have felt the burden of law enforcement officials involved in drug corruption scandals. In addition to the corrupt federal agencies, hundreds of local city policemen are also corrupted and take bribes. Many of these officers are assigned to drug details and are operating as special drug enforcement officers dealing with the massive drug problem on a daily bases who’s charge is to stem the flow of illegal drugs in there respective communities.

County Sheriff’s and their deputies have run a foul of the law by cooperating with drug traffickers and taking cash from Mexican drug cartels and their gang enforcers.

Both Bush administrations have had cozy relationships with Mexico, Columbia and  Afghanistan all countries that produce and traffic in billions of dollars in drugs worldwide.

Recently the senior ranking and one of the most powerful senators in the U.S. Senate was arrested and convicted for bribes involving refurbishing his cabin in Alaska. Now think about, if a U.S. Politian can be bribed for that puny amount imagine what billions of dollars of dirty cash can buy.

Serious questions today still remain about the Bush family:   

Here is a laundry list of current President Bush corruption allegations. Just stop and realize if this president is involved with the following corruption than it is not much of a stretch to believe his and his families involvement with the billions awarded those involved in global drug trafficking? From Grandfather Bush, to President George W. Bush and all the Bush boys questions of their involvement in shady deals from major league baseball ownership, garbage collecting contracts, savings and loan debacle, too this setting president Bush reflex in the following information gathered by long-time business, finance and political writer and analyst Bob Chapman who publishes the bi-weekly International Forecaster reported that Sue Ann Arrigo as his source was a high-level CIA insider. Her title was Special Operations Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). She also established the Remote Viewing Defense protocols for the Pentagon in her capacity as Remote Viewing Advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). It earned her a two-star general rank in the military. She called it a “ploy” so the Pentagon could get more of her time and have her attend monthly Joint Chiefs of Staff meetings. Only high-level types are invited, and she was there from October 2003 to July 2004.

Part of her job involved intelligence gathering on Iraq and Afghanistan – until August 2004 when she refused to spread propaganda about a non-existent Iranian nuclear weapons program and left. She followed in the footsteps of others at CIA who resigned for reasons of conscience and became critics – most notably Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife and CIA operative Valerie Plame, along with Ray McGovern, Ralph McGehee, and Phil Agee.

On May 16, 2008, Arrigo sent extensive government corruption and cover-up information to Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee. The information provided Waxman is explosive and revealing but just the tip of the iceberg. Here are just a few of her allegations against the current Bush administration of government corruption and war profiteering;

– Trillions of missing dollars;

– Sweetheart deals and kickbacks;

– High-level types on the take;

– on September 10, 2001, Rumsfeld admitting “According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions;”

– imagine the current amount;

– it’s corrosive effect on the nation; and people should

– demand accountability – who profits, who pays and what are the consequences of militarism gone mad.

Sue Ann Arrigo offers a glimpse and at great personal risk. In August 2001, DCI George Tenet told her to assemble “a moving van full of Pentagon documents showing Defense Contractor kickbacks to Pentagon officials.” She did as instructed but not to expose corruption as she learned – to conceal it and in her judgment so CIA could divert defense business to Halliburton ( V.P. Chaney’s former employer) and “Carlyle-related contractors.” She stated: “The mood at the CIA and Pentagon was ‘war is coming’ because the Bush Family stands to make billions from it — so get ready.”

The Bush family history includes relationships with some of the most powerful, richest                 and most dangerous people in the world, from Hitler, to the Middle Eastern Kingdoms of Saudi Arabia and others to the Mexican and Afghanistan Governments.

Sources:

Google or click on any of the following:

              Daily Kos: Two-Star General Details Bush Family-CIA Corruption …

 http://www.powderburns.org/indictment.html

By Michael Webster: Syndicated Investigative Reporter. July 26, 2009 at 3:00 PM PDT

Authorities in Mexico claim they have arrested four men in relation to the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Robert Rosas. Many U. S.  news outlets reported over the week end that U.S. authorities also arrested three people in connection with the Thursday killing of a Border Patrol agent in San Diego County were arrested at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose Friday the two men and a woman where discovered as authorities searched hospitals for a person or persons possibly wounded in the murder of agent Rosas.

The detainees in Mexico according to Mexican law enforcement are allegedly part of a drug and immigrant smuggling organization. More than 20 Mexican nationals were together with the suspects when police detained them. Mexican police report they seized weapons among this group near Tecate, Mexico, said Elias Alvarez Hernandez, coordinator of federal police in Baja California.

Whether it was illegal immigrants or drug smugglers is not immediately clear. What is certain is Border Agent Robert Wimer Rosas, was killed in the line of duty by unidentified individuals at 9:15 PM on July 23rd while on duty patrolling the U.S. Mexican border.

At the news conference held Saturday Mexico police did not say what evidence if any they had against the four, identified as Jose Quintero Ruiz, 43, and his brother Jose Eugenio Quintero Ruiz, 49, and taxi drivers Jose Alfredo Camacho, 34 and Antonio Valladares, 57.

Agent Robert Rosas was killed Thursday while responding alone to a suspected border incursion near Campo, a town in rugged, arid terrain in southeastern San Diego County. He was shot in the head and body and was dead when other agents arrived, said Keith Slotter, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego bureau.

Federal police reported one of the four suspects told police that a man detained Friday with a handgun had shot Rosas. Tecate police said Friday they had arrested 36-year-old Ernesto Parra Valenzuela near the crime scene with a Border Patrol-issued weapon after the shooting.

FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth told The Associated Press in an e-mail late Saturday that he could not confirm or comment on any arrest reports.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that agent Rosas was shot in the head.

U.S. investigators said blood evidence at the scene indicated at least one culprit and possibly others had serious injuries, possible wounded by Rosas.

Warning alerts by American officials have expressed concerns that the drug cartel battles plaguing Mexico could spill into the United States with the targeting of U.S. law enforcement.

Investigators aren’t ruling out the possibility that Rosas was slain by drug smugglers, human smugglers or even terrorist.

Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, said Mexican law enforcement agencies are cooperating in the case.

“This is a tragic example of the violence we keep facing at our common border as President (Felipe) Calderon continues to roll back transnational organized crime, and underscores the need for both our countries to keep working as full partners to guarantee the safety and security of those living on both sides of our border communities,” Sarukhan said in a written statement Saturday.

Rosas was the first Border Patrol agent to die in a shooting in more than a decade, according to The Officer Down Memorial Page Inc., which tracks fallen officers using information provided by law enforcement agencies. Another agent, Luis Aguilar, was intentionally run over by a fleeing man driving a drug-laden Hummer in January 2008.

Rosas, a three-year Border Patrol veteran, had a 2-year-old son and an 11-month-old daughter, said Richard Barlow, acting chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector.

Authorities could not confirm reports that he called for backup and then went ahead before anyone arrived, but said it isn’t unusual for agents to work alone along the border.

Since 1919, 108 Border Patrol agents have died on duty, according to The Officer Down Memorial Page. Gunfire was the leading cause with 30 deaths, followed by automobile accidents and aircraft accidents.

The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the killer or killers.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, told the AP “I am deeply saddened by the tragic death of one of our own,” Napolitano said in the statement.

Rep. Darrell Issa issued a statement Friday about Rosa’s slaying.

“What happened last night was a tragedy and a painful acknowledgment that at any time, our Border Patrol agents may be put into an extraordinary circumstance,” Issa said. “The thoughts and prayers of our entire region are with the family and friends of this fallen agent.”

Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) warned that Rosas’ killing was a wake-up call and another example of how the violence related to illegal aliens and drugs crossed over the border along with the smugglers

The Minutemen group reported that the shooting incident occurred on U.S. territory about 100 feet north of the border after several agents responded to a call from a minuteman scout/ observer that four persons had trespassed over the border in front of his outpost at about 8:45 pm last night. The outpost is located at the border in Campo, Ca., about 60 miles east of San Diego.

The minuteman scout, a member of the Campo Minutemen organization, told Minuteman Project president Jim Gilchrist that within minutes of his call about a half dozen agents responded and approached the intruders on foot. A foot chase ensued whereupon one of the intruders opened fire on Agent Rosas. He died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the head. The shooter and his accomplices are believed to have fled back into Mexico.

Sources:

Arturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the United States

Associated Press / NBC TV Bay Area

The Officer Down Memorial Page

San Diego County Sheriff’s Department

ICE

FBI

Tecate Police Dept.

Elias Alvarez Hernandez, coordinator of federal police in Baja California.

Mexican Federal Police

For Related Articles go to: www.lagunajournal.com

Yet within days of that press report retiring Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff told Congress that the “Readiness of the army Is Dangerously Low.” In a stark assessment a week before Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, was to testify on the war’s progress, the Army’s vice chief of staff, said that the heavy deployments are inflicting “incredible stress” on soldiers and families and that they pose “a significant risk” to the nation’s all-volunteer military.

Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders also said that the increase of more than 30,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has put unsustainable levels of stress on U.S. ground forces and has put their readiness to fight other conflicts at the lowest level in years.

USAF General Victor E. Renuart Jr. commander of United States Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Commander told the press that the Ft. Bliss 1st Armored Division soldiers, as well as a new missile defense unit, and F-22 Raptors that are stationed at Holloman Air Force Base will be available to defend homeland security. Recently they are being staged and immediately available as emergency “on call” units for use against terrorist threats on the nation’s border. He further indicated that the threats uncovered along the border with Mexico he would not discuss any details. But he did say many agencies, including JTF-North, have made “it a very difficult border for someone to take advantage of.”

The commander has said while they cannot be specific, transnational threats are those activities conducted by individuals or groups that involve international terrorism, narcotrafficking, alien smuggling, weapons of mass destruction, and includes the delivery systems for such weapons that threaten the national security of the United States. We will not at this time identify specific threats due to operational security reasons. In identifying the threats, we could in fact be revealing tactics we employ that we do not want our adversaries to know. In time, some of the interdicted threats may in fact be declassified and acknowledged in the open press by the primary or lead federal law enforcement agencies, or by USNORTHCOM/JTF-North.

NORTHCOM was established following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to provide for the defense of the United States and to provide military support to civil authorities when requested by the president or secretary of defense. NORTHCOM also is responsible for overseeing military responses to natural and man-made disasters, such as hurricanes and incidents involving weapons of mass destruction within the United States borders.

“We’re engaged in a long struggle against violent extremists that seek to exploit any seams in our armor,” Renuart said. “Our job … is to mend those seams, to strengthen the shield.”

NORAD and NORTHCOM “have quietly and professionally conducted a mission that, by its nature, cannot fail,” Renuart said. “It also has to be something that is invisible and transparent to our nation.”

NORAD is a binational command that includes both American and Canadian forces and is charged with aerospace and maritime warning for North America. NORTHCOM is responsible for homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities.

As previously reported in the Journal the federal government acknowledged that the United States-Mexican border region has been experiencing an alarming rise in the level of criminal cartel activity, including drug, weapon and human smuggling, which has placed significant additional burdens on Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies.

Just last week thousands of Mexican soldiers were sent to our border with Mexico to El Paso’s sister city CD. Juarez, after many pleas from the cities Mayor. The Mexican troops arrived by troop transport C-130 Hercules aircraft, military transport vehicles, gunship helicopters, troop personal carries, pickups and Humvees with mounted .50-caliber machine guns. These convoys are operating throughout the city. With an estimated up to 30.000 Mexican troops deployed throughout Mexico allegedly fighting the drug and terrorist war puts Mexican soldiers on our borders with Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

2500 murdered in Mexico since the first of the year with over 200 slained in Juárez so far this year, many of whom were killed execution-style and is attributed to fighting Mexican drug cartels. These gang land styled killings, has reached as many as 10 a day. The escalating violence has caused uneasiness on the U.S. side of the border, and some officials fear that the violence will spill into El Paso and other American border cities. The U.S. placed Mexico under a travel alert As Thousands of Armed Mexican Troops Patrol the Streets of Juarez

The U.S. border with Mexico extends nearly 2,000 miles along the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In most areas, the border is located in remote and sparsely populated areas of vast desert and rugged mountain terrain with vast open water of the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific oceans.

The U.S. government admits that the border’s vast length and varied terrain poses significant challenges to U.S. law enforcement efforts to control the entry of individuals and goods into the United States.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the federal agency with primary responsibility to detect and prevent illegal entry into the United States. The latest available data indicates that approximately 11,000 CBP agents patrol the nearly 6,000 miles of international border the United States shares with its neighbors Mexico and Canada many border patrol agents have told this reporter that they need more help patrolling and securing our borders.

In addition to Federal agents, State, sheriff, and some bordering city police are expected to help patrol the border areas. In remote areas along the border, many sheriffs’ departments are called upon to address border-related criminal matters and serve as a backstop to CBP operations. In many cases, these local law enforcement agencies do not have the resources necessary to patrol the thousands of square miles of border territory under their respective jurisdiction, leaving the security of the U.S. border vulnerable.

Dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped, held hostage and killed by their captors in Mexico and many cases remain unsolved. Moreover, new cases of disappearances and kidnap-for-ransom continue to be reported. See: Americans Being Kidnapped, Held and killed in Mexico

The question remains does the United States have the manpower to protect our borders? It appears we may not. Today with our troops spread so thin around the world is the U.S. border vulnerable with too few troops available to protect us?

By Michael Webster: Syndicated Investigative Reporter. Oct 6, 2009 1:30 PM PDT

According to a DEA operative in the L.A. area who insists on remaining anonymous told the U.S. Border Fire Report that businesses along the dangerous U.S. Mexican border from Texas to California have been the victims of extortion attempts and threats. He further indicated that he believes that a good number of minority owned businesses in the Los Angeles area are also victims of extortion and that Mexican Drug Cartels and L.A. gangs and others are responsible. “He said that many of the victims especially those without papers are fearful of reporting the crime to authorities as they fear retaliation”.

Recently in the Los Angeles area grand jury indictments have come down charging hundreds of gang members of notorious L. A. street gangs with wide ranging criminal charges including extortion and 88 of those have been named in a wide-ranging federal RICO racketeering indictment.

According to a 222-page indictment returned by a federal grand jury recently, members and associates of the Avenues street gang are part of a criminal enterprise that engaged in a host of criminal acts, including murders, attempted murders, narcotics trafficking, robberies, extortions, money laundering and witness intimidation. 

“No matter how many times gangs like the Mexican Mafia and the Avenues seek to reassert control through intimidation, we will do what it takes to combat that intimidation, and ensure that residents need not live their lives in fear,” said Acting United States Attorney George S. Cardona.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton stated: the “operation demonstrated not only a continuing commitment to this area, but an ability to foster and maintain long-term relationships with diverse communities and law enforcement agencies. The satisfaction comes when these neighborhoods spring back to life.”

In addition to the murders and extortion the indictment alleges that the gang “is continually engaged in” the distribution of narcotics, such as crack cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. Avenues leaders control drug distribution by providing “street-level” amounts of crack cocaine – to numerous gang members and associates who law enforcement believe then sell it to other street dealers and drug attic’s then collect extortion payments from them– commonly called “taxes” or “rent” – from all the sellers of the drugs. If they burn or refuse to pay they will be murdered by the gangs many times by order of the MDCs who the gang leadership obtain their drugs from.

Los Zetas the deadly paramilitary terrorist hit men and enforcers for the Mexican Drug Cartels (MDCs) is now operating and extorting American businesses on the U.S. Side of the border. Federal law enforcement investigators believe that goons of the MDCs has apparently begun to threaten businesses in the United States.

Federal government officials on both sides of the border are reported to be investigating the mafia style extortion plots. Two American city police departments L.A. and El Paso are investigating. Other cities police departments with similar problems believed looking into the matter is Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, and other smaller towns bordering Mexico.

According to information from an El Paso newspaper word of the threats has put the El Paso police on alert.  At least two businesses in El Paso have reportedly received threats by a man identifying himself as a commander of Los Zetas.  One businessman said that the man “demanded in an intimidating voice” a payment of $50,000 to be paid immediately or “the next time we meet will be at the funeral of a loved one.”  While such tactics are routine in neighboring Cd. Juarez, but never before have American businesses been extorted from thugs from a foreign country and is a new problem for American businesses to have to deal with and apparently extortion has crossed into the US.

U.S. businesses are receiving threats by extortionists claiming to be members of MDCs, a sign that criminal tactics common in Mexico are showing up north of the border.

This week alone, at least two El Paso businesses reported to police calls they had received from a man identifying himself as a Zetas commander working for the Gulf cartel.

One man, in a “bullying voice,” called an El Paso businessman and demanded “$50,000 immediately, or the next time we’ll see you, it will be at the funeral of a loved one,” the businessman said.

The businessman spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concerns for his safety and that of his family. The family said it reported the incident to police.

Police said the caller may have been someone posing as a cartel member, hoping to use the fearsome reputation of the drug-trafficking groups operating across the border in Ciudad Juárez to extract money from businesses in El Paso.

El Paso police spokesman Javier Sambrano said he believes the incident is a “scam”, but an investigator had been assigned to the case, and he acknowledged that other businesses had been threatened in the past few days, but he refused to say how many.

Last year the El Paso Police Dept. did not think that the killings in Juarez would spill over into El Paso. They have been proved wrong as assassinations by MDCs of American citizens have taken place in El Paso and other cities around the country. Its believed many other Americans have been kidnapped and forced to Mexico where they were tortured and killed by MDCs murderous gang members and hired hit men. U.S. law enforcement believe American gang members also participate in many of those kidnappings and murders and follow the orders of the MDCs.

According to Mexican sources and the El Paso Times such extortion calls have become common in Mexico, where drug cartels have morphed into full-scale mafias, running extortion and protection rings as they try to expand their criminal operations.

The Times reports as Mexicans flee the growing insecurity and move to U.S. border cities, American business owners have said they fear that the cartels, with members living on both sides of the border, will also prey on them and demand “protection” fees.

Such demands have wrecked hundreds of businesses across Mexico, particularly in cities such as Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, as well as other cities along the border, where the cartels are most active.

Juárez is considered the most dangerous city in the Americas. So far this year, more than 1,800 people have been killed in criminal violence, including more than 300 in September alone.

The Times went on to say the destruction in Juárez is measured in more ways than body counts.

In downtown Juárez, burned-out businesses have become a common sight, many of them victims of organized crime carrying through on threats to destroy shops of owners who refused to pay protection fees, authorities say.

Last month, an owner of a funeral home was killed, and a day later, his business was burned. Mexican authorities said they believe the owner refused to pay protection fees.

Mexican newspapers report that a survey of members of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico showed that 75 percent of respondents felt that growing insecurity in the country had had an impact on their businesses. Fifty-seven percent said their companies planned to increase their security budget within the next two years, said Marina Tavares, spokeswoman for the chamber in Mexico City.

The Times article continued that a family-owned business in east El Paso, such stories of insecurity and extortion were once nothing but tales read in newspapers. But then came the threatening call last week.

“There are only so many companies they can extort on the Mexican side,” said one of the business owners. “Sooner, or later, they will start operating here. After all, we’re so close, right along the border.”

The family said it called police, but the officer who responded to the call told them there was little the police can do other than monitor the situation and have detectives periodically check on them.

For now, the family is adjusting their routines. One of the business owners said he won’t work late anymore.

In the end, the mother of the business owner said, the calls may be part of a hoax, or they may be made by opportunists trying to take advantage of a people on both sides of the border who are already on edge.

Either way, the mother said: “We’re taking this very seriously. We’re not getting much rest. And whenever I think about it, I shake like a leaf.”

According to the National Gang Threat Assessment of 2009 report there are over 20,000 violent murderous street gangs, motorcycle gangs, prison gangs and international gangs which total well over a million foot solders and members. These gangs are criminally active in the U.S. and elsewhere today including Afghanistan. Many are well armed and U.S. militarily trained and are organized as well as our most sophisticated corporations; all use violence to control members, citizens as well as entire neighborhoods, drug corridors and turf, to boost their illegal money-making activities totaling more than $400 billion dollars, which include Mexican Drug Cartel (MDC’s) retaliation hit squads, murder for hire, drug trafficking, smuggling drugs, guns and humans, robbery, theft, fraud, extortion, prostitution,  retaliation kidnappings, kidnappings for ransom and military grade weapons trafficking.

Sources:

National gang threat assessment 2009

DEA Operative

El Paso Times

Laguna Journal

El Paso Police

Ciudad Juárez Police

Varies Mexican Newspapers

Mexican Army Officers

Michael Webster’s Syndicated Investigative Reports are read worldwide, in 100 or more U.S. outlets and in at least 136 countries and territories. He publishes articles in association with global news agencies and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 136 countries. Many of Mr. Webster’s articles are printed in six working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. With ten more languages planed in the near future.

Mr. Webster is America’s leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding. He served as a trustee on some of the nation’s largest trade Union funds. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs and War on Terrorist Specialist, Business Consultant, Newspaper Publisher. Radio News caster. Labor Law generalist, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank and File Member Grievances Representative, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative. Mr. Webster represented management on that side of the table as the former Director of Federated of Nevada. Mr. Webster publishes on-line newspapers at www.lagunajournal.com  and www.usborderfirereport.com  and does investigative reports for print, electronic and on-line News Agencies. All of Mr. Webster’s articles, books/CD’s can be read or downloaded free at: MICHAEL WEBSTER’S OTHER WRITINGS