The headline reads like this:
Mexican drug cartels reportedly dispatching agents deep inside USAssociated Press and carried by
Fox News
CHICAGO – Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the U.S. border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States -- an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world's most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.
...A wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. Cartel operatives are suspected of running drug-distribution networks in at least nine non-border states, often in middle-class suburbs in the Midwest, South and Northeast.
"It's probably the most serious threat the United States has faced from organized crime," said Jack Riley, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Chicago office.
It's not news to anybody who follows the drug trade, but it was apparently new enough for the Associated Press to run a story on it.
What they fail to mention is that the cartels are also running AK-47's:
AK-74's and RPK-74's:
RPG-7's (both the launcher and rockets):
Into the United States to buyers who are concerned about government tyranny and feel as though they need to have something to shoot back when DHS shows up. I personally discount many of the conspiracy theories, but what I do or don't do doesn't matter.
Los Caballeros Templarios (was La Familia Michoacan) and The Sinaloa Federation (Chapo/Mayo Faction) have also recently acquired Chinese FN-6 man portable air defense systems (MANPADS), also referred to as shoulder-launched surface to air missiles (SAM's). Those same MANPADS have recently also shown up in Syria in the hands of rebels, indicating wider proliferation than the Chinese are comfortable taking public credit for.
(Wikipedia) FN-6 (FN = FeiNu, 飞弩, meaning Flying Crossbow), is a third generation passive infrared (IR) man portable air defence system (MANPADS). It was developed by China, and is their most advanced surface-to-air missile offered in the international market[citation needed]. Specially designed to engage low flying targets, it has a range of 6 km and a maximum altitude of 3.5 km. The FN-6 is in service with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), and has also been exported to Malaysia, Cambodia, Sudan and Peru. Based on FN-6, China has developed a number of other MANPADS, such as HN and FY series, as well as other vehicle-based short-range air defense systems such as FN and FB series.
But before you express the slightest bit of alarm, the Obama Administration has shown a surprising degree of apathy in helping the Mexicans take these dangerous weapons (that can down nearly any aircraft) off the street. Yes, it's a low priority. Or at least it is at the moment. Even though the Sinaloa Federation is unlikely to move them across the US-Mexico Border into the United States, Los Caballeros Templario (LCT) has no no such scruples. Blackmail, and retribution is a likely use for at least half of the one dozen FN-6 missiles that LCT has been vetted to have in their position. At least four travel with Servando (La Tuta) Gomez Martinez, current operational leader of LCT.
When the crap hits the fan, you can refer back here and know that you read about the warning on this lonely blog.
BATFE's Operation Fast and Furious sold firearms to cartels to demonstrate (erroneously) that America was arming the cartels, when the reality is quite different. Cartels are arming concerned Americans. And they are bringing a new dynamic to the game with MANPADS.
There is a shelf life to Mexican cartel attorneys and Roberto Navarro-Vázquez expired today in the usual way - six bullets to different parts of his body. They found the body in Lomas de Agua Caliente, Tijuana. Roberto Navarro was best known for his defense of Benjamin Arellano Felix.
