Monday, December 21, 2009

U.S. Anxiety due to Mexico's Expanding Drug Violence

By Jerry Brewer

A revamping of initiatives, as is now apparent in the targeting of drug cartels and their kingpin hierarchies by law enforcement authorities, is an action that can bring about intense reactions by U.S. law enforcement personnel and their facilities.

Federal agencies are certainly more prepared for potential threats due to the realities of terrorism.  Through world terror events and the intense analysis of the modus operandi and “signatures” of terrorists, the U.S Department of State, along with other elements of the intelligence community, have worked diligently to educate and prepare federal offices and our embassies abroad.

Arturo Beltran Leyva, a Mexican drug kingpin known as the "boss of bosses," and notorious for ruthlessly having his enemies beheaded, was recently killed by authorities — along with three of his cartel members —  south of Mexico City in Cuernavaca.  Leyva, a major target of the U.S. DEA, was also referred to as “Mexico’s third most wanted man.”

The Leyva news follows October announcements of “Project Coronado,” a nearly four year U.S. multi-agency police operation of federal, state, and local agencies that targeted a drug distribution network from Mexico known as La Familia.  Over 300 arrests were made and millions of dollars were seized.

The strategies in targeting criminal cartels via their hierarchies are critical elements of organized criminal interdiction.  Dismantling organizations by toppling their position and status within the vast narcotics industry abyss helps to create major chaos and the re-posturing of underlings trying to regroup and hold onto territories, routes, and distribution networks that are seen by rivals as new potential turf.  With this hysteria, and not so clear thinking, come not only mistakes but too massive retaliations.

And now, unfortunately, more blood will flow.  With all of this recent action against narcotraffickers and their leaders, coupled with the actual and potential future losses in billions of U.S. dollars, the sophistication of the narcoterrorists and their massive firepower, and reach within U.S. cities, is something to expect and prepare for.

U.S. local law enforcement agencies, regardless of size (and especially along the U.S.-Mexico border), need to immediately and effectively begin to secure their facilities for terror-style retaliation attacks.  Too, police officers must receive training in espionage-type tradecraft in surveillance detection and counter surveillance in their official duties, as well as their private lives and personal security.

Is this just premature knee-jerk conjecture to frighten a nation and/or its police?  Let's review the history and handwriting on the wall, signed for a world to see in the border town of Nuevo Laredo as far back as 2005.

On July 28, 2005,  Mexican officials in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, attacked a drug cartel’s safe house and intercepted an arsenal of police uniforms, police and federal insignia, bulletproof vests, gas masks, firearms, ammunition, handcuffs, night vision equipment, ski masks, and related gear.  All this apparently used by narcoterrorists in official and unofficial disguise to spread their reign of terror.  This seizure included unusually advanced weaponry, with an arsenal of automatic weapons such as AK-47 assault rifles, bazookas and hand grenades.

U.S. police must take critical note of the following: during that raid, on the safe house across the border from Laredo, Texas, investigators found numerous photographs of municipal police officers, along with an apparent hit list of police and city officials targeted for death.  Further intelligence revealed that each of the photographs listed police officer’s assigned locations, beats and work schedules, plus maps to their homes.

Such levels of sophistication, along with the superior weaponry, is “terrorist oriented” tradecraft.  Obviously, patient surveillance strategies were utilized to gather routines, routes (family members were also identified), and associated intelligence.  Much of this comparable to the “terrorist’s planning cycle” that is well known by counterterrorism specialists.

Police administrators and their middle management counterparts/leaders have a responsibility to ensure the counterintelligence aspects of their respective organizations and facilities.  Perimeter security must also be enhanced to monitor potential threats beyond simple patrol techniques.  Organized drug cartels are notorious for penetrating the protective shields of government and law enforcement, especially those enforcement elements working against them.  Sometimes this is as simple as significant cash to an internal administrative employee with access to needed information.

The Nuevo Laredo violence was enough to force the temporary closure of the U.S. Consulate, as police officers and authorities throughout Mexico were subsequently executed.  Nuevo Laredo City Councilman Leopoldo Ramos Ortega, who also chaired the council’s security committee, was shot dead as he sat innocently in his truck. 

The important message here is not to be complacent and believe that these incidents only occur south of the border, or that crimes like supposed gang-related drive-by shootings are routine and old hat.  We must always be on the alert for terrorist-styled attacks with highly sophisticated weaponry and explosives, while also remaining vigilant for potential intense retaliation.

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Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates, a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Miami, Florida.  His website is located at www.cjiausa.org.