Narcotrafico

A Spreading Threat

“Army and police-force conflicts with heavily armed narcotics cartels have escalated to levels equivalent to military small-unit combat”-U.S. Embassy in Mexico

How far is Mexico going to let this problem grow? Drug cartels are taking over the country and expanding to others as well. “The Zetas” deserters of the Mexican SpecialForces trained by the U.S. in the 1990’s, and defectors of the Guatemala special forces known as the “Kaibiles”, Expanded their operations into the U.S. by setting up trafficking routes into six states;California, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Texas. To give a better understanding I am going to talk about the history of this problem, the Zetas uncontrolled by the Mexican government andthe threat against the U.S. and Mexico.

The Zetas, where do they come from? Why are they doing this? Why are they killing every police and military officers on top of the chain of command? Thisare all questions going through my head. Given its geographical location Mexico has always been a route for the trafficking of narcotics and illegal aliens, this coming from our own country and SouthAmerica. The smuggling paths are controlled by the cartels, which operate major transshipment points or “plazas”, the war for their control is hell. There are three main narcotic cartels operating inthe border: The Gulf cartel, The Sinaloa cartel, and the Tijuana cartel (This last one being the least powerful). These cartels have been fighting for the control of the plazas since I was born, butit just escalated to a level not reached by the government. Drug cartels started hiring ex military and ex federals to help them with this war. This war started by The Tijuana cartel when beganusing active and retired police officers against their enemies. Their rivals were forced to do the same thing. The Gulf cartel hired “Los Zetas” a group of elite anti-drug paratroopers and intelligence...