The War Next Door is here....800 miles from the Mexican Border

__________________

Headline: Record marijuana grow pulled up by the roots in Siskiyou County

full version video: http://www.ktvl.com/video/?videoId=34835560001&play=now

What is truly interesting about this story is that the local CBS TV affiliate, KTVL Channel 10 finally ‘gets it’. They actually did some reporting on these pot farms being run on public lands by organized Mexican Drug Cartels after years of many of us pleading with them to inform the public of this danger. What is frightening, is how real that danger has become.

This marijuana grow stretched 2 miles. For years, our local sheriffs have fought these incursions, only to watch them grow more widespread. Siskiyou county is a conservative, quiet sparsely populated huge land mass. Along peaceful country roads that have been settled by old families, independent, self reliant types, late in the night citizens now hear voices in Spanish conversing as they walk up and down ‘patrolling’.

We knew the cartels were armed, that they contained the worst elements of Mexican organized crime; the Zeta’s, various cartels, MS-13, awol military. What we didn’t know, is now that their enterprise of growing on millions of acres of USA land became so successful , is that now the cartels are at war with each other over ‘territory’ and contraband crops. One group may go in and cultivate the crop, only to have it taken with force by a better armed gang.

We have been warned for years in the counties of No.California and So. Oregon to stay clear of the ‘woods’, to never approach anything that looked like a pot farm.
Now we are being warned of the war between the cartels taking place on our peaceful country lanes. It is easier for the cartels to recruit laborers, with less risk to grow on these ‘protected sanctuaries’ than it is in Mexico. Where shall we go to escape?

Last week these cartels burned 860,000 acres in California. Will we become ‘collateral’ damage to their fires or their bullets? Unlike Mexico, in what has become an every day occurrence , we’ve had no beheadings...yet.

Our Department of Homeland security is spending billions in Mexico to help them fight these cartels there, to keep any of our guns from entering Mexico. But they say they don’t have the money to stop these invading armies from crossing the border and infiltrating our property. This congress refuses to fund a fence, but they’ll fund our people to go to Mexico and tell you this entire problem is the fault of the USA because some of our guns go to Mexico. When their criminal cast-offs are stopped from coming in, our guns will stop going out since the same people are working both sides of the border.

Another headline that just bolsters this situation today:

Mexican drug cartels now recruiting hit men from U.S. military
Examiner/Mike Cutler ^ | Aug. 20, 2009 | Norfolk Crime Examiner Dave Gibson

Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18 who was arrested Monday, is accused of working as a paid hit man, and assassinating a member of the Juarez Cartel who had become an informant for U.S. authorities.

Along with Apodaca, El Paso police have charged Ruben Rodriguez Dorado, 30, and Christopher Andrew Duran, 17 with capital murder.

The informant, Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana, was shot several times at his home on May 15.

Both Dorado and Duran told detectives that Apodaca was the one paid to carry out the execution. Witness accounts along with the police investigation have confirmed this.

Pfc. Apodaca enlisted in the Army in September 2008. He is stationed with the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Fort Bliss.

While this is the first known instance of a U.S. soldier working as an assassin for the drug cartels, this may simply be a consequence of the evolving threat posed to this country by the cartels, as well as a result of the criminal gang activity which now exists in the U.S. military.

In April 2009, the FBI released a statement on the growing problem of gangs in the military, and the threat they now pose to U.S. police officers. What follows is an excerpt from that statement:

“Gang members with military training pose a unique threat to law enforcement personnel because of the distinctive military skills that they possess and their willingness to teach these skills to fellow gang members. While the number of gang members trained by the military is unknown, the threat that they pose to law enforcement is potentially significant, particularly if gang members trained in weapons, tactics, and planning pass this instruction on to other gang members.”

The National Gang Assessment Center has identified the following Latino street and prison gangs as having gang members who were trained in the U.S. military:

-18th Street Gang

-Florencia 13

-Latin Kings

-Mexican Mafia (La Eme)

-MS 13

-Norteños

-Sureños

The military does not currently keep data on gang activity within their ranks. However, FBI gang investigator Jennifer Simon said in a recent article: "Gang membership in the U.S. Armed Forces is disproportional to the U.S. population.”

The prevailing estimate among most experts is that out of every 100 people who enter the military, at least two are gang members.

One of the reasons for the increasing number of gang members joining the military, is the fact that the lowering of recruiting standards, mainly by the Army. Of course, this is due to the two wars dragging on in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to the Michael D. Palm Center at the University of California, between 2003 and 2006, recruiters allowed 4,230 convicted criminals into the Army.

A note from Mike Cutler, former INS agent, who sent out this article:

"Today, with some 230 American cities being identified as being infested by the extremely violent Mexican drug cartels with additional cities also being infested by other similarly violent gangs, the potential for extreme violence being perpetrated against our citizens and our law enforcement officials is obviously a serious threat and must be dealt with swiftly and decisively by our federal government.

It is now estimated that there are, already, more gang members in our country than sworn police officers.

The discussions about the creation of a massive amnesty program for millions of illegal aliens as we are hearing at the present is nothing short of alarming! I you add the number of alien gang members with the number of United States citizens who have been and continue to be recruited into gangs now, the numbers are truly staggering!

It is a virtual certainty that such an amnesty would provide gang members with even more opportunities to enlist in our military to receive the training that would enable them to do to the United States what Los Zetas is now doing to Mexico.

You might say that the "handwriting is on the wall" and in this case the handwriting is the gang graffiti that is used to mark off territory by gangs seeking to control their turf..

Furthermore, it is unconscionable that this issue, of gang violence, is never addressed by so-called "pro-immigrant" organizations. These folks know damned well that these threats are often used by the various ethnic gangs and that this is not limited to just Latino gangs but is used by every gang from every foreign country and ethnicity.

The outrage is that often lawful immigrants who arrive in our country expecting to live a life free of the violence and threats of violence that terrified them in their home countries quickly find that the same thugs who made their lives miserable back home have managed to come to the United States and continue to prey upon them and their families both in the United States and in their home countries as well.

This is certainly not the "American Dream" but does represent one hell of a nightmare!
It is now estimated that there are, already, more gang members in our country than sworn police officers.

The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!

The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians.

I implore you to get involved!”

___update:

California fires caused by Mexican cartel: officials

This image provided by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department shows an encampment believed to be the origin of the La Brea Fire in Santa Barbara County. Photo: AP

August 19, 2009 - 1:53PM

Sydney Morning Herald

The fires that hit a protected forest area in mountains close to the north-western California city of Santa Barbara could have been started by Mexican drug traffickers, officials say.

"The reality is that we could have an army out there and not be able to cover all of that ground," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters, saying he based his claim on the size of a marijuana farm and equipment found where the fire began.

His statement confirmed claims made over the weekend by officials at Los Padres National Forest.

Some 30,000 marijuana plants, some as high as six feet (1.83 metres), were found in a remote forest area officials say was likely being used as an illegal pot garden by a Mexico-based drug operation.

A special team of US Forest Service, a counternarcotics police unit and investigators from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department uncovered stacks of propane tanks, irrigation tubing, empty fertilizer canisters, a cooking stove and a semi-automatic rifle, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The major Los Padres fire has been burning since August 8, destroying over 88,650 acres (35,875 hectares) but is now 75 per cent under control, Calfire said.

Local counternarcotics units had travelled through the same area several months ago and were surprised by the new find.

So far this year, US Forest Service and Santa Barbara County counternarcotics agents have uprooted a record 225,058 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $US675 million ($816 million) dollars.

In July, agents pulled 113,000 plants at a camp not far from the site where the fire broke out.

Santa Barbara is about 350 kilometres from the US border with Mexico between San Diego and Tijuana, one of the most patrolled points along the nearly 3000-kilometre long divide between the two North American countries.

____________
Favorite places to visit!

The SHERIFF is back!
http://www.sheriffmack.com/

Terry Anderson tells it like it is on immigration!
http://www.theterryandersonshow.com/