Weekend Update

Weekend news from the South Texas border town where I work three days a week. My office is less than five miles from the Texas-Mexico border where all this took place.

Saturday, March 26

Drug Cartel Shootout Kills Three

Three drug cartel members were killed in Nuevo Laredo when Mexican soldiers stopped an 18-wheeler and gunmen fired shots from inside the trailer. An explosion, believed to be a grenade, was heard, killing the men inside and sparking a fire which ended up destroying a large supply of weapons and munitions. 

(Nuevo Laredo is a town in Mexico directly across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas. The two cities are closely related. Think Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri.)

Sunday, March 27

11 Bodies Found on Highway in Northeast Mexico

At least eleven bodies are found in Nuevo Laredo yesterday. However, since Mexican media doesn't report murders when instructed by drug traffickers, yesterday's death toll was confirmed through the Mexican military.

At this time the victims, who all shared similar buzz cuts and are estimated to be between the ages of 17 and 29, remain unidentified. They were tortured and shot in the back of the head execution style.

The bodies all had small posters on their body, with writing presumably from rival cartels.

Monday, March 28

Four suspects are dead following a shootout in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo.

The army said in a statement that assailants traveling in two cars opened fire on troops on patrol on Monday. It said the gunmen died when troops return fired.

The shootout comes just a day after eleven bodies were found in Nuevo Laredo.

(Sources for the above: here, here, and here.)

Final Tally: 18 Dead - 3 "kamikazes", 11 bodies dumped, and 4 gunmen (Warning: graphic images at this link)

Information provided by Grupo Savant, a Washington, D.C., think tank, indicated the dead could have been members of criminal organizations that are currently battling the for the Nuevo Laredo drug corridor.

According to Grupo Savant, the weekend gunfights were started by the Gulf Cartel.

The acts represent a renewed push against the Zetas.

On Thursday, the Gulf Cartel and its allies, operating under the banner of “La Nueva Federación,” announced its latest offensive with narcomantas, which indicated they would be conducting a “cleansing” of Zetas and Zeta interests throughout the region.

Border security remains at best an abstract problem, and at worst a nuisance, for politicians and policy makers on both sides of the aisle who consider Washington D.C. the center of the universe. However, for those of us who live and work on the border it is literally a matter of life and death.

Drugs, illegal aliens, and terrorists move across the border with impunity. Under obama and holder, the federal government not only has abandoned its responsibilities for border security, it has moved to squash any initiative on the part of states to protect themselves. It will take something along the lines of another 9/11 before those worthless parasites get off their bloated asses and do something. Of course, at that point it will be too late for the future victims, and the upcoming tragedy will be politicized without conscience for political gain.

I'd love to see the assholes in D.C. live down here for a few months. I'll bet that things would change damn quick...