A forceful message to the Mexican Cartels

Mexican federal police and army soldiers guard a U.S. Embassy vehicle after it came under attack by unknown gunmen on Highway 57 between Mexico City and Monterrey, near the town of Santa Maria Del Rio, San Luis Potosi state, Mexico, Tuesday Feb. 15, 2011. Inset, ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata.

/ AP Photo/Pulso Diario de San Luis-Teodoro Blanco Vazquez

The massive, ongoing sweep of suspected Mexican drug cartel members in the United States, Latin America and Central America is a direct and calculated response to last week's killing of a U.S. law enforcement agent in Mexico.

Named "Operation Fallen Hero" or "Operation Bombardier," the sweep involves every federal law enforcement agency, as well as state and local agencies in all 50 states. And it started in the hours following Tuesday's funeral of Customs and Immigration Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata.

"We're sending a message. We're showing all the cartels that you're not going to bully us. You're not going to push us around. You're not going to murder or harm or pose a threat to a U.S. law enforcement officer," said Carl Pike the assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency's special operations division. "We're saying, 'we know who you are. We are coming after you, and we will continue to come after you.'"

In the past two days, officers have arrested more than 200 people and seized more than $6 million, in addition to cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine and more than 100 weapons, Pike said. Most of the arrests were of suspects who had been monitored in ongoing criminal investigations, and Pike said he expects many more as the raids continue through tomorrow and possibly through the weekend.

Pike said there was something like a "school yard mentality" to the ongoing raids.

"A bully comes up and pushes you, and if you don't push back, you're a victim," he said. "We're pushing back."

That pushback has been far-ranging.

The operation is not limited to border cities or big cities. Agents in St. Louis, for example, seized a quarter million dollars, Pike said. In New Jersey, they seized $1 million. And in Dallas, agents found seven assault weapons packaged and ready to be sent to Mexico.

Nor does the operation just involve the federal law enforcement agencies, though all are involved: DEA, FBI, ICE, U.S. Marshals Service, Customs and Border Patrol and the Secret Service. Local law enforcement officers also are working closely with the federal agents, which Pike said was "a huge key to our success."

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"When this idea was being formulated, the state and locals all stood up. Small departments. Big departments. They all raised their hands and said, 'we want to be a part of this.'" he said.

In Houston, one local police officer was shot while serving a warrant with federal agents Thursday morning. He is expected to fully recover.

The operation also is not limited to just one cartel. Pike said law enforcement initially decided to focus on the Zetas gang, which is believed to be behind the Zapata killings. But officials concluded that narrow focus would have limited their efforts geographically in the United States, since the cartels operate within specific regions.

"Why just say this to one cartel? All the cartels are culpable. We see them as the same," Pike said.

That makes the sweeps different than other recent operations in the U.S. against Mexican cartels. In October 2009, for example, more than 3,000 federal agents conducted a 20-state sweep that led to more than a 1,000 arrests--but that focused on suspected members of just one cartel, the La Familia gang.

Some intelligence professionals said the 2009 raid had only a temporary impact, and that the La Familia gang is back in force. They questioned the effectiveness of the raids.

"Anyone working for a Mexican cartel that we can take off the street is a good thing. But it's like killing ants in your house; you can spray them all you want and kill plenty, but you're not going to truly solve the problem unless you deal with the huge anthill outside," said Sylvia Longmire, a former intelligence analyst and author of several treaties on the Mexican cartels.

Longmire said the arrests are "a positive thing in the short run," but overall are ineffective in disrupting drug trafficking and dismantling the cartels.

"It's easy for cartels to recruit the kind of people our agencies are arresting in these sweeps, so they'll be replaced soon enough by others," she said.

Pike agreed that raids alone aren't enough.

"The big perception out there is that we take a big action, and all drug trafficking will stop. It doesn't," he said. "What we are doing today is we are disrupting the flow of drugs into the U.S. and the flow of money out of the U.S. as best we can. We are making their lives miserable.

"Is it going to stop them? No," he said. "But we want them to know we are here. We are going to do this. And we will continue to do this. This is an ongoing event."

[carlocaraluzzo69]

Im sorry, how is ANY of this MEXICO?S fault? Its American economic black mail that forces the Mexican Government to pass antiquated drug laws in some misguided American drug war, America sends thousands of military grade weapons as a gift to the Cartels and you are threatening Mexico? You need to get your beer swilling, tobacco chewing butt up to DC and complain to your ruling "white guys", who are in the pockets of the alcohol and pharmacuetcal industries and being controlled by protestant fundamentalists.

[whiteguysrule]

yea mexico grow up or die.

[myth1958]

This is little more than closing the barn door after the bull has escaped. The earlier message to the cartels: "We'll help supply top-end weapons to you in your slaughtrer of everyone in Mexico" overshadows the belated "Hey! You killed our guy, so we're cracking down!" message. It makes you wonder where their priorities (and heads) are: would they have let a suitcase nuke 'walk' so they could follow the radioactive fingerprint to a destroyed city? Would they have allowed anti-aircraft missiles to 'walk' so they could pick up the serial numbers on it after thugs shot down an airliner? Where do they stand? They react to their own stupid moves rather than acting forceful in the first place. Makes you think someone high up got a bribe to let all that brand new hardware through, and now they're sopping up the results with a hankie of regret. Pshaw.

[CarloCaraluzzo]

Do you really think this was an accident? Do you really think that people with that much experience in law enforcement would have made the series of decisions that led to this?
Go to ithinkrevolution.com and read the entire sad story.

[babooph]

Wow victory in the hispanic America drug war[well just more media lies-the drug stuff will not miss one step....]

[CarloCaraluzzo]

"We know who you are and we are coming for you". First of all, straight from an Rambo movie. Give me a freaking break. Second of all, if they knew enough about their locations to arrest 200 people in a few days, my question is: Why did you not arrest them BEFORE?
Couple of other questions. Why would the drug cartels kill an ICE agent? No a DEA, FBI, or ATF agent, all of the agencies who deal with narcos, but a IMMIGRATION agent? And finally, what was a US Immigration agent doing "On Duty" several hundred miles deep into Mexico? Hot pursuit maybe? Or are we blurring jurisdictional lines?
People who make statements, school yard bully statements, like the ones above really have zero understanding exactly who they are dealing with.
In his book 1984 the author explains that one way governments use to distract voters from digging too deep is to keep them distracted with one endless war after another against invisible enemies. We at ithinkrevolution.com think it is curious the the drug cartels had no power or money until the early 1980?s when Reagan declared his "War on Drugs" and they suddenly, within a year or so,amazingly, they all became millionaires with military weapons. Now keep in mind that these are the same people who recruited and trained Al Quada.
Now, 25 years later, who are our main enemies? Rich and powerful drug cartels and a huge terrorist organization, BOTH created from US Government policy.
Are we there yet? Is is time to start asking questions about all these "coincidences"?
Sound familiar?

[jackp32]

Why is it that the only time the U.S. gov't enforces laws that apply to illegals is after someone of importance is murdered? We are a reactionary nation.

[morris2196]

A drug addict will purchase drugs if they are available. This is especially true of the more strongly addictive drugs (e.g., heroine, rock cocaine, powder cocaine and meth). Another issue is that it is not possible to physically prevent the smuggling of drugs into the US. It seems to me that the only solution to the drug problem is to deter people from selling drugs at the street level (or higher). That can be done by executing several thousand drug traffickers every month until deterrence has been established. That will solve the problem. It will be a horrifying sight to see, but the drug problem in the US is more horrible.

[CarloCaraluzzo]

Yeah, that works really well in Afghanistan where 80% of the worlds herion comes from and they execute them if they catch them. Really effective it is.
Your just a serial killer looking for more thrills. And of course someone addicted to drugs is much more horrible then publically executing several thousand people a month.
You must be from Texas. Dont THEY hold the current world record for public executions? See how low the crime rate is in TEXAS?

[MissMeYetAbdullah]

Let's go right to the source and nuke the bastids that sell them weapons and buy their filthy....

....uh, wait a minute, forget...forget I said anything.....

[amerilatino]

Thats right America, speak FORCEFULLY (right before you light up your doobies and crack pipes).

[Clouseau2]

For every person you arrest, there are two more waiting to take their place. Want to send a real message to the cartels? Legalize marijuana, for starters. That will actually have an effect.

[jahjdh]

Yes to pot and 3 quarters of our problem will be gone. Meth is a drug though,lock them up!