Mexico Drug Cartel Violence Soaring

(CBS)  It's a bloodbath that started as a drug-gang kidnapping, ended in a shoot-out with Mexican troops. Twenty-one were killed in a snowy, desert town, including one soldier.

Since January 1, some 230 drug slayings have occurred around Juarez, Mexico's murder capital. Compare that to 75 this time last year, and you get a sense of the exploding violence, CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports.

Vicious cartels are battling to control the $14 billion a year illicit trade feeding an insatiable U.S. appetite for drugs. Mexican authorities are hitting the cartels with all they have.

Soldiers stormed a Juarez warehouse last week, seizing two tons of marijuana. Tuesday 10 gangsters were arrested in Mexico City with their cache of guns and grenades.

But the gangs have the money and the weapons to fight back.

"While drugs are being smuggled north, a lot of guns are going south," said Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert at Rand Corp.

By U.S. estimates, 95 percent of cartel guns are smuggled from the states - 2,000 a day according to a recent investigation.

Janet Napolitano, the new head of Homeland Security, has ordered a crackdown on gun smuggling. On the streets of Juarez, it feels like war.

"It's such a huge fight that I don't think it will end," said Juarez resident Ricardo Felix. "It's going to continue until one of the cartels takes control of the country."

They had taken control of Villa Ahumada, the desert town where 21 died Tuesday.

Troops came in last year after traffickers killed three police chiefs, and forced the mayor to flee. Tijuana journalist, Vicente Calderon, says the government was slow to react the cartels' growing threat.

"The government used to tell us this is just a problem among drug cartels," said Calderon. "During the last two years, it's coming out into the surface and affecting everybody else."

With more than 6,000 slayings, 2008 was Mexico's most deadly year for drug violence.

This year is starting to look even worse.

[sumwhitechick]

hello ...my name is carla giovanna cassarino ,im interested in marrying you zeta cartel before they all are locked away,i live in san jose california...we can live in my room..job with police,airtight contract,pretend to get a "deal" border brothers...meanwhile heads can roll and cops cant do anything...you work with them.....you need to stay out of trouble or they will deport you.......im 42 ..........never been married ..........i dont like american men anymore!!!i dont like our law inforcement...or yours..........i love our "mongol" and "outlaw" and "bandito" motorcycle clubs and they cant come over until im a settled down married women.........lol......so interested in american citizenship....and love .......and whatever else...........by the way in your defense "did they have there heads?"that means your cops are as bad if not worse than ours.....you need to take there money there drug inforcement money first ,the war on the drug lords next..then they wont kill so much.........

[sumwhitechick]

hello ...my name is carla giovanna cassarino ,im interested in marrying you zeta cartel before they all are locked away,i live in san jose california...we can live in my room..job with police,airtight contract,pretend to get a "deal" border brothers...meanwhile heads can roll and cops cant do anything...you work with them.....you need to stay out of trouble or they will deport you.......im 42 ..........never been married ..........i dont like american men anymore!!!i dont like our law inforcement...or yours..........i love our "mongol" and "outlaw" and "bandito" motorcycle clubs and they cant come over until im a settled down married women.........lol......so interested in american citizenship....and love .......and whatever else...........by the way in your defense "did they have there heads?"that means your cops are as bad if not worse than ours.....you need to take there money there drug inforcement money first ,the war on the drug lords next..then they wont kill so much.........

[PinchePelon214]

First off the U.S during WWll conviced Mexico to plant/grow poppi seeds to supply allied forces with morphine ,so this is something caused by the U.S government. I like the way some people said "its Mexico's problem", but in an effort to have good relations with the U.S they did as they were told. Another example of this would be columbia,how many U.S forces were sent to help out the columbian gov.agaisnt the FARC?Damnz the U.S starts alot of **** but neva helps when it spirals outta control,hence the economy.hmmm wonder how many people had to be homeless before the gov. stepped in? The Cartels cant be stopped unless decisive action is taken ,just like im in iraq with a coalition, the U.S needs help Mexico with there drug war(started by who ding ding you guessed it).Things in this world are done out of neccesity ,if noone needed drugs there be no cartel, if noone needed structer there b no government.So while people have opinoins bout the drug cartel or juss want to be morons(min.men)think about this,when ilegals stop coming into america and the cartel moves in,how safe are u going to feel when they have the same weapons capabilites n vechiles as some of our military

[tucano2]

Did you mean mexico, or did you mean California, that used to be part of the USA?

[M1rifle]

Bring our guys and gals back from the Sandpit, dig fighting holes about 5m apart along the entire border putting a trooper in each hole. Instruct them that anything coming through the wire from the south is to be consiered hostile. Have on call fire and /or air support in case Mexican Army wants to come out to play. Exibit the willingness to violently secure our border and lots of issues with smuggling would become no issues quickly.

[biblethumpar]

Mexico, Mexico, so far from God, so Close to the United States.

Porfirio Diaz

[indamiddle]

until you realize you ''''''''smoked'''''''' 20 years of your life away..a bunch of 30 year olders still ''''going to marshal to zone out'''' or watch cartoons.
but then again you can always blame te govt for not stopping you from wasting your life.
Posted by inDaMiddle at 07:27 PM:

complete ignorance cant be helped.

dont ever take off your blinders, youd probably heart attack if you knew what your doctors, nurses, scientists, lawyers, judges, police, etc... did for recreation in thier spare time.

Posted by merlgrey at 10:39 PM : Feb 13, 2009
+ report abuse

****

i know what THEY DID NOT DO..smoke thier brains off and wander around marshall''s or watch cartoons all day.

[merlgrey]

until you realize you ''''smoked'''' 20 years of your life away..a bunch of 30 year olders still ''going to marshal to zone out'' or watch cartoons.
but then again you can always blame te govt for not stopping you from wasting your life.
Posted by inDaMiddle at 07:27 PM:

complete ignorance cant be helped.

dont ever take off your blinders, youd probably heart attack if you knew what your doctors, nurses, scientists, lawyers, judges, police, etc... did for recreation in thier spare time.

[indamiddle]

The best way to decide how to make a drug legal or illegal is to see what makes the user do.
Nevermind about "toxicity", how addicitve it is, or the damage it does to the body.
When I smoke weed the first thing I want to do is to visit a furniture store. Sometimes I''''ll end up in a gift shop or at Marshall''''s.
Some of my friends just want to watch cartoons when they''''re high.
Can you think of any other drugs, legal or illegal, that make you do any of these things?
Of course not because that''''s how mild weed is. The last thing a crackhead, or a drunk, or someone shooting heroin want to do is to visit a furniture store.
In about an hour from now I should be at Robb&Stucky.

Posted by closethippy1 at 09:06 AM : Feb 13, 2009
+ report abuse

******

until you realize you ''smoked'' 20 years of your life away..a bunch of 30 year olders still ''going to marshal to zone out'' or watch cartoons.

but then again you can always blame te govt for not stopping you from wasting your life.

[indamiddle]

nDaMiddle would have us believe that if we continue the prohibition on currently illegal drugs, our society will someone how be "drug free". forget that we are still swimming in alcohol, poisoned by nicotine and popping more pills than elvis on a bad day. after all, if it weren''''t for weed, et al, society would not be at all "exposed to drugs"

Posted by HonestAbe8 at 07:01 PM : Feb 13, 2009
+ report abuse

********

unfortunately, society can never be free of ''illicit influences''. what we can do as responsible citizens is to hinder exposure to these ''drugs''. we are not talking about weed here were are talking about cocaine, heroin, cyrstal meth..etc.

YOU SAID IT YOURSELF..ending prohibition on alcohol DID IT SOLVE IT?? what it did is turn ''gangsters'' into politicians and board members with ''special interest groups'' and army of lawyers to squash any effort to tame alcohol..take the tobacco industry..CAN YOU CONTROL IT?? no..what they can do is BUY OFF THE MEDIA to stop posting the bad effects of it..

can you imagine a higher and more potent grade of cyrstal meth being sold to our children using high prices marketing companies backed by paid off politicians..

dont tell me it wont happen..it is happening now but its the acohol and tobacco and YOU WANT TO ADD DRUGS??

like i said..once you are out of that "i" phase of your life and have children or people you care about..YOU WOULD CHANGE YUOR TONE..