Zetas may be smuggling weapons

[burf]

In the course of yesterdays thread by jeepenstein, the were posts by one eyed-fat man and others about the State Department and guns getting to the drug cartels in Mexico.


Well, here is an article that addresses some of the points of discussion:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/communities/ci_18465182

The brutally violent Zetas drug organization may be smuggling military-grade weapons through El Paso and Columbus, N.M., to feed its ongoing battles against other cartels and to possibly disrupt the 2012 elections in Mexico.

snip

"The military task force became concerned that its information about arms smuggling was being compromised," Plumlee said. "From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas."

Under the Direct Commercial Sales program, the U.S. State Department regulates and licenses businesses to sell weapons and defense services and training for export. Last year, according to U.S. statistics, the program was used to provide Mexico $416.5 million worth of weapons and equipment, including military-grade weaponry.

I don't want to run over jeepenstein's thread, but I thought this was important enough to warrant its own. If mods think otherwise, please advise.

Thanks

[Taverner]

1. Legalize ALL drugs and the Zetas go away

Why would a user buy Black Tar Heroin when they can get Bayer Brand Heroin OTC

And yes, I am dead serious on this

[SteveM]

3. One Dr. Freud did his (medical) doctoral dissertation on effects of Cocaine...

and its superior properties when performing eye surgery.

I believe the substance is also a trade name, but in any case, various companies were proud of their stink with regards how they used it.

http://wings.buffalo.edu/aru/preprohibition.htm

[dtexdem]

5. No, they won't. Yes, we should end the stupid "war on drugs."

But once a criminal enterprise is created on one basis, it finds others on which to exist. Note that the end of Prohibition did not cause the collapse of organized crime in the U.S.

No, our national stupidity created the cartels. But we can't get rid of them by simply reversing our stupidity.

[one-eyed fat man]

7. As you are depicted here on the left

You want us to believe that after failing to control booze or drugs, prohibition will suddenly be effective for guns.

:crazy:

[Taverner]

8. Prohibition doesn't work

Especially when we are talking self defense

[Atypical Liberal]

15. FTFY

[TheWraith]

10. Which is why Al Capone's gang is still in business, right?

And it's why you can find Budweiser and Jim Beam employees attacking each other with bombs and automatic weapons. Oh, wait--neither of those things is true, because after we got rid of prohibition in America, crime dropped by two thirds practically overnight.

Guess what: depriving a criminal organization of it's primary means of funding largely prevents them from operating. Sure, they can go find other sources of revenue--which won't pay a hundredth of what the drug market in the US supplies. That means fewer troops, fewer bribes, fewer owned politicians, and generally an organization starved to the edge of existence.

[SteveM]

11. You're probably right about this...

"But we can't get rid of them by simply reversing our stupidity."

We could have reduced their future impact by acting earlier; now they are so bloated with cash, they can invest in pretty much anything in the future, criminal or no. And the longer we wait to end this prohibition, the less the "peace dividend."

[jeepnstein]

14. I used to have a friend...

who was what many would call a "made" man. He often told of the "Good old days" of Prohibition when money was so easy even a young Italian boy from West Virginia could amass a fortune hauling moonshine to the Chicago mob. Once that racket dried up it became much harder to make a living. He was kind of old school in the fact that he didn't deal in drugs so that revenue stream wasn't there for him. He might have been involved in a bit of "urban renewal" with a certain pizzeria that was taking part in the distribution of heroin back in the '70's. The place burned to the ground. His rackets involved gambling, Russian diamonds, bootleg video tapes, and some of the finest Sicilian shotguns I had ever seen. He also did special orders for about anything you could imagine and afford.

[aikoaiko]

2. And yet, the pro-gun control contigent wants to increase oversight over border state FFLs

:shrug:

I wonder how many of these guns were found at Mexican crime sights and "tracked back to the US" where border state FFLs were blamed.

[SteveM]

4. You...you mean Zetas can't get anti-aircraft weapons at Joe's Gun Shop?

But they can by going through the State Department?

Someone needs to put the BATF on the right track.

[one-eyed fat man]

6. Not without precedent

The Auto Ordnance Company, makers of the Thompson Submachine-gun had a company motto, "On the side of Law and Order." Early on the guns found favor with large companies for guarding payroll and such. Cornelius Ryan was the money behind the operation while General Thompson was the front man. For the most part, Thompson tried to limit the sales of their guns to the law abiding.

The Gun That Made the Twenties Roar

Despite the images portrayed on the "Untouchables" every other newsboy in Chicago did not own a "Tommy Gun." Al Capone, did have a dummy corporation chartered in Minnesota, "The Gopher Mining Company" to buy three guns for his outfit.

http://thompsongunireland.com/Serial%20Numbers/Serial%20Numbers.htm

Cornelius Ryan was friends with a Boston bootlegger named Joseph Kennedy and they both were sympathetic to the Republican cause. The sixth gun manufactured was serial number 46 and was the first gun consigned to Auto-Ordnance in the name of their salesman George Gordon Rorke on 2nd April. This gun was sold to the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

As testament to the quality of Colt's workmanship in 1921 those guns are still turning up in Ireland and the continent. A couple have turned up in Kosovo.

The Zetas, like the IRA and Al Capone before them, have a bunch of money. They are not above arranging dummy companies and front men and cut outs to divert from legal commerce weapons to serve their evil empires. Anyone who thinks they are limited to buying civilian weapons, over the counter, at retail prices is dumber than a post.

If they can dig tunnels with elevators and railways between Tijuana and San Diego, or submarines to go to the northern Pacific coast the notion that the poorly planned and poorly executed operation by the ATF would capture anything but the dumbest of low level mules is laughable.

[burf]

9. How much of the $416.5 million in arms and such

headed for the Mexican military wound up with the Zetas? This one is gotta be destined for the "you've gotta be shittin' me department".

[jeepnstein]

12. Pick up that ball and run with it!

This is big news in my opinion. We've unwittingly been arming the cartels. Or we've been doing it knowingly for some odd reason. Either way you slice it the whole thing stinks.

[burf]

13. It is gonna take a lot of time to sift through

all the pieces of the drug/gun running operations puzzle. I am listening to the Holder testimony and finally Congressman Chaffetz bring up Homeland Security, State Department, DEA, ICE, DOJ and the lack of coordination. Holder's reply, you gotta understand how Washington works. Chaffetz is ripping Holder an new one.

Gotta run, be back later.