I read somewhere that ATF had a hand in creating the show Gangland a few years ago. I think it was John Ciccone, who was also featured in several of the biker 'gang' episodes.

Not to downplay the violence of all the different gangs on those shows, but they dealt very little with current cartel actions in the US which are more powerful than well, pretty much everyone. Yes, I know those shows are not that accurate and often twist and misrepresent the truth, but I'm leaning towards full propaganda here.

I live in Phoenix where there are entire portions of this huge city where you just don't go at night, if at all. But I'm supposed to be scared of bikers, ummm yeah right.

Are the various government alphabet soup agencies even attempting to infiltrate cartels in the US, or just unloading propaganda on us concerning successes against smaller, less powerful groups because they need to look like they're doing something? I mean, are they even trying to get in there??[u][/u]

hey Alice Cooper, 70s rock star --

how powerful would you say the Mexican cartels are in Phoenix and other parts of Arizona and the Southwest? how do they make their power felt? why do you characterize certain parts of Phoenix as no-go zones?

it's a major city, hence no-go zones, especially after dark. Also I'm white and as i understand it the worst hoods in Phoenix are not run by people who like white folks a whole lot. Areas of NYC may be similar (sarcasm).

how powerful would I say cartels/OC originating from Mexico are in the southwest? very powerful.

I think they might make their power felt through intimidation and violence...


are you getting at something?

I live in Laredo,Texas and I would say both their power is felt on how organized and controlled is the immigrant and drug trafficking is by the cartels. I think the cartels actually make the southwest safer than up north were street gangs kill each other for turf especially in areas with no significant cartel influence like Baltimore and other areas with very sparse hispanic population. Rival street gangs here like the Eme, Latinos Pistoleros and Texas Syndicate are so tied with the cartels that they all towards the same goal which is immigrant smuggling and drug trafficking which is huge in the city. The street gangs here kinda respond to the cartels in Mexico and like alice said through intimidation. Drug mules here in the U.S get beat up by the street gangs that kinda represent the cartels in Mexico if they caught too much often but yeah there is the discipline mules and smugglers have too follow if they dont want to get beat up badly. I guess the violence in Mexico is what people fear over here. I would say their power is felt through the discipline in the U.S street gangs/mules and intimidation. There are also cartel members here that party in the night clubs and are very notorious and feared. Its a pretty scary world/game. Yet we barely have any murders in the city and we have gotten years with no murders. There is a lot of stigma from my city(Laredo,Texas) from other nearby citie or towns saying Laredo is dangerous and all this BS because of the chaos across the bridge in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. But like I said we barely have any murders. The leading cause of death here is car accidents lmao.

From what I've read the Cartel members operating in the U.S. have learned from the mistakes the Colombians made in the 80s to buffer themselves from people in thier organizations and networks who are not trustworthy (or simply scared shitless of them) people they've known from Mexico. If someone from Mexico operating here crosses them then they know their whole family back home can be easily wiped-out, doing that to a U.S. Citizen is a lot more messy and draws LE heat.

I'm sure that the DEA and maybe the FBI have undercover agents and plenty of CIs in the street gang distribution networks, but that's steps down the ladder from cartel people operating here. At best they may be one or two people down the chain from actual cartel people here. Mexico itself is a no-go zone for LE Agents (unlike Colombia or other parts of South America) because they simply cannot risk trusting the Mexican authorities to work with them, law enforcement and local government down there is litteraly an arm of one cartel or another.

The cartel's are smart and they know if they start any violence the like of which is going on in Mexico with decapitiations and gunfights then the Federal U.S. LE will come down on them like a ton of bricks here and put even more pressure from the Mexican government even more than they have to break them.

They stay in the background and let street gangs take the heat on the streets since they've made their profit once the product has left the first level of distribution once it's in the U.S. It's hard to get to them.

the Mexican cartels are big, and of course with all their money have further corrupted mexico. [its always been corrupt]
as far as their power here, if they aren't dealt with by the feds here they will only get bigger here.

I think the feds here should come down on them right now and send a message. this is not mexico!!

Legalize Marijuana

be a step forward,

California's Prop 19 to legalize it could have passed but the STONERS never did make it to the polls

Hope the other states follow suite!