Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Eric Holder Has it Right! Focus on Drug Cartels and Felonious Criminals!

Eric Holder has it right. ICE should focus their energies on Drug Cartels and felonious criminals! All sides agree!
CNN Reports:
Arrests 'crushing blow' to Mexican drug cartel, U.S. officials say
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. investigators have wrapped up a major 21-month drug-enforcement operation aimed at crippling a powerful and violent Mexican cartel operating in the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday. "Enormous amounts of narcotics" have been confiscated in the operation, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Investigators made 52 arrests in overnight raids in California, Minnesota and Maryland, increasing to more than 750 the number of suspects detained in the coast-to-coast operation to disrupt the Sinaloa cartel, Holder said. Drug Enforcement Administration agents said $59 million has been seized in what was dubbed Operation Xcellerator. Holder heralded the operation and vowed to vigorously help the Mexican government battle the powerful cartels. "International drug trafficking organizations pose a sustained, serious threat to the safety and security of our communities," Holder told reporters.
DEA acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, who joined Holder at the Justice Department for the announcement, said the operation dealt "a crushing blow" to the Sinaloa cartel. "We successfully concluded the largest and hardest-hitting operation to ever target the very violent and dangerously powerful Sinaloa drug cartel," she said. Large amounts of illicit drugs, including 12,000 kilograms of cocaine, 1,200 pounds of methamphetamine and 1.3 million ecstasy pills, were confiscated in the United States during the operation, Holder said. "These are enormous amounts of narcotics -- drugs otherwise destined for the streets of the United States," Holder said.
In two years, cocaine prices more than doubled, while purity dropped by a third, indicating enforcement efforts are having an impact, Leonhart said. "The result of law enforcement pressure is less cocaine on the streets of the United States. That's why the price has been affected. That's why the purity has been affected," she said.
Holder praised Mexican President Felipe Calderon as "courageous" for his willingness to fight the drug cartels, and noted the estimated 5,000 deaths that resulted from drug battles in that country last year.
DEA agents said fierce fighting between the two most powerful Mexican cartels -- the Sinaloa cartel, known as "the Federation," and the Gulf Cartel -- was largely about control of transportation routes for illegal drug trafficking.
Wednesday's announcement comes as increased violence along the Mexican border is prompting concern among state and federal officials in the United States.
In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry called on the Department of Homeland Security to send "1,000 more troops" to the border in his state. "I don't care whether they are military troops, or National Guard troops or whether they are customs agents," he said.
Meanwhile in Washington, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee urged Democrats to call a hearing on border violence to highlight the threat. "The recent surge in drug-related violence on the Southwest border has turned some American communities and neighborhoods into the "Wild West," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas.

5 comments:

Tamale Chica said...

This area definitely needs all the help it can get -- have you seen what's happened to Villenueva, Zacatecas, MX?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-drugs-breakdown26-2009feb26,0,7536662.story

Dee said...

Tamale,
I agree. The real war should be the war on drugs for our USA and for Mexico.
We have to acknowledge the USA is the number 1 drug using country in the world.
We have to stop the drugs. Stop the cartels. Stop the violence.
ICE should not be targetting workers. They should be doing what Eric Holder and his team did. They should be conducting drug enforcement operations. Stop the guns from going into Mexico. Stop the drug flow. Infiltrate the cartels.
All of us want that so our children and grandchildren can grow up and live in Peace, become educated and care for their families.

Dee said...

Also, that was a good article. The people themselves are sick and tired of the drug cartels and are demanding action to end them.

Anonymous said...

I agree this was a great accomplishment; however, I would note it was the result of an ongoing investigation of two years ... under the Bush administration. Holder will get the credit but if it wasn't for the prior administration's efforts, this would never have been accomplished.

Dee said...

Ask yourself why it took until now to act.
Then go back and study the reports about the rate of migrant workers who merely crossed the border were sented to Federal privately owned prisons who were big contributors of the RNC. 81%!

The bush administration cared more about padding the pockets of RNC cronies vs going after the drug cartels.

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