Firefights, raids, and assassinations: tactical forms of cartel violence and their underpinnings

Abstract

This article examines some specific types of narco-generated combat, assault, and brutality that over the last decade have acquired an increasingly organized and paramilitary character. The planning; training; intelligence and counterintelligence preparation; mobility; communications; type of weaponry; levels of intensity; and sheer audacity substantially exceed the threats with which traditional law enforcement had been trained and equipped to deal. It matches the apt Drug Enforcement Administration description of a ‘transition from the gangsterism of traditional narco hit men to paramilitary terrorism with guerrilla tactics’. These methods have become a mainstay in the struggle of narco-traffickers against law enforcement, the military, and to a major degree among the competing drug-trafficking organizations themselves. While the infrastructure and practice of paramilitary violence is established in Mexico in seemingly unprecedented ways, the concern north of the border is its potential transportability. Many law enforcement personnel have compared 1980s Miami – with its running drug firefights, revenge raids, and bloody assassinations by Colombian cocaine traffickers – to Mexican drug violence. There are enough precursors north of the Rio Grande now to make the potential for something analogous more than empty speculation.

Keywords:

• border
• cartel
• corruption
• drug trafficking
• GAFE
• military
• Mexico
• police
• special forces
• Zetas

Notes

 1. Newsmax.com , ‘Mexico's Calderón Rejects Joint Drug Raids with U.S’ and Caldwell, ‘Military Chief: No Plan to Ramp up Border Presence’.

 2. Beittal, ‘Mexico's Drug Related Violence’, 14.

 3. CongressDaily , ‘Union head: Border is Far from Secure’.

 4. Rosenberg, ‘U.S. Anti-Drug Information Leaked to Mexico Cartels’.

 5. El Universal.com.mx, ‘Mexican Policemen Clash with Armed Commando in Veracruz’.

 6. City and Vulliamy, ‘Drugs “Taliban” Declares War on Mexican State’ and EFE Press Service, ‘Violencia y narcotráfico en México: 15 cadáveres en una carretera de Michoacán’.

 7. Caldwell, ‘Drug Lieutenant Slain on East Side Allegedly Was Confidential Informant’.

 8. Caldwell, ‘Drug lieutenant slain on East Side allegedly was confidential informant’Ibid. and Caldwell, ‘16-Year-Old Arrested in Cartel Shooting in El Paso’. Among the specialists is Shannon O'Neil at the Council on Foreign Relations, who is currently preparing a study on US–Mexican relations.

 9. Reyna, ‘The Enemy is Also Within’, Part II, 21.

10. Reyna, ‘The Enemy is Also Within’, Part I, 42–4.

11. Aranda, ‘La Paz en Chiapas pasa por la desmilitarización’.

12. Aranda, ‘Participan 26 mil militares en la actividad; de 95 a la fecha han muerto 65’.

13. Mandujano, ‘Militares Mexicanos Se Entrenan en Escuela Kaibil’.

14. La Prensa , ‘Goodbye to the Barracks’ and Medellín, ‘1,382 Elite Soldiers Have Deserted’.

15. Center for International Policy. ‘Just the Facts: Mexico’. See pertinent years in the multi-year compilation of data.

16. Medellín, ‘Reactivan hoy Fuerza Naval del Pacífico; tendrá 3,130 elementos’. See also the official Semar website at http://www.semar.gob.mx/fuerzas/golfo/fuernavgo.htm for a brief description of the Amphibious Reaction Forces.

17. Nájar, ‘De soldados a policías, el mapa nacional’; and Farah and Moore, ‘Elite Anti-Drug Troops Investigated in Mexico’.

18. Gutiérrez, ‘El sofisticado ejército del narco’ and the fine recap article by Becerra, ‘A to Z of Crime – Mexico's Zetas Expand Operations’.

19. Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, Bulletin 673/0.

20. See Becerra, ‘A to Z’; and ‘Los Zetas tienen “ejército” de espionaje’, http://www.planoinformativo.com/nota.php?id = 21915 for varying interpretations. The names Halcones, Ventanas, Expertos, and other designations are often applied to these grouping, but the rather confused and changing reporting on their names and complications suggests that the information is less than authoritative.

21. El Universal , ‘Number of Army Desertions Worries Mexican National Security Expert’.

22. Rodriguez, ‘Army Desertions Hurting Mexico's War on Drugs’; Becerra, ‘A to Z of Crime’; and Reyez, ‘Mercenarios en el Ejército Mexicano’.

23. Fleming, ‘Drug Wars: The Next Generation’.

24. El Universal , ‘Subordinate Officers Allegedly Provided Pacific Cartel with Information on Sedena Counternarcotics Operations’.

25. Borunda, ‘Soldiers seize fake military gear being produced at Juárez factory’.

26. Azuela, Los de Abajo.

27. El Universal , ‘11 Suspected Narco Traffickers Arrested in Nuevo Laredo’.

28. ‘Mexico: Army, Police, Drug Traffickers Fight Pitched Battle in Nuevo Laredo’, as translated by a government service.

29. El Universal , ‘Army Patrols Strategic Points in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas State’; and Gomez and Monge, ‘Mexican Army Units Patrol Nuevo Laredo after Friday Night Shootout’.

30. Walker, ‘U.S. to Reopen Consulate Despite Cartel Turf War’.

31. La Voz de Michoacán , ‘Prison Personnel Responsible for Apatzingan Jailbreak Sentenced’; and Channel 11 Television.

32. El Diario , ‘Ejecutan a oficial mayor y a director de Policía Municipal’.

33. US Embassy, Mexico City, ‘Anti-kidnap Activist, Relative Murdered in Northern Mexico Submitted’.

34. La Frontera , ‘Coordination Group Apprehends Journalist's Assassin’.

35. Roig-Franzia, ‘Americans Covering Mexico Drug Trade Face Assassination Threat’.

36. Mexico City Embassy, Press Summary.

37. Milenio Television , ‘Milenio Noticias’.

38. EFE News Service, ‘18 Die in Shootout between Gunmen and Army in Mexico’.

39. Kocherga, ‘Evidence Links US, Mexico grenade attacks’.

40. Billingsley, ‘Mexican Drug Lords Trying to Gun Down U.S. Border Patrol’.

41. Caldwell, ‘Mexican drug violence spills over into the US’.

42. Office of the District Attorney, County of San Diego, ‘DA Announces Charges Against Violent Kidnapping and Murder Crew’.

43. Newsmax.com , ‘Atlanta Reeling under Mexican Drug Cartel Violence’.

44. Kleinknecht, New Ethnic Mobs. Among the many specialized studies of ethnic crime, this provides a good summary and overview.

45. Mendoza and Sherman, ‘Busts of Corrupt US Border Police Rise as Smugglers Seek More Protection’; and Cable News Network (CNN), ‘Documents: Slain Cartel Member Feared for His Life’.