Bajadores/Coyotes/Rip Crews/Burros/DTO's/TCO's & "OTM's" They are here for real...

State obscures elite Texas Rangers' border work

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Christopher Sherman, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 26, 3:24 am ET

McALLEN, Texas – Gov. Rick Perry has told just about anyone who will listen about his plan to dispatch elite teams of Texas Rangers to the border to do what he says the federal government won't — keep Texans safe from encroaching Mexican drug violence.

Just don't ask him for specifics.

While the Ranger Recon initiative has served as a strong rhetorical counterpoint when Perry slams the federal government, details about what the taxpayer-funded teams actually accomplish remain a secret.

State officials insist they do not tally arrests or drug and property seizures under the program, which they say doesn't have its own budget after more than a year in operation. They say the Ranger Recon teams are paid out of the state's larger border security initiative, but decline to put a dollar figure on the program's costs. Nor will they say how many of the state's 144 Rangers, the top criminal investigators in Texas, participate or where the teams have been active.

The Department of Public Safety, which oversees the program, said in response to an Associated Press public records request that the Rangers do no investigative work as part of the teams, but have engaged in about 10 "missions."

Reports on the missions, however, are kept under wraps to preserve "operational security," said public safety director Steve McCraw. He also said the program doesn't want to brag.

"Have there been arrests made? Yes," McCraw said. "Have there been drug seizures? Yes. Have there been vehicle seizures? Yes."

But asked for data on just those points, McCraw said, "That's not how we measure them." The department has asked the state Attorney General's office for permission to reject a subsequent AP request for the mission reports.

Asked whether taxpayers might feel unsettled about secret operations by a state law enforcement agency, McCraw replied: "The only ones who should feel unsettled are the (Mexican drug) cartels."

Perry would prefer not to commit state resources to border security, said spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger.

"We wish the feds would do their job and secure the border," she said.

The governor hammered the White House this month for not sending enough National Guard troops and Border Patrol agents to Texas. When President Barack Obama signed $600 million in funding for more agents, unmanned drones and customs officers this month, Perry said, "It's a good step in the right direction. Is it enough? I don't think so."

Perry announced the Ranger Recon program in the midst of his re-election primary campaign last September, two months after the program launched. The legislature had allocated about $230 million for border security during its last two sessions, he said.

"Landowners all along our border are finding their farms and ranches overrun by smuggling operations, often by armed individuals with no respect for property, the law or human life," Perry said during a speech in Houston. "By introducing Ranger Recon teams that can stay on the move, we can stay one jump ahead of the cartels and beat them at their own game."

Perry has since mentioned the Ranger Recon program in speeches to big city police chiefs, first responders, Latino peace officers groups and statements addressing border security.

Since its inception, "approximately 10 (Ranger Recon Team) missions, including training exercises and real-life undertakings, have been conducted as part of Operation Border Star," DPS wrote in response to the AP's public records request.

Pressed for an example of a Ranger Recon success, McCraw grabbed the most recent mission report and read that in one day, a team arrested 22 people and seized 1,739 pounds of marijuana. He offered no other details.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss Ranger Recon activities, agreed to describe one incident along the Rio Grande in June. A Ranger Recon Team staked out a section of Starr County riverbank with Border Patrol. Scouts came first, followed by two rafts carrying marijuana. Men loaded the drugs into a vehicle, but the driver turned back as authorities converged.

The smugglers threw mud, a gas can and finally a Molotov cocktail that bounced off a Ranger's leg without exploding, the official said. They escaped back to Mexico.

Capt. Hank Whitman, deputy assistant director of the Rangers, would only confirm the incident occurred. He said the Ranger teams have yet to use deadly force on a mission.

The lack of transparency has left the program vulnerable to criticism that it's a political ploy.

"The Ranger Recon Team is consistent with the Rick Perry record of grandstanding, not measurable success," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, an El Paso Democrat and member of the Texas Senate's homeland security committee. The state's failure to provide statistics on the Ranger teams' activities "is one more attempt to hide what's going on," he said.

Shapleigh and Monica Weisberg-Stewart, chairwoman of the Texas Border Coalition's immigration and border security committee, compared the Ranger program to Perry's state-funded network of border cameras that civilians can monitor online.

Perry had given $5 million in federal grants to a border sheriffs organization to set up the cameras. Only a fraction of those planned were installed and the program failed to meet its original goals.

When you say, "show me what the programs have done, you can't find it," Weisberg-Stewart said. "We need to know tax dollars are being spent in the proper manner."

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino, a Democrat who works on the border, said that after a year "I can honestly say I don't know what (the Ranger teams) worked on."

"We have yet to be invited on an operation or to hear that they've been successful in interdicting immigrant or drug loads," Trevino said.

But Terrell County Sheriff Clint McDonald, a Democrat who has endorsed Perry for re-election, said he's a believer. McDonald polices some of the state's most rugged terrain in a border county with nearly double the number of square miles — 2,300 — to people — 1,200. Ranger Recon teams trained there and public safety officials educated him about their work, he said.

"I had my doubts at first, but I think it's going to be a great operation," he said.

Asked if he could describe the Rangers' impact, McDonald said, "not in terms of numbers you can put on a piece of paper."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100826/...s_ranger_recon

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Pretty good history lesson:



The Gulf Cartel
Friday, August 27, 2010 | Borderland Beat Reporter Buggs



The Gulf Cartel (Spanish: Cártel del Golfo) is a Mexican drug cartel based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. The cartel is present in 13 states with important areas of operation in the cities of Nuevo Laredo, Miguel Alemán, Reynosa and Matamoros in the northern state of Tamaulipas; it also has important operations in the states of Nuevo León and in Michoacán.

The Gulf Cartel traffics cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin across the U.S.-Mexico border to major cities in the United States. The group is known for its violent methods and intimidation, and works closely with corrupt law officials and business people in Mexico and the United States.

Aside from earning money from the sales of narcotics, the cartel also imposes "taxes" on anyone passing narcotics or aliens through Gulf Cartel territory. The cartel is also known to operate protection rackets, extorting money from local businesses, and to kidnap for ransom money.

lots more here on CDG:

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/08/gulf-cartel.html





~

redacted.

Originally Posted by Iraqgunz

Indeed why would they? It's a great question, but the fact is that they do indeed acquire some arms from the U.S. as much as we hate to admit it.

My guess is that these weapons were going to be used locally by the drug gangs as it would be easier to get them in straw purchases (or possibly a burglary) then it would be to smuggle something from Mexico to here.

I just think think they would get em from Columbia.

Originally Posted by HOPLOETHOS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...T2010082506297

Just a little 411 on the comings & goings:

I'm sure all poe's are different but local pd's (sometimes customs) will check southbound for currency & guns but very random in my neck of the woods in general, although i do not cross daily like i used to. I did cross friday & there was no le checking or much traffic heading s. into mex. at the bridge i chose (again, this is on the U.S. side before paying toll)


Mexico has a hit & miss routine when you come into the country...basically, you go over the speed bumps & wait for the red or green light for THE inspection. The first thing they ask is purpose of visit & about guns / $$$$ 'IF' you get red. Sometimes it is immigration & sometimes military & sometimes both. All my encounters are with very polite folks over a long period of time. No complaints how they handle border crossings.

Going north, our men & women make eye contact with 'every' driver & passenger. Some are very efficient & let you pass or send you to secondary within 2-3 minutes. Some take way too long deciding who is solid or not & gets frustrating if you pick the wrong lane.

There is also 'sentry' for the daily / frequent vehicles, which have dedicated lanes & every driver/passenger must be tied to THAT particular vehicle. These are pretty snazzy and require a background for both mexico & U.S. folks who apply. One of the joint operations between our countries that is fairly efficient. Not all poe's offer this service.

FWIW...

Logistically speaking it makes more sense to procure weapons inside the U.S for use by their people (locally) than it does trying to smuggle them into the U.S through Mexico from Colombia.

Originally Posted by Caeser25

I just think think they would get em from Columbia.

redacted.

I have to go to Guadalajara for 5 days for work tomorrow. With everything I've been reading in the news and on this thread I'm not happy about it.

I saw that vid HOP...i have issue with the map.

My understanding member count & territory for CDG is way higher than the zetas?? Do you think they have the colors reversed??

Everything I have heard is there are strongholds of Zetas in Nuevo Laredo, east to Matamoros, South to San Fernando & back west to Monterrey.

I could be totally wrong but I swear CDG has owned the entire coast along the gulf for a long - long time & still had the majority under their control??

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article..._lnk2%7C167523

Article link taken from AOL/news.

I have family going to Cancun in December over the holidays and I am just a little uneasy about it...

Originally Posted by Irish

I have to go to Guadalajara for 5 days for work tomorrow. With everything I've been reading in the news and on this thread I'm not happy about it.