LAST OF THE ARELLANO FELIX SENTENCED

You might have read that Eduardo Arellano Felix was just sentenced to 15 years in the Feds for his role as money launderer for the AFO. A full on medical doctor, he was responsible for administering the finances of the AFO. So what's next?

If history is any indication of the future, he'll land in Florence or Sandstone and join the other DTO operators, Jihadi terrorists, Mafia bosses and, of course, the Big Homies. And then the fun starts.

Having interviewed people who have been in those places, an awful lot of friendships are formed in these Federal prisons between people who might not have ever met on the outside. Information is exchanged. War stories are told. They start playing the usual game of "Hey do you know (insert criminal name here?"

Eventually, inevitably and with a high degree of probability, policy decisions are floated, ideas are sent up the flagpole to see who'll salute and the seeds for the evolution of criminal enterprises are planted.

What could possibly go wrong?

TO THE FAITHFUL

Yeah, you can say we're back on the air after a long absence. Back channel queries have asked what the hell we've been up to. Simple. Working on the next book. And a documentary. And a film project. And a few other things that frankly have made us personae non grata among law enforcement, local and state prosecutors and numerous politicians. Apparently, the mainstream media doesn't ask the sort of questions this blog asks. The do-nothing, say-nothing press gets access. We get shown the door.

Since last posting regularly, it's become more and more apparent that the mainstream press is nothing more than a lap dog and enabler of powerful financial, political and social entities whose goals seem to be to keep citizens uninformed and pliable. The less you know, the less likely you are to get thoroughly pissed off.

You'll notice a long post on Medical Marijuana. We're currently working on a project that is trying to get to the heart of some uncomfortable realities about the Med Pot phenomenon. Can't say anything definitive until it's all done, but it appears that Med Pot laws and regulations have holes in them big enough to drive 18-wheelers full of pot through.

Our intellectual superiors in politics and law enforcement have created a chaotic situation that simultaneously slams "legitimate" low level users into jail and lets millionaire pot shop owners and growers slide through like snakes slicked up on STP. Laws seem to be enforced in a capricious and biased manner. Bad guys are allowed to be be bad until they are no longer useful. Then they get hammered with a huge indictment in a blatant grandstand play to make the good guys look like heroes.

More on this topic to come.

Thanks to all for the warm welcome back.

WE WARNED YOU.

Way back in old days (I think what would be 2009) this blog raised the issue that our home-grown prison gang (the Eme) was making deals and arrangements with Mexican Drug Cartels. This was based on some threads of evidence that we came across combined with common sense predictions.

It appears we were once again prescient and way ahead of the curve. It's not like we created Cold Fusion or anything but just indicates that if you ask the right questions based on current best knowledge can lead to some inevitable conclusions.

Last week, the Feds (ICE, DEA) and local coppers broke up a significant Florencia 13/La Familia operation. The usual shocked faces appeared on the news and the usual platitudes were uttered by law enforcement about what a great job they do and how this puts a big dent in the operations of a DTO and how much safer we all are etc. etc. etc.

These alliances are nothing new. Just bigger and better organized and with more players involved with more money to play with and bigger loads to deliver.

A quick review of history will reveal that as far back as the days when Joe Morgan was playing on the streets, the Eme always had a south-facing strategy that ebbed and flowed with who was on the streets and how good their connections were south of San Diego. Morgan was known to visit Mexico with a girlfriend in a motor home. In the days before dope sniffing dogs, X-ray machines and the rest of the electronic tools, Morgan would pack the empty spaces in the Mo Ho with dope and drive it back into the U.S. To the curious, Morgan and the girl looked like tourists. Sort of a precursor to the current "We're the Millers" movie.

Over time, the arrangements shifted. We had Bat Marquez and Popeye Barron worked with the Arellano Felix Organization. And there was a whole squad of Logan Heights gangsters working as enforcers directly for the AFO in Tijuana with the permission of the Big Homies.

And, of course, there was Chata Leon in Northeast running her narco organization more along the lines of a Cartel Op as opposed to the standard SOP of Surenos.

And now this Florencia/La Familia alliance. The shotcaller on this side of the border appears to be Arturo Tablas Castellanos. As the diligent student knows, Tablas hasn't been on the streets since 1979 but you can't keep an enterprising Homie from conducting his business merely by housing him in the SHU at the Bay.

According to what the press reported, something like $150K changed hands to allow La Familia operators to work with Florencia. Not a huge amount by Cartel standards but significant by Sureno standards. On the streets and the Bay, this is big cubic money. Enough to buy you an entire neighborhood. Or a hunger strike.

Tablas was involved in the much celebrated SHU hunger strike. The usual suspects in the press presented this as a prison rights and human rights issue. In fact, it was a street-control and lines of communications issue. Controlling a dope enterprise from the SHU is not impossible. But it is a pain. Housing in the mainline makes communication a lot easier and you can have real time information delivered and transmitted to keep the troops energized, informed and on top of their game.

We noticed that the day the Federal indictment was issued and named Tablas as an un-indicted co-conspirator, the hunger strike story completely disappeared from the news. Coincidence? We think not.

What was interesting was that Tablas got shot callers from the three other prison gangs to go along with the strike. You have to wonder if some of that $150 was used as a deposit to those other prison gangs to get them on board with the hunger strike. The deal being, that this down payment was only a taste of what was to come from the streets if they helped Tablas get out of the SHU. Pure speculation on our part, but this is something that came up in conversation here in the bunker as we drank coffee, discussed possible scenarios and fielded phone calls from active and retired individuals on both sides of the law.

The question for the curious to ponder is this: When the Eme initiates a merger or a working arrangement with a Cartel, what form does the resulting hybrid entity take?

The two entities have historically been different in style, operational tempo, operational methods, organizational structure and, significantly, the level of violence employed to further their goals. Does this signal a possible change in the Eme's horizontal organizational structure to emulate their Southern partners in crime? Or does the cartel operate in the more decentralized model of the Eme? Will the neighborhoods involved shift alliances over time from the Big Homies that came out of those neighborhoods or will they abandon the usual neighborhood loyalty and start waving the Cartel flag?

Just something to think about. Feel free to comment intelligently and, as always, the comments are moderated so no net banging.

BACK IN THE SADDLE. FOR NOW.

Hey all. Been a while.

This is a test. More to come.

WHADDAYA MEAN BY LEGAL?

In the last few months I've been pulling together information on the Cannabis issue. It's clear that attitudes have change since the Woodstockers and 60s hipsters starting using the weed for fun and to make various statements about personal freedom, government intrusion into private affairs and the possibility of a shortcut to the expansion of consciousness. A lot of arguments were pure crap. Regardless of the rationale for using Cannabis, the point for using it comes down to the simple rush of getting loaded.

Whether it's Purel, pot or pills, getting loaded is one of those proclivities we can't seem to resist. One side of the arguments goes like this - "If we can't resist it, let's legalize it and stop the law enforcement." The argument is boiled down to three words "Legalize and tax."

On the other side we have the "resist your base instincts" argument. This group wants to retain all the legal sanctions against all drugs except for the ones we already have - alcohol and tobacco. It's clear this isn't working. There's a powerful attraction in the psyche to altered states and no penalty except death will deter the determined. This seems to work fine in some Muslim countries and places like Singapore. But the question is, do we really want to live under that sort of tyranny?

Polls show that the overwhelming majority of Americans are in favor of some sort of legalization. Some go so far as to claim that we can pay off the national if we just tax Cannabis.

The legalization arguments seem to fragment its supporters over the question of how you define legal. What's legal to me, clearly isn't what's legal to a Mendocino County grower and what's legal to him is nowhere near how lawmakers would define it.

Let's start with the broadest possible definition of legal. Let's make Cannabis as legal as scented candles, carrots or coffee mugs. In that scenario any adult would be able to grown, use or distribute Cannabis. It would also be legal to import it from anywhere in the world. You could log on to the Arellano Felix website or the Hmong Collective site in the Far East and order as much as you want. Just like ordering bolts of cloth from India or fountain pens from China. The only taxes that might be collected here would be small import duties (if the government wants). Of course, if everyone's allowed to grow, I could also send my pal in Minnesota a few pounds that I grow in the yard when his plot is buried under six feet of snow. The government wouldn't get any tax at all from that.

If the Feds did want to impose a tax on casual sales, they'd need a tax collection and monitoring entity that would dwarf the combined size of the IRS, DEA, Commerce Dept. and so on. How many government employees would it take to monitor every back yard, hydro plot and farm yard in the country? Whatever taxes collected would be immediately sucked up by the bureaucracy necessary to monitor it.

Every "legalize and tax" advocate I've spoken to has yet to make that calculation. Taxation doesn't happen magically. It requires a bureaucracy. And a government bureaucracy requires huge amounts of cash to operate. Don't forget it needs things like free medical benefits for life, healthy retirement packages, unionization, collective bargaining, OSHA standards enforcement on the private sector they monitor, environmental impact studies and all the rest of the impedimenta to free enterprise. So collecting pot taxes isn't going to come cheap. It may not even pay enough to cover the overhead.

One faction that used to wave the "legalize" flag, the large illegal growers, aren't so sure they want legalization after all. They have made the calculation and they don't like the consequences. In any legalization scheme, the growers would be the first ones to come under scrutiny. They'd be the first to be visited by the EPA, Labor Department, Department of Agriculture, Farm subsidy bureaucrats, labor unions, OSHA, BLM, ATF, IRS and all the other government and non-government stakeholders. First Five will be out there with its hand out wanting a piece of the pot taxes - for the children - not to mention the second-hand-smoke people, the American Lung Association and all the health care people.

Frankly, the growers don't want any part of that. They've essentially dropped out of the "legalize" coalition and they're happy remaining in the shadow world between legal and illegal. It's more profitable there and there's no paperwork, accountants, tax lawyers or the U.S. Dept. of Cannabis breathing down their bong.

There are some that advocate treating Cannabis like liquor and tobacco. The argument is that if we can tax those two, we should be able to successfully tax cannabis. That depends. Unless we're talking moonshine, making decent liquor is a capital- and skill-intensive process. Unlike throwing some Alaskan Thunder seeds in the ground and letting nature take care of the rest, making Jim Beam, Bushmill's or Chevas Regal is beyond the capacity of the average individual. It's easy to tax liquor because it's hard to make and hard to hide. Growing pot is easy. Even a stoned kid could do it. Same for tobacco. But growing enough tobacco for your own use would require way more effort than it's worth. It's cheaper to make a run to the Quiki Mart.

Cannabis, on the other hand, requires virtually no capital and only a modest level of skill. Some argue that making "really good" weed requires careful cross-breeding, pollination, measured amounts of the correct nutrients and some basic understanding of biology. Frankly, the cat's out of the bag on that. What happened with nuclear weapons also happened with the "boutique" pot culture. It's called proliferation of technology. If a 7th Century dictatorship can build nukes, surely a 21st. community college grad can grasp the essentials of producing exotic pot. The boutique varieties are just as easy to being replicated by the home gardener as exotic roses or camellias.

The only reasonable way of truly gaining the full tax benefit from Cannabis is to strictly regulate and control the production, transportation, distribution and sales. This, however, goes contrary to the countercultural ideal of cannabis as nature's gift to Pink Floyd and Jerry Garcia fans. Regulation starts with deciding who can grow it, how you grow, where you grow it, how you transport it and so on down the line to where the chain of custody is monitored and accounted for at every step. That would also mean that growing for personal consumption would once again become illegal. There would be a permit application process, years of deliberation and lobbying, the inevitable backroom deals and the likelihood of bribes and corruption at worst. At best, the permits would go to the deepest pockets.

This approach has zero appeal to everyone except the government and huge corporations. The only entities currently in a position to create this level of production and control are Big Pharma and Big Tobacco. They're the only ones who have the capital and production/distribution infrastructure to ensure compliance with government mandates and tax collection controls. Every pack of Newport Lights and American Spirit sold in the U.S. has a tax stamp on the bottom of the cellophane wrapper. This is the sort of monitoring the government would demand of widespread Cannabis sales. Will the day come when the government will happily step in and make sure Joe Hemp's Humboldt Trip Weed Lights has a tax stamp?

The pot culture reacts to this scenario the same way Vegans react to cattle ranching. Pot isn't and shouldn't be about boosting the bottom line for Phillip Morris or Merck. And tax collecting isn't about ensuring that pot stays cheap and available. Whenever states or the Feds run out of money, the go-to tax targets are the sin taxes - liquor, tobacco and gambling. Nobody ever feels bad about taxing the evil enterprises. Cannabis will not be immune to this. Tax-wise, it will be lumped in with smokes and stupid juice.

Politicians don't want anything to do with administering the Cannabis industry. They don't want to be in the pot business in any way. But, based on the few pols willing to talk about this, they'd be happy to tax the hell out of pot. Just as long as it's not them that makes the final decision on legalization. No career politician wants to go down in history as the guy (or woman) who finally opened the pot floodgates. Even the current POTUS, a documented former user and most liberal president ever, has emphatically refused to legalize the Devil's Weed. Why? Because despite the glowing predictions of a crime-free future and all that alleged tax money, there's going to be a social, economic and medical downside. With pot so available, why are people who can easily get a medical card still doing Ecstasy, bath salts, crack, heroin, meth and toad juice? Because they want a specific high that's not available with the weed. Legalizing weed will probably keep the strictly weed user out of jail. But the reality, as any street cop will tell you, is that habitual users tend to be spectrum users. They ingest anything to get a buzz. And when they're caught for possession, they're carrying more than just pot.

Is there an anwer?

It depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you want a big tax influx to the government, the only course to achieve that is a large, intrusive bureaucracy, banning individual growing, licensing a handful of corporate super-growers and being happy with whatever price point and tax rate is imposed. Just like liquor and tobacco.

If you want total, unrestricted legalization, there will be no tax revenues. That scenario will predictably depress prices to rock bottom levels. Every offshore producer and in-country grower (small and large) will create an oversupply situation. That's good news for users and bad news for growers, cartels and smugglers. Let's call this the Jerry Garcia scenario. The suppliers with the deepest pockets will survive. The others will go out of business.

If we look into the future of the Garcia scenario, you can see the possibility of big corporations entering the market. It is legal, after all, and you can't prevent Merck or Genentech from getting into a legal business. And if you do, they'll hit you with a restraint of business suit that will probably stand up in court. They'll be in a position to package and market the hell out of their product. And the possibility exists that they may come to dominate the market. The home grower can still be self-sustaining but human nature being what it is, especially the nature of chronic users, growing your own may lose its appeal.

Basically, this is a long roundabout way of getting people thinking about their definition of legal. Clearly every faction in this argument defines it differently. If we were all working from the same definition, maybe someone could craft a law we can all live with without having our pockets picked either by smugglers, mega corporations or the government.

GUEST LECTURER.


Every so often we get exchanges in the COMMENTS section that deserve a more prominent place on this blog. In the past, we've had priceless info from Tijuana Jailer and several others and I gave them the big platform. This is another one of those bits of info that cries out for a prominent place. The following is a response from Pepsi Man - don't ask, I don't know who he is - but he knows his stuff. The message is more important than the messenger so I accept it as a gift. 


In response to Anonymous' question as to whether there has been intercepted NF/EME communication.

Yes in recent years it was discovered that the EME upper echelon approached the NF during the 2000 peace talks at the Bay. Members from all factions of the big organizations, EME/AB/BGF/NLR were encouraged by the CDCR at Pelican Bay SHU to walk freely among the SHU units to discuss the possibility of reducing prison violence in California prisons. NF was also offed to participate and bring 3 members of their organization to the table to participate in the peace talks and walk-abouts but the NF hierarchy refused. They (NF) claimed that they were currently under indictment in the "Operation Black Widow" case. But then so were EME members and they still participated. 

Each organization gave assurances that no violence would occur during this process and all efforts were undertaken to involve the NF but proved futile. They refused. 

One good result from the interaction between NF/EME was the establishment of the "Door Policy" at the Bay and Corcoran state prisons. CDCR staff had a penchant for popping the wrong doors during yard releases, showers, etc. of rival members and forcing an altercation. The result was Surenos/Nortenos, Carnales from both sides engaging in battle on the tiers. Many got shot or received additional sentences as a result of these "arranged confrontations". The leadership of both organizations agreed that; "if the doors were to open nobody was obligated to engage in battle unless they were challenged or threatened". It was called; "The Door Policy". It held and still holds the current policy at the Bay but unfortunately as of 3/4/11. communication was intercepted in Corcoran state prison that indicates that Surenos? Nortenos-NF/EME are engaged in open conflicts within the SHU with orders to attack each other even if "cuffed up" during escorts while under escort if anyone feels threatened or the need to. So it would appear that the door policy established in 2000 is finally starting to dissolve at least in Corcoran. 

It does prove one thing though.. That the NF/EME has worked in unison in the recent past and can accomplish goals to reduce the violence if both feel that it benefits their respective organizations.

Peace.

Pepsi Man. 

NEW BOOK FOR THE LIBRARY
Since dropping out of the Mexican Mafia, Rene Enriquez hasn't just quit the life. He's launched himself on a mission to help dismantle the organization to which he devoted his entire adult life. He's testified against his former brothers, collaborated on a book with LA TV journalist Chris Blatchford (The Black Hand), attended law enforcement conferences as a speaker and you can still find his videos on YouTube.

His latest effort is a manual for law enforcement, prosecutors, COs and anyone else who has a more than passing interest in the subject.

It's not intended to be as in-depth as The Black Hand. Instead, it's an introduction to the world he knows better than anyone. It essentially answers all the questions that usually come up when someone first becomes aware of the subject. Think of it as a survey course on the Eme. It's a terrific reference source and an absolute must-have for anyone who wants to know what really goes on behind the Eme's wall of silence. You can find it on Amazon.com or www.policeandfirepublishing.com.

WHERE THE GUNS COME FROM.
The conventional wisdom is that the Mexican Cartels get their guns from the U.S. The usual culprits are gun shows, sleazy gun dealers who knowingly sell to "straw" buyers and, of course, guns stolen in the U.S. in the course of burglaries.

The usual number we hear is that 90% of the guns confiscated in Mexico can be traced back to the U.S. The truth is, that of all the guns confiscated by the law in Mexico, only a small percentage can actually be traced. And of that small percentage, 90% came from the U.S. No one has ever presented a clear picture of where the rest of the "untraceable" guns come from.

With the recent extradition of Viktor Bout, the notorious ex-Soviet military arms smuggler, it's worth considering once again the scope and volume of international illegal weapons trafficking. Below are two images of weapons confiscated after a huge firefight with a Cartel.

The images above should tell anyone with even minimal knowledge of weaponry that these are not the type you can buy at a gun show or steal from grandpa's closet. This is military weaponry. The top image shows  Russian made RPGs - Rocket Propelled Grenade. That's a standard weapon for Soviet bloc ground units and a favorite of insurgents and criminals wordlwide. Needless to say, it's not available for love or money in the U.S. You need to be seriously connected to get your hands on these.

The lower image shows a suitcase full of loose hand grenades and linked grenades. Like the RPG, there's no way these came from the U.S. through the "accepted" avenues of gun shows, straw buyers or burglaries. Those linked grenades are made to be fired from a full-auto grenade launcher. I'm not well-versed enough to determine which grenade launcher fires this particular round but the Russians, Chinese, U.S., Germans and virtually every arms-building country in the world has some version of a full-auto grenade launcher.

Did this stuff come from Viktor Bout or some other arms peddler? Probably. For sure it didn't come from a gun show or a kitchen table gun dealer.

Other images exist of confiscated equipment that isn't as sexy as the parade of firepower on display above. Here we're talking about Satphones linked to transponders on Chinese comms satellites, fully encrypted military radios with either Chinese, Korean or Russian markings and other fun stuff like plastique, remote controlled detonators and NVGs.

The simple fact of the matter is that Cartels can get anything they want on the clandestine weapons market. They've got the deep pockets to buy anything and they control the ports of entry.

L.A. TIMES NOT SO SURE ON POT LEGALIZATION.
In an editorial yesterday, the L.A. Times came out against legalizing Cannabis - at least as the law is currently consituted in Prop. 19. The Times focused on two major points. One, is that Prop. 19 would leave regulation to individual counties and towns. The confusion that would follow is obvious; what's legal in L.A. County would not be legal in Orange or Humboldt. The other big problem with legalization according to the Times is that whatever legalization measures are taken, the law would still violate Federal statutes. Both are valid objections. What's the point of passing a local law if the Feds suddenly decide to enforce the law of the land?

While it's refreshing not to hear the "Legalize it, tax it and screw the consequences" from the usual Left-leaning newspaper, you sort of wish the Times would adopt a more consistent position on local laws complying with Federal law. For instance, the paper has never run an editorial against cities with "Sanctuary" laws because those laws violate Federal statutes. Just the opposite. The Times, through its staff columnists and on the editorial pages, has consistently sided with Sanctuary cities and called for blanket amnesty. In other words, they don't like the Federal immigration law and they want to change it.

You have to wonder wonder why the Times doesn't call for a change in the Federal law on Cannabis. Just something to think about.

L.A. SEES RECORD LOW HOMICIDE RATES.
According to the L.A. Times, the LAPD reports that Los Angeles is on track to record the lowest homicide rates in decades. Compared to 1992 when homicides reached 1,200 for the year, 2010 looks like it's on track to record somewhere around 300.

This is frankly astonishing. For one, it flies in the face of conventional wisdom that says a bad economic climate triggers higher crime rates. Clearly we're in an economic sinkhole. So how do you explain this drop?

I've got a few theories, but I'd like to hear from readers. What's your take on this?

WHO WANTS POT LEGALIZED?
The issue legal pot seems to morph with every headline. Just when you think you've got a handle on it, something pops up from left field and forces the thinking person to re-evaluate his position or question the very premises on which that position was based.

When the issue first became public discourse, the players, advocates and opponents were fairly well established. The proponents for legalized cannabis were, of course, the stoners, the genuinely sick who found relief in the herb and the growers and sellers. Cops? Nope. Didn't want it. Politicians? They weren't sure. Their position, as with every position they take, centered on whether they could 1) ensure re-election and 2) if there was some way lard the slush funds and public treasure they're in charge of.

Alliances seem to have shifted and they seem to defy the old logic. Now, most cops, as we saw last week, are in favor of complete legalization. They want the issue out of their lives so they can focus smaller budgets on bigger fish. Stoners, of course, are all for it. Ditto the genuine patients. Even the Teamsters Union, hard up for membership and union dues, is reaching out to legal pot workers in a bid to unionize them. Free suggestion for a name: CANNABIS WORKERS TEAMSTERS LOCAL 420.

The old line growers in the NORCAL green triangle, the one group you would think was on the forefront of total legalization, isn't so sure anymore. They foresee a future where anybody with a few square feet of dirt in the back yard, is suddenly either a competitor or a self-sustaining user. In either case, their profits suffer. In addition to competition eating into the proceeds, they see the government stepping in and demanding business permits, corporate taxes, individual taxes, payroll taxes, workmen's comp, FICA, unemployment insurance, OSHA inspections, Department of Agriculture interference and the rest of the red tape that seems to be the government's sole reason for existence. And if the Teamsters get their way, the pot growers will have to deal with sick-outs, sit-down strikes, mandatory collective bargaining, shop stewards, picketers, paid holidays, retirement plans, repetitive motion injury lawsuits and all the other problems that unionized shops have to deal with. Think General Motors.

Sam Quinones wrote a piece touching on some of this in the LA Times some weeks ago. The reality of legalization flies in the face of the advocates whose mantra has been, "Legalize it and tax it." Well the very people providing the product aren't so sure they're on board with that any more. It turns out that dope growers have a lot more in common with Libertarians than they do with Socialists and Liberal activists. They don't want to be taxed and gummed up with paperwork any more than the most avaricious Wall Street hustler.

And let's not forget that the criminal element has a vote. Would wholesale legalization drive the criminals out of the business? Absolutely not. It may reduce the crime (and that's debatable), but it won't take criminals out of the equation.

For instance, who is currently in the perfect position to supply tons and tons of low cost product to the market? If you guessed the Mexican cartels, you guessed right. They can outproduce and undercut the big NORCAL growers and they can do it without government interference, taxes, the Teamsters Union or OSHA standards. They may even make a backyard grower think twice about going through the pain of growing a private crop. If it's cheaper to buy than grow, they'll buy. Think Mexican assembled TV sets and patio furniture. Mexico can undercut any manufactured product built in the U.S. There's no reason to think they can't do it with Cannabis.

If this scenario sounds over the top, consider this. When you make pot legal, (truly legal, not just decriminalized) it should be legal to import, transport, distribute, package, sell, re-sell, give samples away, use in public, promote and advertise.

You can see the time when the giant loads of hay driving south on the 5 from the Central Valley will be in the company of flatbeds  loaded to the stakes with bundles of Cannabis. If it's legal, why not? Your thoughts.

AU CONTRAIRE, SAYS OBAMA.
She says "insurgency." He says "not so fast, Mrs. Secretary." Our last post articulated Hillary Clinton's position on the MEXTEL (our term for Mexican Drug Cartel) violence. She correctly called it an insurgency. Naturally, any accurate statement made with regard to anything in Mexico is met with a blowtorch of backlash and "how dare you?" posturing from the ruling kleptocracy in charge of the mess.

It's no surprise that the President forced Mrs. Clinton to walk back her assertion. He's notoriously reluctanct to criticize any foreign power not matter how barbarous, medieval or oppressive. Stoning women and hanging gays in the Middle East elicits at most a tepid response. Most of the time, there's no response at all.

What Mrs. Clinton meant, she now claims, is that the level of violence in Mexico resembles the same level as the Colombian cartel insurgency. Okay. Thanks for the clarification. But we know what she still believes.

On the other hand, when it comes to criticizing the U.S., he's right there at the head of the line. Or cheerleading from the sidelines. In his eyes, and Calderon's, Arizona cops asking a speeder for a driver's license is clearly on a level with the Sturmabteilung dragging people out of their beds and throwing them into Nazi dungeons. And when cops enforce the laws of the land, it's obvious they must be punished by the Justice Department.

Let's get real clear about this. When car bombs are detonated in front of police stations and news agencies to prevent them doing their jobs, it's an insurgency. When newspeople, street cops, judges, lawyers, prosecutors, elected officials and social activists are kidnapped, tortured and executed, it's an insurgency. When an 18-truck convoy complete with helicopter air cover shows up at the gates of a Mexican penitentiary and forces the cops to give up 57 cartel convicts, it's an insurgency. When 72 innocent men, women and children are lined up and shot to death for committing the unpardonable sin of not having enough extortion money on them, and nobody seems to know who did it, and no one seems to care, it's an insurgency. When MEXTELS make deals with Middle East terrorists to equip and train cartel operators in the fine art of insurgency, it's a freaking INSURGENCY.

STATE DEPT. FINALLY GETS ON BOARD.
Today's LA TIMES delivers the earth shattering news that the criminal situation in Mexico is an "insurgency." This term comes from the lips of none other than the woman with her finger on the pulse of world affairs - Hilary Clinton. She finally came around to that startling conclusion almost four years after those words were uttered by this blog. I said as much on at least a half dozen radio interviews in the past two years.

The evidence has been there for anyone to see. An insugency is an attempt by an organized group to destroy civil authority. The cartels have been at that game for years. It could not have been more evident. Naturally, I, and those who agreed with me, were branded the usual assortment of epithets. "Racist" being the go-to term for daring to call something what it actually is. You have to wonder if Hilary is now going to be branded a racist as well.

ROLO FINDS U.S. JAIL SAFER THAN LIVING IN MEXICO.
After eleven years living and operating in Mexico, Rolando "Rolo" Ontiveros slipped back across the border in February and immediately started turning the heads of people who know him. It was only a matter of time before street intel would bring him to LE attention.

For those familiar with the Shady Detevis, Chuy Martinez, Stranger Turscak Federal indictment, Rolo was the only person named in the indictment that was not taken into custody. He fled to Mexico where, according to sources, he had family connections to high level traffickers. While there, he apparently owned a couple of nightclubs but continued to operate by proxy on this side of the border. Before he fled the indictment, Rolo was running a couple of used car dealerships in LA and running business on the streets. In the indictment, Rolo was named as being connected to the homicide of Richard Serrano, a rival to Chuy.

Like a number of his contemporaries, Rolo didn't sport visible tattoos or carry any other outward signs of being connected.

There's a strong suspicion that Rolo was finally driven back into the U.S. after he survived a hand grenade attack in Mexico. Unknown is the reason for the grenading but it's probably the outcome of intra-mural warfare between cartels. More proof that if the cops don't get you, your business rivals will.

CARTELS AND OTHER CRIMINAL ORGS SCORE A WIN.
The politicians in charge of our lives in Los Angeles handed every smuggler and dope dealer carte blanche to continue doing business. It's clear that the camel got his nose under the tent and slid his whole body into your sleeping bag.

What we heard yesterday was nothing that will impose any kind of control mechanism to determine where the cannabis originates, how it's supposed to be transported and how much unregulated money is exchanged across the counter.

With close to a thousand retail outlets slinging unmonitored dope it's the worst of all possible outcomes for law enforcement and the legal tax collectors and a huge boost for any criminal org that's already involved in drug smuggling.

TWO MASSACRES. ONLY ONE MAKES THE NEWS.

The massacre at Fort Hood this week has made headlines around the world. As it should. Contrast this event, however, to the massacre of union leader Margarito Montes Parra and 14 family members and associates in Sonora, Mexico last week. The Parra event barely broke through the background news noise. The Times and some other big papers covered it but it barely caused a blip on the average American's radar screen.

We're at a point where wholesale slaughter in Mexico is the norm rather than the exception. We've slowly been de-sensitized to Mexican drug violence to a point where it will take a 9/11 type event to finally wrap the public's head around the fact that Mexico is augering in like a lawn dart. And if it goes, we'll be sharing the border with a nation that resembles Afghanistan more than it does Canada.

While the Ft. Hood killings were the product of a single whack job (motivated by a combination of Islamist ideology and mental problems) the Parra massacre was clearly an orchestrated event involving numerous shooters, surveillance, intel and communications operators. In the rural area where Parra was killed, you can't rely on cell phones to stage a tracking and ambush operation. The killers probably had military-grade comms equipment and the necessary discipline and cold-blooded determination to kill not just Parra but his wife and children.

This kind of violence speaks of organization, training and singular intent. These are skills not easily obtained and require a great deal more training than required for a drive-by shooting or a carjacking. In the spectrum of violence, the Parra massacre, as cowardly as it was, ranks fairly high - just a few shades off a political assassination.

If history is anything to go by, the investigation into the Parra massacre will yield zero results. Those ultimately responsible will never be caught, or even named. And the stage will be set for an even bigger body count.

The big fear, or course is that this level of paramilitary organized violence will eventually seep across the border. As Mexico has been de-sensitized, we're been also being immunized to body counts. Eight years after the Twin Towers fell, we've got a significant portion of the population that has already given up the fight and urging the administration to do something other than kill the Islamists responsible for 9/11. If 3,000 plus dead isn't enough to sustain a vigorous search and destroy mission, how quickly will those same people shy away from a fight when only a dozen or so civilians are cut down by a cartel assassination squad on U.S. soil?

FEDS STIR THE MED POT.
The USDOJ is releasing a three-page document that will clear up all the problems local governments are facing with the med pot clinics. The net result will be even more confusion and lack of specificity on exactly what constitutes legal and illegal production, transportation, distribution, possession, sales and use.

And where there's confusion, there will be profit.

Nobody seems to be able to articulate a clear policy that addresses the glaring holes that let illegal operators move their product through the "legal" outlets.

It's clear that local, state and federal governments do not want to be in the pot business. They don't even want to be in the pot regulation business for the simple reason that pot regulation will in all probability suck them right into the heart of the business. It's a case of being a little bit pregnant. In a business fraught with all the financial, criminal and political landmines of a recreational drug, the politicians see all too clearly the possibility of stepping on a five hundred pounder.

There's only two ways this can go. One is to completely legalize pot and remove all penalties for production, transport, sales etc. The other is to have the government license a few giant agri-businesses to grow enough pot to satisfy demand and regulate the hell out of it all the way to the end user.

Neither of those options are likely. And the middle course which is now being pursued isn't making anyone happy. Except some high volume smugglers, that is. This is going to get a lot more entertaining before it's all over. And the money will continue to flow into criminal orgs until somebody comes up with a brilliant idea.

AVENUES CAN'T STAY OUT OF THE NEWS.
Yesterday ICE and the LAPD arrested nine members or associates of the Drew Street clique of Avenues on immigrant smuggling charges. The arrests took place on Avenue 34, in Holtville and Calexico. Clearly, the Guerrero faction of Drew Street doesn't limit its activities to dope and taxation. According to the ICE press release, this group was responsible for smuggling 200 immigrants a year into the US for prices ranging from $2,500 to $4,000 depending on the mode of transport and other factors.

Continuing on the theme of a recent post, it's becoming clear that the lines between traditional neighborhoods and the Emeros and their connection to International criminal orgs is becoming blurred. Immigrant smuggling has not been a core activity of neighborhood operations. That sort of operation was left to the border-based groups and freelance coyotes.

That no longer seems to be the case. Where there's money to be made, mutually beneficial alliances between criminal groups usually follows. These alliances my be temporary or they may be an indication of things to come. One could easily see the creation of hybrid gangs composed of locals and foreigners with an equally heterogeneous hierarchy composed of prison-based and cross-border upper level managers.

The founders of the current Eme saw in their future a super gang composed of the best from the street gangs. We may be seeing the beginning of a future supergang composed of the best from both sides of the border.

I HATE TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO.
It should be obvious by now to even my most rabid detractors that this blog does not shoot from the hip. Years ago when I reported that a campaign was afoot to drive blacks out of certain neighborhoods, I was blasted by all and sundry for being everything from an alarmist, to a nutbag, to (according to one former editor of a weekly rag) "having an agenda for inciting racial hatred." In the fullness of time, the US Attorney filed a case against Avenues for precisely the campaign I had reported. Obviously I was on to something and events proved me correct. There's no joy in being right about something like that. Check out the latest: http://www.sgvtribune.com/ci_13528363#

Earlier this week, I posted an item about Mexican cartels moving product through the med pot dispensaries. Again I was blasted for "really losing it" and other assorted attacks that weren't fit for the comments section. It took all of two days for LA County's top cop to validate my claim.

Just for the record, I don't pull stuff out of thin air. I deal in facts. Think of this blog as a beautiful iceberg. The visible part is what appears online. But there's ninety percent under the surface that you don't see. That tiny visible part could not exist without a mountain of facts supporting it. For future reference, do not doubt me. If it appears on this blog, there's enough evidence behind it to choke a whale.

STEVE COOLEY'S BUZZ KILL.
Well that didn't take long. According to the LA Times, LA District Attorney Steve Cooley just announced that every single medical marijuana store is breaking the law and is subject to prosecution.

Obviously, this is going to drive Med Pot advocates insane. Just when they thought they'd won the fight, it turns out victory went to their head. They were a little too celebratory in victory. The explosion of legal and quasi-legal dispensaries has correctly drawn the attention of law enforcement.Look at the ads in KUSH L.A. Magazine and it's obvious that the stores are flaunting the regulations, even as thin and ineffective as they are.

No matter where you stand on the issue, you have to admit that there aren't that many people suffering from glaucoma and undergoing chemo that you need 800 dispensaries moving hundreds of pounds a day to take care of legitimate needs. The sheer number of stores has rightly resulted in concern that there may be something going on here that has little to do with sick people.

It's become clear to anyone familiar with the production and distribution matrix that illegal dope is entering the system and putting money into the hands of organized criminal groups. That's a legitimate law enforcement concern. And as the County's chief law enforcement officer, Cooley has an obligation to act.

The pro Med Pot war cry is this - Legalize it and Tax it. Proponents argue that it's a legitimate drug used for serious medical problems. On the other hand, they also want Cannabis treated like tobacco and liquor. Those arguments taken together frankly don't make sense. Tobacco and liquor are not medicine.

If cannabis is medicine, as they claim, then it should be regulated, controlled taxed and monitored like medicine. But that's one argument missing from their lexicon. The pro potters aren't busting down the doors at the FDA demanding to regulated, poked, prodded, tested and evaluated to the same degree as Ambasol.

The Med Pot lobby can't have it both ways. You can't use the medical argument if you object to being regulated and controlled like medicine. And you can't ask for equal treatment as tobacco and booze if you claim you're in the pharma business.

Tobacco and booze are heavily regulated. And Chivas Regal never claimed to cure insomnia. You can't for instance, brew up some bourbon in the back yard tub and sell it at the local quicki-mart. Same thing with tobacco. There's an agency called the ATF you have to deal with.

As the current Med Pot regulations are written, anyboby with a med card and ten square feet of dirt can get into the cannabis business. A cash business free of taxation, regulation or control. Consequently, it opens up huge possibilities for corruption and illegal operations.

The Med Pot proponents really need to examine their premises. Are they purveyors of recreational drugs? Or are they medical providers? Right now it appears they want to be treated with the deference of medical caregivers but they want to do it on the honor system. We don't let Wyeth or Glaxo work that way.

This issue needs to be reset to zero and finessed by somebody with the brains to make pot available to the genuinely sick while preventing corruption and reduce the likelihood of criminal exploitation.