Pat Dollard

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Borderland Beat:

The emergence of a new cell from La Familia Michoacana calling themselves “Los Caballeros Templarios,” The Knights Templar. Not known by most US authorities. A picture of the arsenal and propaganda seized by Mexican police.

Mexico’s cartel members, their families and their associates have been moving to various cities in the United States along the border to live, to the extent that these criminal groups have expanded their operations on American soil, warned a declassified alert of the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC).

The alert cautioned that efforts by Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTO’s) to expand their operations in the United States has been the cause of increased violence across the southwest.

Information from the Center Intelligence indicates that Mexico’s cartels are operating in at least 286,000 cities in the nine regions.

Of all these cities, in 143 operations of drug trafficking are entirely controlled directly by the members of the cartels in Mexico.

It is noted that the Sinaloa cartel operates in at least 75 U.S. cities, the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas at least 37 cities, Juarez has been established in 33 cities, that of the Beltrán Leyva in 30, “La Familia Michoacana” in at least 27, and Tijuana in 21 cities.

Without specifying the names of the cities that identifies members of the cartels, the warning of the NDIC assures that these cities have seem an increase of the sale of drugs and also violence.

“It is no wonder that the south of the border region is on fire and we have reason to be concerned about the cartel-related violence, because we worry that violence will span to the US as the cartels continue to battle for control of drug trafficking routes from Mexico to the United States, and also the control drug trafficking inside the US.”

Unlike previous reports of the operation of franchises in the U.S. by Mexican cartels, the alert advises that there is now evidence that family members of drug trafficking organizations of lower and middle level members have settled in US territory especially in the southwest region of the United States-Mexico border.

Tracking suspects

The security agencies of the United States have started to seek information of the identity of people who are involved with criminal organizations or cartels of Mexico already within the United States.

Alerts are preventive communicative measures that the U.S. government broadcasts to their agencies with respect to reliable information about an event and for that reason gives notice to their staff.

The so-called high level or classified information reach only the top circle of the United States government, but there are other sources of information that are distributed to the ground operatives and in some cases are made public through web sites, like the alerts for travel advisory by the U.S. State Department.

The report in question was dated March 27, 2011 and distributed to embassies and border entry points on April 4, 2011.

The alert was sent to U.S. agencies under the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to identify members of the cartels that are crossing regularly across the border or even those who cross on a visa but settled on US soil.

It is in the same way as the case of members of the Mara Salvatrucha and members of other street gangs from Central America that enter the United States, the report states that officials should consider checking for necklaces with symbols used by the drug cartels, leather jackets, Tattoos and other jewelry related to symbols that identify members of criminal organizations in Mexico.

The alert issued by the National Drug Intelligence does not specify whether there have been any arrests of cartel members in the US, but it claims it based on evidence from intelligence and will maintain surveillance at ports of international entry, especially from land and air.