In at least this specific case, there appears to be a connection between illegal immigration (human trafficking) and drug cartels. One also wonders if some of these immigrants are drug mules or other gang operatives. See People close to notorious Zetas cartel helped immigrants found in truck in Walmart parking lot cross the Rio Grande, according to survivor.Excerpt:
Survivors of Texas migrant truck have told of how they came to be locked insideAbout Los Zetas:
One said smugglers connected to Zetas cartel charged $700 to take them across the Rio Grande, before they were locked inside the tractor-trailer
Group of up to 200 people sat in there from Saturday morning until 9pm when they set out for San Antonio where they were later discovered, source said
Driver James Bradley Jr has been charged with transporting migrants illegally
The Zetas gang, also known as Los Zetas, was originally part of the Gulf cartel, one of Mexico's largest and deadliest criminal organizations which was established in the mid 1980s.
Zetas was formed in 1997 by a group of Special Forces defectors which served the larger cartel and acted as enforcers for them. They were hired, predominantly, as bodyguards and assassins and there were 31 of them in total to begin with.
Their name translates to 'The Zs' and is derived from the code names given to their leaders - all of which start with the letter Z.
Because of its members advanced military training, they brought a new level of sophistication to the underworld and created fresh challenges for US law enforcement agencies trying to crack down on the Mexico's drug gangs.
In 2002, they struck out on their own.
Unlike other gangs which navigated large parts of the underworld through making deals with violence a collateral side effect, the Zetas MO is torture and terror.
They are responsible for the 2010 massacre of 72 illegal migrants whose bodies were found dumped in a mass grave in San Fernando.
Images of the victims, who were from other Central and South American countries, shocked the world and illustrated the brutality of the Mexican cartel world.
They were savagely killed after refusing to work for Los Zetas or give them money to be released.
 |
| Frank G. Fuentes |
Note that this young man had both a criminal record and a deportation record — never mind that he was a fine-looking young man and educated in the United States, at the expense of the Fairfax County taxpayers.
Certainly some illegal immigrants are good people. But the fact remains that some are not, and this ugly reality applies to some protected by DACA, established by the Obama administration in 2012.
Close our porous southern border!
Find and vet the illegal aliens in our midst!
MSM states there were two fifteen year olds in the trailer.
ReplyDeleteO.K. Probably non-English speaking. No healthcare. No skills. So we will have (if female) pregnancies and anchor babies within a year, and if male - possible drug pushers trying to pay off their debt to the Zeta Cartel.
One-third of patients at my hospital are now unfunded. Many are non-English speaking.
You are paying for their care.
Scary version of Zeta? They assist the individuals in the trailer with fraudulent stolen identifications so they can begin to collect benefits.
You... are also paying for this tragedy against the American taxpayer.
Add the cost to the hospitals of translators. No longer does the government permit family interpreters. Our bill was enormous. Wait until one of them go into a 24 hour labor requiring services. 30 million in free care the last year I worked in healthcare.
DeleteAnd so many people just don't care how much we're paying...that we're destroying OURSELVES and that our country will have to stop helping other countries in need..something the Left supposedly loves to do...because we'll be broke. The hypocrisy never ends....
DeleteLet's keep America fiscally healthy, her people thriving, and then we can do what America has done in the past....bringing in those who want to come here and contribute, not just suck us dry. WHY can't many Democrats understand this? It's easy!
Liberals make no distinction between citizens and residents.
DeleteTherefore they ARE supporting Americans.
In their own mind.
Ed,
DeleteYou're right.
Tammy,
Deletefraudulent stolen identifications so they can begin to collect benefits
Happens more than most people know. In fact, such identity theft is common practice.
Bunkerville,
DeleteThe cost of hospital translators is rarely mentioned. Thank you for calling our attention to that matter!
Obviously, you worked in the field of dealing with these matters.
TLEP,
DeleteSo we will have (if female) pregnancies and anchor babies within a year, and if male - possible drug pushers trying to pay off their debt to the Zeta Cartel.
Precisely! And just who is their prey?
One-third of patients at my hospital are now unfunded.
Which will eventually lead to a failed business model.
Sure its all connected. Criminal syndicates branch out into all manner of lucrative activities.
ReplyDeleteWe will continue as a nation to consume obscene amounts of drugs, and criminals will continue to do bloody battle against one another over the multi-billion dollar industry of supplying us.
We suffer a sickness of the soul.
Build a wall to the moon if King Sh!t of the United State of Turd Hill decrees it... We will become Mexico. Will Canada build a wall to keep us out when we've been Mexifornicated?
Carving a self-perpetuating civilization of peace and prosperity out of the vast Hobbesean wasteland looks so easy to the pseudointellectuals and their anything-goes progressive progeny...
Society is a thin veneer, and humans are the most dangerous animals on the planet.
SF,
DeleteWill Canada build a wall to keep us out when we've been Mexifornicated?
Just imagine how long that wall would be!
Not that it would ever be built.
We will continue as a nation to consume obscene amounts of drugs
Americans are only just now catching on as to how bad the situation already is. But I'm concerned that it's too little, too late. Meanwhile, the FDA is clamping down on the doctors and the pharmacies to the point that patients who desperately need the medications so as not to writhe in agony are left to fend for themselves. The war on opioids now takes precedence over patient care.
Congrats to the survivors. They will never be deported and they will end up winning million$ in settlements.
ReplyDeleteAre they going to sue the cartel?
DeleteMaybe a RICO suit?
Make sense.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, cupcake
Deletehttps://www.upi.com/Undocumented-immigrant-wins-190k-after-San-Francisco-violates-sanctuary-city-law/3521498804867/
http://www.teenvogue.com/story/formerly-detained-immigrants-file-class-action-lawsuit-against-ice-contractor-over-alleged-forced-labor
Tio Sugah got deep pockets yo
Jaded Cynic,
DeleteSheesh.
Meanwhile, we citizens are working like serfs. No cash settlements for us.
Good vs. bad is at best subjective. In my mind, the issue isn't whether they are good people or bad people; they are law breakers. And we should wonder whether, and to what extent, such disregard for our immigration laws leads one to disregard our other laws, as well. I also do not doubt that these trespassers are useful tools for the drug cartels ... what do they care about the safety and security of our communities? I do not seek to diminish these people as human beings; I only insist that if they come here at all, that they do so in accordance with our laws and procedures. Kate Steinle deserved better than what she got. If they are capable of cutting down Kate, then everyone else is at equal risk. I also agree with English Prince/Bunkerville ... the costs to our economy is staggering.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to Kate Steinle and the subsequent reaction of our feckless so-called elected public servants on Capitol Hill infuriates me.
DeleteAnd, of course, illegal aliens are useful tools for the drug cartels.
As for the safety and security of our communities, less that four blocks from me is a rendezvous point for illegals selling drugs -- right in the shadows of the immigration attorneys' office.
The outright gang warfare is two miles up the road -- in the low-rent garden apartments. Those apartments were good places to live back in the 1970s. No more!
Erratum...less that four should read "less than four."
DeleteLook for the Infotainment Media Complex to blame President Trump's immigration crackdown for this.
ReplyDeleteIf we weren't enforcing the racist Nazi immigration laws to harshly, people wouldn't have to go to such dangerous extremes.
Mark my works. We will see such coverage.
One said smugglers connected to Zetas cartel charged $700 to take them across the Rio Grande
ReplyDeleteTravel "legally" and the roundtrip airfare from Mexico City to Washington DC is as low as $191.
The drug cartels are involved in human trafficking.
ReplyDeleteStop the presses!!!
Really, where's the story.
Some points bear repetition.
DeleteUnlike "Russian Collusion".
Ed, You should know by now leftwing progs have a callous disregard for human life, womens rights, and human trafficking, unless in can be propagandized for one of their intersectionalized causes.
DeleteC'mon, Ducky, explain to us again how legalizing cocaine, heroin and other hard drugs will solve all this.
DeleteI forgot....
DeleteSF,
DeleteWhat will solve all this?
Not a snarky query.
May I? Revival.
DeleteEd is right, of course. As I said above, we suffer a sickness of the soul.
DeleteCentral American criminal gangs have poisoned and destroyed large swathes of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. So far, Nicaragua and points south have been spared, for now, but Mexico is being eaten alive.
We need a comprehensive law enforcement and intel-driven cooperation among all the North American and Central American States, including the US.
Unfortunately, each nation has to take out the gang bangers. They are irredeemable in this world.
It would take a coordinated effort, but it won't happen. The nations to our south are corrupt, ill-equipped and thanks to our past actions, they don't trust us.
Nobody has the political will to call this evil by name and attack it viscously until it is dead. Teams of lawyers in front of TV cameras screaming civil rights, human rights, etc.
Pre-Duterte Philippines--with our training, logistics and intel help--pretty much rolled up their islamofascist insurgent plague, but guess what?
They're Baaaack. The Jihadis escaping the ME are now attacking the Southern Philippines, and guess who their version of leftwing New York lawsters are blaming? That's right. The philippine government.
So, as violence like this always does, it will continue to metastasize down south and here in the US. Google "Long Island MS13"
I used to end such remarks with "So, until people get fed up..." but that's a useless statement.
Even if we got fed up, so what? The DemonCrap-Repubelicant DC Crime Syndicate is giving us a lesson in spades that even a federal election doesn't matter.
Why couldn't Obama get us out of Afghanistan? The Police State monster is bigger than anybody, its unaccountable, and out of control.
I'll end my Jeremiad by repeating what I said above:
Carving a self-perpetuating civilization of peace and prosperity out of the vast Hobbesean wasteland looks so easy to the pseudointellectuals and their anything-goes progressive progeny...
...But it is terribly difficult and comes only with great sacrifice. Society is a thin veneer, and humans are the most dangerous animals on the planet.
Silverfiddle, you are aware that drug interdiction has been an abject failure.
DeleteThere is no "solution".
Drug interdiction and human trafficking are different issues except for being driven by the tremendous profit. As long as the profit is there, the cartel is there.
So just quit all efforts to keep drugs from flowing in? Is that your position?
DeleteYou're good a sneering out leftwing soundbites, but you run away when anyone asks you for substance.
Do we just allow drugs in? What is your answer to this?
I think so. Officially import drugs that meet our ethical, ecological etc. standards, and repel the ones that are problematic. Tobacco fields don't fund gangs and civil wars, why is that?
DeleteJez,
DeleteOfficially import drugs that meet our ethical, ecological etc. standards, and repel the ones that are problematic.
Huh?
Aren't we already trying to do that? Except that the repulsion hasn't been working so well.
Ed,
DeleteI agree. That's the root of the problem.
Jez, Your comment gave me my first eye roll of the morning.
DeleteI can see the drug cartels in their boardrooms looking at power point presentations on how to move heroin ethically and without harming the environment.
Marijuana is legal here in Colorado. More specifically, government has cornered the marker. People are still getting busted for illicit sale and purchase. Also--laugh at this one libs, but its true--hard drug use has increased as has the volume of used needles in public spaces. Yes kids, marijuana really is a gateway drug.
The answer is, you kill the gangs, lock up the peddlers and rehab (forcibly if necessary) the hardcore addicts.
SF,
DeleteThe answer is, you kill the gangs, lock up the peddlers and rehab (forcibly if necessary) the hardcore addicts.
I see no other answer.
As for marijuana as a gateway drug, I have no opinion on that matter.
That said, I believe that the age of the user matters a great deal. That is, the later in life the experimentation occurs, the less chance that pot is a gateway drug.
Caveat: I've never smoked a joint, so I have no personal experience. Apparently, I am one of a VERY small minority of such people in my age group (65 years old, and on campus from 1968-1972). I didn't like the stink of weed, so I avoided it like the plague. In my own experience, I didn't even try pot, and I tried nothing else, either.
Single Payer/Universal Health Care... where America's addicts go for free drugs.
DeleteMoral Hazard, thy name is "Democrat!"
Deleteps - The answer is: "Persistence"
DeleteIt's either hundreds of billions for "law enforcement" or trillions for "health care".
DeleteHow about inventing "synthehol" (ala Star Trek)
DeleteNope, it would just increase the "allure" of the "real thing" (Romulan brandy).
Met a kid recently...he told me he became homeless at 16 after leaving his home of 10 kids and alcoholic parents....did coke, meth, pot, and heroin, from time to time.....horrible life. Suddenly, he stopped. On his own. I asked if he's a Christian and he said he did become a believer...on his own. WHY? His parents are now dry and live at his home, ironically enough. The kid has a heart.
DeleteI asked if he talks to other young kids, particularly Hispanics as he is born here of Hispanic ancestry; he said he often talks to kids informally....but I said "So they get off drugs, clean up...then what?"
He said "Exactly....they need a REASON to be conscious, to be clear headed...hopeful. Faith. A JOB after some training (he's training to be an appliance installer and shadows the guy I'd hired), something to LOOK FORWARD TO.
Our kids lack that, many of them.......this needs fixing before we can expect them to clean up.
Silverfiddle, Duterte must be a hero of yours.
Delete@Jez,
Delete"I think so. Officially import drugs that meet our ethical, ecological etc. standards, and repel the ones that are problematic."
OH, like all of the (legally prescribed)opioids that hook people and lead on to all of the other $#!t. What planet do you live on?
Jon,
DeleteAlong the lines of what you just typed in:
...“People who are using the [prescription] drugs who then become addicted to the drugs and can’t get the amount that they need based on the normal prescribing might go to the illicit market,” Richard J. Bonnie, Harrison Foundation Professor of Medicine and Law, told IBT. “Or they might be cut off, remain dependent and then go to the illicit market.”
[...]
“There is a big market in the illicit market for prescribed opioids,” he said. “Not only are we talking about heroin and fentanyl, there is also a second illegal market for legally manufactured opioids.”...
[source]
Z,
DeleteA JOB after some training (he's training to be an appliance installer and shadows the guy I'd hired), something to LOOK FORWARD TO.
Yes, that's a factor.
But you need to know that even with something to look forward to, there is often relapse (a blow-out, even). I've seen that happen too many times -- even to those who had everything to stay straight for: children, family, home, etc.
I've seen individuals stay straight for a few years, then go back to the needle.
Addiction is a beast, a dragon, the lizard brain. Logic as we know it doesn't apply.
Z,
DeleteAnd I've also seen people quit on their own: no AA, no NA, no methadone -- just determination or faith in the Lord.
Even odder perhaps: I've seen a few strong in the faith addicted and using.
Speedy G,
DeleteAre you a Trekkie?
AOW, I don't doubt there are people who relapse...this guy's been clean 7 years. But, I think his and my agreeing that you must replace the needle with something positive is important.
DeleteZ,
DeleteDon't misunderstand.
I agree that the idea to replace the needle with something positive is important.
But I think that addiction is more complicated than that. What works for one person doesn't work for all.
It's strange.
I say this from having had to deal with this problem over and over again within my own extended family.
You would think that such a beautiful toddler as my cousin's four-year-old is would be important to my cousin (one of the highest IQ persons in her generation, BTW). But no! My cousin continues on with her drugging.
Second chance after second chance after second chance. No change.
It's heartbreaking -- especially for the toddler, who has, of course, been removed from her mother's custody. Permanently.
Being clean 7 years is a good start. May it remain in place.
Z,
DeleteI said "So they get off drugs, clean up...then what?"
I've seen that same problem with one particular addict who drugged for 15 years, got imprisoned and clean, and stayed clean for three years.
Until he approached his 40th birthday, then looked around and realized how "behind the curve" he was for his age.
His classmates had moved on with their lives, had homes and good jobs, etc.
But this young man had a criminal record. He couldn't catch up -- no matter what.
It's hard to get certain jobs when one has a criminal record.
Consequences.
Yeah, he started using again.
Another lost life.
Speedy G,
ReplyDeleteQuite the contrast between the legal fare and the illegal fare, huh?
BTW, because I led "the clean life," when I was having all those surgeries last year, I needed very low doses of narcotics to control the pain. My surgeons commented on this matter.
ReplyDeleteI believe that one reason for the opioids epidemic relates to the high doses needed to control pain (chronic pain, post-op pain, etc.). Have deep-organs surgery and I guarantee that you'll need pain control. Mind over matter does not work in such medical cases.
Yesterday....
ReplyDelete"Build the Wall. Build the Wall. Build the Wall."
20 years from now....
"Put a dome on it. Put a dome on it. Put a dome on it."
40 years from now...
"Blow up the tunnels. Blow up the tunnels. Blow up the tunnels."
40 years from now? More like, "Donde fueron los gabachos?"
DeleteSF,
DeleteAs in ¿Dónde fueron los gringos?
Yeah. Gabacho is a pejorative for English-speaking whitey. It's real meaning in Iberian Spanish is foreigner. Funny, huh?
DeletePossibly worth reading...
ReplyDeleteOpioid Crisis: How The US Can Contain And Reverse The Epidemic.
Note this paragraph toward the end:
The opioid epidemic combines two public health issues...[,] responding to people who are feeling pain and are working together with their physicians to alleviate their pain,” but on the other hand “we have the public health consequences.”
To date, no painkillers except for opiates are effective in controlling certain types of pain. Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the NIH, is now requesting the development of non-opioid pain killers. But nobody is sure that the development of such medications is even possible.
Lyrica is one of the most effective medications for neuropathy, a leading cause of the chronic pain for which opioids are often prescribed.
DeleteHowever, over time, Lyrica causes the side effect of tardive dyskinesia.
I know from personal experience about tardive dyskinesia caused by Lyrica. Off-putting for my clients and students -- to the point that I had to stop taking Lyrica. It was either discontinue the Lyrica or discontinue teaching.
Opioids, of course, also have side effects -- and I mean side effects other than addiction.
So, I'm condemned to take gapabentin, which isn't nearly as effective as either Lyrica or opioids for controlling pain. By "controlling pain," I mean control to the point of being functional. I'm never pain free -- thanks to an illegal alien driving a Yellow Cab rear-ending me at a 4-way stop sign in May 2005.
THERE ARE MANY COSTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION!
Well, you should at least remain seizure free.
DeleteEd,
DeleteLOL!
Never had a seizure, never at risk for one.
Surely won't have one now with these massive doses.
But, hey, my personality is back. Let's see who can stand it! ;^)
AOW..do you have a new email address? I've emailed you twice with a question and haven't heard back.
ReplyDeleteZ,
DeleteYes, I'm using a different email address:
alwaysonwatch2-dot-gmail-com.
That address is also in the right sidebar here.
PS to Z: I look forward to hearing from you via email.
Delete