Mexican drug cartel gang members in most American cities and our military

By Michael Webster

Many of American gangs have developed regular working relationships with Mexican Drug Cartels (MDC's) and other international criminal organizations in Mexico, Central America, Canada and Afghanistan. Where they develop sources of supply for wholesale quantities of illicit drugs and to facilitate other criminal activities. According to federal law enforcement gang members provide Mexican MDC's with support, such as smuggling, transportation, and security. Specific examples include: Some prison gangs are capable of directly controlling or influencing the smuggling of multi-hundred kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine weekly into the United States from MDC's.

Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California-based, prison gangs cooperate with Mexico-based MDC's to smuggle wholesale quantities of cocaine and marijuana and illegal aliens into the United States from Mexico. According to federal authorities.

Additionally, these gangs extort money from drug and alien traffickers transiting the U.S. Mexican Border.

Often national and international-level Hispanic street gangs have close associations with Mexico-based MDC's. Hispanic gang members reportedly obtain cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana from the MDC's and their surrogate Mexican gangs, who transport the drugs to primary U.S. drug market areas for further distribution by American street gangs.

Canada-based Chinese and Vietnamese MDC's and criminal groups maintain close working relationships with Asian gangs operating in Canada and the United States. Canada-based MDC's are the primary suppliers of multi thousand tablet quantities of MDMA and multi hundred pound quantities of high-potency marijuana to Asian gangs operating in the United States. The MDC's also use Asian and Mexican gang members for other aspects of drug distribution operations, prostitution, money laundering and gunrunning in the United States and Mexico.

Gang Members are infiltrating the U.S. Military, according to high placed American law enforcement agencies they believe members of nearly every major street gang as well as some prison gangs and Organized Motorcycle Gangs OMG's have been identified on both domestic and international military installations. Deployments have resulted in gang members among service members and/or dependents on or near overseas bases.

Additionally, military transfers have resulted in gang members, both service members and dependents/relatives, moving to new areas and establishing a gang presence.

These same gang members come out of the military and many times return to their old neighborhoods and with their newly gained knowledge of weapons training. These gang members with military training provide a unique threat to law enforcement personnel because of the distinctive military skills that they possess and their willingness to teach these skills to fellow gang members. While the number of gang members trained by the military is unknown, many experts estimates the number to be in the thousands. This threat that they bring to law enforcement is potentially significant, particularly if gang members trained in weapons, tactics, and planning pass this instruction on to other gang members. In addition, gang members currently serving in the military sometimes take advantage of their positions to engage in criminal activities such as trafficking in weapons and drugs.

Cross-Border gang activity and relationships of U.S.-based gang members are increasingly involved in cross-border criminal activities, particularly in areas of Texas and California along the U.S. — Mexico border. Much of this activity involves the trafficking of drugs and illegal aliens from Mexico into the United States and considerably adds to gang revenues. Further, gangs are increasingly smuggling weapons from the United States into Mexico as payment for drugs or to sell for a significant profit.

© Michael Webster