THE BORDER REPORT

Found this one during a casual search of the Federal contract solicitation page. The Homeland Security Department is requesting bids for narcotics incineration here in Tucson. I’ll ignore, for the moment, that they’re simply repeating steps from DEA who already has an incineration facility here in town. Writing about the Feds would be less entertaining if they worked efficiently, after all.

Homeland is asking for a price breakdwon to burn 215,000 pounds of dope per year; that’s 210,000 pounds of weed and 5,000 pounds of “hard” narcs; synthetics, meth, steroids, coke, and heroin.

Read the full post

THE BORDER REPORT

Update: I don’t know why it’s so easy for me to forget that the U.S. engages in the same inanities as Mexico. See below.

Having a conversation with an old friend last night, he made the point that with its level of political and social abuses, you would think Mexico would be a more powerful country. It’s a bit Machiavellian but I think he’s correct. Instead, the country acts like a 1980s banana republic.

Read the full post

THE BORDER REPORT

Take a look at this video interview of José Vázquez  Villagrana, El Jabáli, for a moment.

Captured last month in Mexico City, Mexico’s Ministry of Public Safety presented the clean-cut 40-year-old Jábali, a drug lord from Santa Ana, Sonora, sporting a turtleneck sweater. The interview bothers me for many reasons, not the least of which are his wild admittances about what exactly he did for a living and for whom. Jábali claims to work for the Sinaloa Federation, but some people I had an opportunity to speak with over the past few days say he actually worked for the Juárez Cartel, not Sinaloa.

Read the full post

THE BORDER REPORT

Update: The mayor of Cumpas was not killed; incorrect info.

The showdown between Dos Mil’s people in the Sierra and Mexican law enforcement has finally come to a head.

Sources are reporting that a gunbattle broke out between the two groups in the city of Arizpe about twenty minutes ago. I’ll keep you posted but you readers do so as well. The fight started sporadically last Tuesday southwest of Arizpe and Cananea and finally culminated this morning.

THE BORDER REPORT

Reading through the U.S. State Department’s travel alert for Mexico, the succinct quote a consulado official gave me once, “You’re fine, just hope to hell you don’t get in the way,” continues to hold true today.

But a few things have happened over the last few days in Sonora that go ignored by the press north of the line but shouldn’t. They change the dynamic of the drug war and its threat against the non-involved.

Read the full post