Mexican Cartels:Big Time Crime In Small Town U.S.A.

The Mexican Drug war continues to rage and Mexican cartels are operating in the U.S.A. bringing the war with them. It isn’t only big cities that are being invaded by these criminals but small towns, like my neighboring town, of Bloomfield, N.M.

People living along the U.S.A. border with Mexico have cried out for help for more than a decade. It took nearly ten years for the media to pick it up and it took the Minute Men staging a citizen watch of the border to bring it to national attention. Since then the problem has continued to grow and violence has greatly increased. The Mexican government reports an estimate of 35,000 deaths from 2006-2010 in the Mexican Cartel Drug War; but others place the death toll higher, estimating as many as 1.5 million deaths in almost six years. Most reporters are afraid to cover this story as just south of the U.S. border the Mexican Cartels rule and the government is in a state of anarchy. Americans living along the border have been affected by the violence for years, with very little attention but now it seems that the cartels are pushing further north and bringing crime and violence with them. Bloomfield, New Mexico is a small town in the northern part of the state that has been infiltrated by three known cartels and the crime rate is beginning to soar. The crimes that authorities are seeing aren’t the typical small town crimes they’re used to. Crimes normally committed in large cities are now common in Bloomfield. Kidnapping, homicide, and money laundering are new problems in this small oil-field community.

A Bloomfield family, made up of a father, uncle, and cousin, was recently kidnapped and presumed dead, as they haven’t been seen since. Kidnapping has been a problem in border towns for several years now, with Phoenix, A.Z. being named the kidnapping capital of the United States. Most of the kidnappings are committed against illegal immigrants from Mexico and little can be done to apprehend the kidnappers or prosecute these crimes. There have been cases of Americans taken across the border and held for ransom but, so far, most of the violent crimes are committed against Mexican nationals. Bloomfield’s main cartel problem is the Juarez Cartel that has been in the area for two years. Recently, the Sinaloa and Michoacan Cartels have set up headquarters in Bloomfield, also. The cartels typically, send about eight men and their families to live and blend in with the community. They hire local gang members to sell drugs for them and never come into contact with drug addicts. Bloomfield has become a hub for drug trafficking and most of the drugs brought here are moved further north to Colorado, Utah, Missouri, and the Dakotas. Reportedly, the cartels like New Mexico because of our wide open roads and reservations where there is very little law enforcement. It is also, easy to hide drugs, people, and obtain false documentation here.

I am writing this post based on information laid out in a Bloomfield City Counsel meeting by Region II Narcotics Task Force Director, Neil Haws. The report I read was published at www.borderlandbeat.com. If you aren’t up-to-date on the situation on our southern border, I hope you will visit this website and educate yourself. This is very bad news for San Juan County as our law enforcement isn’t set up to deal with the influx of the kind of crime that these cartels bring into the area. This is a problem that the community needs to be aware of and it will take a community push to get the kind of help we need from the Federal Government. Methamphetamine has already taken a toll on this county. We don’t need the kind of crime that comes with big-time drug dealing and human trafficking. It’s time for citizens to speak up. We need legal immigration now, more than ever, not only for the safety of our citizens but for the Mexican Immigrants that want to come here to work. There has been enough human carnage and our Federal Government has the muscle to stop it if they will do what is necessary to stop the flow of illegal immigration and crime that continues across our southern border. The Mexican Drug War is coming to a town near you. In fact, it is already here and it has to be stopped now, before it is too late.