Feral Jundi

Friday, June 4, 2010

Mexico: Agents Feared Mexican Drug Cartel Attack On Border Dam

Filed under: Maritime Security,Mexico — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 11:30 AM

     First piracy, and now cartels are threatening to blow up dams?  This Falcon Lake sounds like quite the party zone. lol –Matt

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This 2001 photo shows Falcon Dam, a reservoir on the lower Rio Grande, that reportedly was threatened.

Agents feared Mexican drug cartel attack on border dam

By DANE SCHILLER and JAMES PINKERTON

June 2, 2010

An alleged plot by a Mexican drug cartel to blow up a dam along the Texas border — and unleash billions of gallons of water into a region with millions of civilians — sent American police, federal agents and disaster officials secretly scrambling last month to thwart such an attack, authorities confirmed Wednesday.

Whether or not the cartel, which is known to have stolen bulk quantities of gunpowder and dynamite, could have taken down the 5-mile-long Falcon Dam may never be known since the attack never came to pass.

It may have been derailed by a stepped-up presence by the Mexican military, which was acting in part on intelligence from the U.S. government, sources said.

The warning, which swung officials into action, was based on what the federal government contends were “serious and reliable sources” and prompted the Department of Homeland Security to sound the alarm to first responders along the South Texas-Mexico border.

(more…)

Monday, May 24, 2010

Mexico: The Bajadores–Those That Prey On Smuggling Operations

   There is a great thread going on over at Tactical Forums that was the motivation for this post.  It is all about the ‘bajadores’ or rip-off crews along the border areas who basically prey on smugglers.  To me, this is land based piracy or basically stealing from other criminals and illegal immigrants, and these individuals are an interesting group.

   Now what is concerning with this is the advent of bajadores dressing up like Border Patrol or law enforcement and doing their deed.  Then you get a situation where smugglers arm themselves to protect against these types of forces, and they then view everyone as a threat.  Hence why the border is so dangerous for anyone to operate.

    The other issue I was thinking about is that we always think of these gangs floating around on the border as being hispanic.  But as this report indicates, law enforcement is aware that bajadores may also be ‘non-hispanic individuals’. My guess is that it is a small number, but as the border issue heats up and more acts of violence increase, we might actually see more citizens take the law into their own hands to combat this scourge. Good or bad, that is what happens when a government fails to do the job of protecting it’s citizenry or securing it’s borders.

   Let’s end this post with a different thought about this.  Imagine if what the bajadores was doing, was actually legal? Law enforcement seize the assets of criminals all the time during raids and arrests, and use that money to fund all sorts of toys and programs in their departments.  Citizens could also participate in this activity, and they could either work off seizing assets, a bounty system, or both. A prize court could be established in that particular state, citizens and companies could become licensed and bonded to do such an activity, and states or the feds could manage the program. In other words, I like the idea of capturing criminals and taking everything they own.  I also like getting a bounty for capturing them. Both of these acts would be called privateering and bounty hunting. –Matt

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Gangs are menacing ‘coyotes,’ immigrants Assaults, kidnapping are rampant

Daniel Gonzlez

Aug. 17, 2003Violent gangs have operated for years along the border, where they rob and kidnap immigrants and “coyotes” alike, usually at gunpoint.But authorities say the booming immigrant-smuggling trade has brought them northward and invaded the Phoenix area, bringing with them tactics common in drug trafficking – assaults, kidnapping and extortion – but previously uncommon in the smuggling business.

In Mexico, they are known as bajadores . In the United States, officials have dubbed those who prey on immigrant-smuggling operations “rip-off crews.”

The bajadores have been attracted by the lucrative smuggling trade, which has escalated in the Valley in recent years and grown even more profitable as the United States, by deploying more Border Patrol agents from California to Texas, has made it more difficult to cross into the country illegally, authorities say.

The enforcement buildup has turned the remote and deadly Arizona desert, where at least 127 immigrants have died this year, into the main gateway for illegal immigration into the United States.

The buildup also has made Phoenix the primary hub for transporting immigrants to other parts of the country.The bajadores prey on the smugglers by stealing the immigrants and then threatening to beat them up or kill them unless their families pay a ransom. The ransom isn’t cheap, and the bajadores often make good their threats. They typically demand $1,000 to $1,500, the price smugglers charge to transport undocumented immigrants from the border to Phoenix.  (more…)

Friday, May 21, 2010

Maritime Security: Zeta Cartel Pirates Attacking Boaters On Texas Lake Near Border

Filed under: Maritime Security,Texas — Tags: , , , — Matt @ 12:04 PM

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Somalia: Pirates Vs. Islamists–A Dispute Over Business

   Finally some reportage that gave some commonsense analysis on this latest move in Somalia.  Hizbul Islam are attacking pirate havens because they want to control the ports.  Shabab has their ports, and Hizbul Islam wants their ports.  It totally makes business sense, and strategic sense, if they want to capitalize on all the piracy related operations going on out there.

   Now what is interesting to me is how the media sucked into the spin that Hizbul Islam was trying to produce about their latest move.  That somehow what they were doing was righteous and piracy is an anti-islamic business. pffft. Whatever chews your khat. Bravo to Mr. Wadham for calling it like it is and getting the real story out.

   One final point.  We show sorrow and outrage over the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico with the oil spill disaster there.  So my question is what happens when pirates take a chemical tanker (oops, that just happened) on behalf of an extremist group like al Shabab or Hizbul Islam, and they sink that thing or crash it into some western port? Will we then realize that assigning armed escorts to each boat/floating weapon system out there is something that should be required? Why must we wait for a disaster like this to happen, before we do something about it? –Matt

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Somali Pirates vs. Islamists: A Dispute Over Business

By Nick Wadhams/Nairobi

Friday, May. 07, 2010

Even by the jaded standards of the failed state of Somalia, this week’s news was enough to raise eyebrows: one of the country’s two competing Islamist factions, Hizbul Islam, stormed into the coastal city of Harardhere and drove out the pirates who have run amok in the waters off the Horn of Africa, wreaking havoc on global shipping and confounding the world’s navies.

“Piracy has become too much. It’s an anti-Islamic business, and we won’t accept it,” Hizbul Islam spokesman Sheik Mohamed Ali Abdinasr told TIME. “We want to bring law and order to that country of Somalia, and we want to show the good name of Somalis.”

But what may at first glance appear to be a showdown between two trends that have coexisted in relative peace in Somalia until now — piracy and Islamic radicalism — is actually a cunning power play for resources.

First, a bit of background. One of the best ways to thrive as a Somali businessman is to import just about anything — cars, food or clothing, for example. Very little gets produced in Somalia. And in the absence of central government authority, which collapsed 19 years ago, the best way for any armed group to finance itself is to control one of Somalia’s ports.

The Western-backed Transitional Federal Government gets much of its very limited revenue from the Mogadishu port, one of the few patches of Somali real estate over which it maintains control. Hizbul Islam’s capture of the pirate lair at Harardhere may have been motivated primarily by the fact that it was driven out of the southern port of Kismayo late last year by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militia. Experts say Hizbul Islam attacked Harardhere because it needed a new port to control.

“They lost their foothold in Kismayo when they fell out with Shabab,” says Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based Chatham House think tank. “Moving to Harardhere seems to me like a move to find some territory that they can control and to have a port in order to try to make some money.”

(more…)

Friday, April 30, 2010

Maritime Security: Piracy Rattles Japan To Open First Foreign Military Base In Djibouti

Filed under: Africa,Japan,Maritime Security — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 2:24 AM

   Interesting move, but as the last sentence in the article specifies, the pirates are completely going off the hunting reservation.  Now if the Japanese built a prison on their base to keep all of these pirates, now that would be something.  Then we can end this catch and release program once and for all.  I kind of doubt they would do that, but you never know? –Matt

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Piracy rattles Japan to open first foreign military base

By Emmanuel Goujon

April 24, 2010

DJIBOUTI — Japan is opening its first overseas army base in Djibouti, a small African state strategically located at the southern end of the Red Sea on the Gulf of Aden, to counter rising piracy in the region.

The 40-million-dollar base expected to be completed by early next year will strengthen international efforts to curb hijackings and vessel attacks by hordes of gunmen from the lawless Somalia.

The Djibouti base breaks new ground for Japan, which has had no standing army since World War II and cannot wage war. It however has armed forces — the Japan Self-Defence Forces — which were formed at the end of US occupation in 1952.

(more…)

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