Barrio Azteca -a gang//nations most dangerous gang

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   by Michael Webster: Investigative Reporter:

   
   

   El Paso's Barrio Azteca gang are some of the most dangerous in the country even though, Javier Sambrano, El Paso police spokesman, said "There have been some people arrested. They are associated or members of that MS-13 but we really haven't seen any activity". But according to other El Paso law enforcement there are gangs in El Paso including MS-13 members.
   
   They also say there is evidence that a member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang also known as (MS-13) caught in El Paso recently was being harbored by the local Barrio Azteca and he was among a dozen members of the violent trans-national street gang stopped during law enforcement operations along the Texas-Mexico border, the Texas governor's office said recently. There appears to be at the very least an associate relationship between the to gangs and some cooperation in drug trafficking and other crimes along the border. El Paso's county attorney believes the city has a gang problem and it may only be getting worse.
   
   County Attorney Rodriguez said there is one gang that is especially growing--the Barrio Azteca gang.
   
   "Some people don't think it is as serious as L.A. or San Antonio or other parts in Texas, but believe me we have a gang problem here in El Paso," Rodriguez said.
   
   Rodriguez said the Barrio Azteca gang activity is rising along the borderland, especially in the Segundo Barrio, the Northeast and the Lower Valley.
   
   "They are very active they have over 2,000 members according to the El Paso police department," Rodriguez said.
   Rodriguez believes the Azteca's are attracted to El Paso because of the accessibility to drugs from Mexico, and he said members tend to be active drug dealers.
   
   Barrio Azteca
   Barrio Azteca is currently the largest and most violent prison gang operating in the El Paso County area. The gang was formed by inmates in the Coffield Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in 1986. The gang has a paramilitary structure and an established leadership hierarchy. The "captains" maintain control of the organization, directing its drug trafficking operations and other criminal activities.
   
   Federal authorities point to the Mexican drug cartels who are ultimately responsible for border violence by having cemented ties to street and prison gangs like Barrio Azteca on the U.S. side. Azteca and other U.S. gangs retail drugs that they get from Mexican cartels and Mexican gangs. Mexican gangs run their own distribution networks in the United States, and they produce most of the methamphetamine used north of the border. They have even bypassed the Colombians several times to buy cocaine directly from producers in Bolivia, Peru and even Afghanistan. These same gangs often work as cartel surrogates or enforcers on the U.S. side of the border. Intelligence suggests Los Zetas They're known as "Los Zetas" have hired members of various gangs at different times including, El Paso gang Barrio Azteca, Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate, MS-13, and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos to further their criminal endeavors. Dangerous Mexican Cartel Gangs
   
   Still Investigators have said it is unlikely the MS-13 would get a foothold in the El Paso-Juarez region. There are already about 500 street gangs, party crews and other gangs in El Paso, according to city police.
   
   It is uncommon for a member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) to be in El Paso according to local law enforcement officers. However Mexican authorities differ and say MS-13 has a known reputation for extreme violence including hacking victims with machetes (be-headings), controlling prisons and is a national security threat operating out of El Paso and Juarez borderplix area.
   
   But the arrest follows a trend seen by border law enforcement of members of the Mara Salvatrucha, (MS-13), crossing the border to reach other U.S. cities. The governor's office said that members of MS-13, which has known cliques in Houston and Dallas, were also captured in Maverick, Webb and Hidalgo counties.
   
   El Paso County sheriff's spokesman Deputy Eduardo Placencia said that a total of just 30 gang members have been arrested this year in warrant roundups, traffic stops and vehicle checks that were part of the low profile border security projects "Operation Linebacker" and "Operation Border Star".
   
   Most of the gangsters arrested in El Paso County were of the Barrio Azteca and Folk gangs and not MS 13.
   
   There is still another dangerous gang in the El Paso area called the Tangos. "Gang intel said they are not having any problems with Tangos, yet. They have confirmed however that several of them are currently inmates" at the El Paso County jail, Placencia said.
   
   To help shield El Paso and other American border cities the DEA and the FBI have launched task force investigations they say targets the leaders of the major Mexican trafficking groups (drug cartels) that operate in Mexico and the U.S., and control the cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine on both sides of the border. This strategy is designed to dismantle the sophisticated leadership of these criminal groups by targeting their command and control functions and building cases on the surrogate members (gangs) and their U.S.-based infrastructure. The feds belief is anchored in their feeling that the only way to successfully attack any organized crime syndicate is to build strong cases on the leadership and their command and control functions. With the assistance of foreign governments like Mexico and Columbia, the long-term incarceration of the leadership will leave entire organizations in disarray.
   
   This strategy combines the resources of the FBI, DEA, the Department of Justice (DOJ), the United States Attorney’s Office, the United States Customs Service (USCS), and a host of State and local counterparts.
   
   According to the FBI the National Joint Task Force and field investigations, remains committed to working with local, state, national, and international partners to disrupt and dismantle violent gangs. Through this initiative they claim they have been able to harness the investigative, intelligence and operational functions of all of these members by coordinating joint investigations against these drug trafficking organizations.
   
   Government agencies have begun to target the communication systems of the Colombian and Mexican cartels, as well as many gang members on both sides of the border. While building cases on these border groups, DEA will employ intelligence gained from its investigations in coordination with the United States Coast Guard, the U.S. Treasury Department, and DOD assets, to substantially step up the interdiction of smuggled drugs at geographic and transportation choke points along the U.S. Mexican border. The effectiveness of this strategy is only hampered by the difficulty of incarcerating the leadership of these trafficking empires who hide in foreign safe havens in Colombia and Mexico. But by continuing to target the leadership and the infrastructure of these groups, they think they we will steadily degrade their abilities to conduct their business in the United States.
   
   The Feds indicate that organized criminal groups, whether they are headquartered in Cali or Sonora or the homegrown versions like Azteca and others are predators in our cities and communities, significantly effect the American way of life. The interests and concerns of these heinous criminals lie in the advancement of their criminal enterprises, and wealth that they can derive from plying their trade. They will resort to violence, intimidation, kidnapping, and murder to accomplish their goals.
   
   Mexican Federal Police believe that the international traffickers have acted with impunity for many years and believe that they are beyond the reach of law enforcement. This arrogance extends into their enterprises in the United States also. As we have seen with the Tijuana-based Felix drug cartel and the Juarez-based Fuentes cartel these violent traffickers send assassins from Mexico into the El Paso and San Diego areas to exact their revenge on those who do not pay their drug debt or who cooperate with efforts to put an end to their reign of terror. Vicente Carrillo is currently at the same level as the Tijuana cartel run by the Felix Arrellano brothers and the Gulf cartel run by Juan García Abrego. Mexico City feds say there intel indicates that all have been spotted in the border cities of Juarez and Tijuana.
   
   Sheriff's in the border counties from across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California agree the brazen attacks on American law enforcement along our Southwest border and in our cities and towns must not be tolerated and more federal funding is a must and they need it right now. They say the U.S. Government is not doing enough to support U.S. law enforcement along our border. The drug war goes on and must continue to be met with coordinated investigative strategies that will ultimately lead to the demise of international organized crime and its destructive influence on our streets. Some of these same sheriff's claim the Iran war has diverted much of the money needed right here in our own country. They also say they are very uncomfortable with the open border and intel suggests that at least some of the Mexican gangs are cooperating with international terrorist organizations.
   
   The U.S. and Mexican border cities has raged in gang-related killings since the beginning of the year exceeding previous record breaking years. The Mexican government has described the violence as revenge for President Felipe Calderón's year-old crackdown on organized crime that sent thousands of soldiers and federal police into violence-plagued Mexican cities bordering the United States.
   
   Applying a multi-agency approach to attack these organized trafficking groups will continue to be the Federal task force's strongest asset in dismantling the organized criminal syndicates that control the drug trade in the U.S. They will continue working with foreign counterparts to target the upper echelon criminal leaders, as well as their surrogates who bring violence to our communities as they sell poison to our children.

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2. 09-06-2008, 10:17 AM