Word: cartellization
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...fight an enemy who has both more money and more firepower than anyone else and fewer scruples about using both ruthlessly? Some fear President Vicente Fox might not live out his term--largely because he has shown signs of being ready to take down the cartel. His dreams of a united hemisphere will never be realized so long as the Mexican justice system is viewed by U.S. officials as addicted to drug money...
...drug cops were encouraged by the extradition last month of one of the cartel's top bosses, distribution maestro Everardo (Kiti) Paez Martinez, whom Mexican police had arrested nearly four years ago. The extradition--the first ever of a Mexican citizen to the U.S.--caused celebration among jaded U.S. agents because Paez is a potential gold mine of cartel intelligence. Coming one year after the arrest of Ramon's partner in gore, Ismael Higuera Guerrero, who carried a special knife for his stylized mutilations, the Paez extradition makes it harder for the Arellano brothers to circulate freely through the streets...
Trapping Benjamin and Ramon is still almost impossible to imagine, short of all-out war. Mexican authorities, however, "know where the brothers are," insists Jesus Blancornelas, 65, editor of the Tijuana weekly Zeta. Because of his reporting on the cartel--which included publishing letters from mothers of Ramon's victims calling Ramon a coward--Blancornelas was shot four times in broad daylight in 1997 by a group that included Ramon's main hitman, David Barron Corona (a San Diego gang member who was himself killed by a stray bullet between the eyes during the botched assault). "If the will...
...cruise through border inspection stations in exchange for money. Just last month Jose Antonio Olvera, a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector at Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossings, pleaded guilty to taking almost $90,000 in bribes to let drug shipments through. (Olvera claims he did it because the cartel had threatened to kidnap his five-year-old son.) "If relatively well-paid U.S. agents aren't immune to it," says one Mexican prosecutor, "how can we expect Mexican police...
...Colombians also grouse about the cartel's recent inability to make payments, according to Mexican informants, a sign of weakening revenues. Another indication: new competition from "grasshoppers," who are circumventing Tijuana and going right to Los Angeles without paying the Arellanos' fee--as proved by last month's record U.S. seizure of 13 tons of cocaine being ferried overseas by Ukrainians. No one is suggesting that the era of the Tijuana cartel is over, but as DEA agent Chavez says, "We're definitely pushing back...