Narco War Next Door

Superbly done. Important and chilling. Thank you.

Great work! A truly sad look into violence in society today. Leave it to Current TV to go into depth on a story that other major American media outlets only spare 30 seconds of airtime to.

The Mexican Cartel make Al Capone's mafia look like the little rascals. Is this America's marijuana prohibition success?

The amount of drug-trafficking related deaths in Mexico in 2008 is more than the total amount of American soldiers that died in the whole war in Iraq. How many more have to die? Is keeping marijuana illegal worth the price of thousands of human lives?

i have school al day. grrr... this makes me miss chat sessions

Laura, thank you for covering this and including the gruesome truth about what is going on. Regardless of the proximity to America, the problem of corruption, violence, and drugs continue to downward spiral at a disturbing rate. You have compelling images and interviews... and some images will haunt me for a while. Even though I read about these articles, and aware of the severity of this issue, seeing this piece humanizes the situation. It is no longer an article to read and forget about until the next act of violence is reported. As an aspiring journalist, I recognize the emotion and danger you (and your production team) were put in to make this story. Thanks again.

second comment... wow what a story. sometimes i just don't know how vangaurd is able to do it all

That was very brave of you to cover this story. Even though the U.S and Mexico have such inter-twined histories, dating back to their beginnings, the U.S media has failed to warn the American public of the threat of drug violence that has sprung out of prohibition. We owe it to the citizens of Mexico to urge intelligent debate on how we should deal with drugs as to not empower these thugs who destroy societies with mass muder.

Laura, thanks again for this great video and expose on narco-terrorism in Mexico. It really opened my eyes and made me sad. I just saw this news release from our Attorney General on this coordinated effort from all law enforcement elements! Great job!

Obama Administration Orders Nationwide Raids vs. Sinaloa Cartel

February 25, 2009 (LPAC)--At a 2 p.m. press conference in Washington, D.C., Attorney General Eric Holder announced that 52 members of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel in California, Minnesota and Maryland had been arrested today, culminating a 21-month investigation by a DEA-led multi-agency taskforce known as "Operation Xcellerator," which has specifically targeted Mexico's extremely violent Sinaloa Cartel.

Holder announced that "During the last 21 months of this operation, more than 750 people have been arrested in the United States and Mexico. More than $59 million in illegal drug proceeds and large amounts of narcotics and weapons have been seized in the United States by law enforcement authorities, including more than 12,000 kilos of cocaine, 1,200 pounds of methamphetamine, 1.3 million ecstasy pills and more than 160 weapons. These are enormous amounts of narcotics, drugs otherwise destined for our streets."

The operation included arrests in over 100 US cities, and the seizure of three aircraft, three maritime vessles, nearly 150 vehicles, and 169 weapons. Media accounts put the value of the seized drugs as in the range of $1 billion.

Holder described the operation as "the largest and hardest hitting operation" to ever hit the Sinaloa Cartel," adding: "These cartels are not just operating in Mexico. Their reach stretches far and wide. We simply cannot afford to let down our guard. These cartels will be destroyed."

The dramatic announcement--and statement of intent--from the Obama administration, came as horrendous drug-linked violence has escalated along the U.S.-Mexico border. One Justice Department official told Fox News: "Combatting violence on the border was the whole point of the operation."

Attorney General Holder said at the press conference: "I particularly want to thank our counterparts in Mexico for their important support of this operation. I met yesterday with Attorney General Medina Mora of Mexico and we discussed the unprecedented levels of violence his country is facing... [We] will continue to work with our counterparts in Mexico, through information sharing, training and mutual cooperation to jointly fight these cartels, both in Mexico and the United States."

Acting DEA director Michele Leonhart, who also spoke at the press conference with Holder, added that, "From Washington to Maine, we have disrupted this cartel's domestic operations ... and seriously impacted their Canadian drug operations as well." She pledged that the DEA would continue to cooperate with Mexico and Canada in shutting down the Sinaloa Cartel operations for good.
http://www.larouchepac.com/node/9331

This situation is a direct result of US drug policy. Its good to see stories like this, most Americans have no idea the breadth of this situation.

I watched this lastnight,it was sad. I have many friends from Juarez, and other parts of mexico and they are some of the best people I know. Mexico should be in our prayers they're our neighbors.

Laura, my wife and I, who have family in Juarez, watched this with sadness. You are a brave young lady and you did a great job! Americans-your insatiable appetite for illegal drugs fuels these murders!

this was so intense. thank you for sharing this, and for willingly putting yourself in danger to do so. more people should watch and be aware.

TRY LIVING IN PHOENIX. KIDNAPPING IS @ AN ALL TIME HIGH. AND MEXICO IS TELLING US NOT TO GO. THIS IS REAL PEOPLE.

Good evening to all. As a mexican citizen I applaud and i am very grateful for your report; it is an extremely accurate account of what we have to live through every single day; however one subject which I believe was not emphasized was the root of the problem; the insatiable need for drugs in the US. Due to the lack of coverage by the media there is widespread ignorance about the consequences of using so-called "recreational drugs" that only end in the spilling of blood of innocent people. As some people have already mentioned the legalization of drugs will (hopefully) stop (again hopefully) or at least decrease the spiral of violence. It's good to hear that California is moving in that direction.

Woah, woah back up. Are you blaming Americans? People in Mexico use the drugs too. I'm Mexican-American and I don't see how blaming one group or another is going to help. The ONLY responsible ones are the fucking narcos that are killing people not the stupid drugs. Colombia also has problems with the Colombian cartels.

Excellent job Ling. I am highly impressed with the attention to detail to facts, authorities interviewed and the perspectives portrayed.

One word Awesome :)

Wow this was a really strong article, Ling you guys did an awesome job covering this problem Mexico has right now and you are the bravest women i know !! This past September i visited my hometown in Jalisco and all friends and family would talk about was the killings and the threads they had on different Narcs in the surrounding towns. Its a battle that will last and wont stop anytime soon.....
sad to watch people die every single day over this battle.....

Wake up everyone!! Some of you think this only has to do with weed, and legalization of weed in the US??? Heroin and cocaine are packaged in much smaller volume than weed and easier to smuggle. Have you seen media reports on home grown weed in the US,which many believe is better than anything coming out of Mexico? Bottom line is that the demand for drugs in the USA is fostering all the trouble in Mexico. People of the USA "STOP USING DRUGS" period. Than and only than can we in the US put a small dent into all the atrocity that is currently going on in Mexico. cya uncle Joe

Great journalism! A horrible conflict. And if one listens closely, the solutions are woven within the story. The primary obstacle: Mexico is helpless to overcome this without meaningful measures taken in the US.

This was an incredible and sad report. Hats off to you, Ms. Ling. How much effect would you say NAFTA has had on this drug war? And why isn't the government cracking down harder on this crime? It is as if they have allowed it to get out of control.

It is a travesty how people in this beautiful country have to live. Building walls won't stop the violence. There needs to be a change in policy. We need to go after theh guns being sold in this country that arm these cartels. People there also have no real jobs to speak of, no opportunity, and a government that seems to not care about that. Wouldn't any of us try to get over the border if we had to live like this?

Just an addition to this: Perhaps you could do a follow up to this to investigate how NAFTA has hurt the small farmers of Mexico and in turn made many of them turn to drug cultivation ( and increased illegal immigration.) This is also in the wake of agribusiness companies such as Monsanto contaminating their tradititonal corn varieties illegally with transgenic pollution form GM corn travelling over the border, thus making it harder for them to farm tradititonal crops.

Great pod, very informative I had no clue this was actually happening. I'm speech less very powerful. I still don't know how you do it, you have guts.

Awesome as always.
The part I found really interesting was the possible intervention the U.S could make to help. It really makes you rethink the motives behind the border wall and patrol. Where as on the surface it appears to be the work of xenophobic conservatives for the soul purpose of keeping immigrants out, this piece showed the extremely positive effect it can have on preventing illegal drugs from being transported to where they can garner money.This seems like an area where America can greatly impact a foreign country for the better without even necessarily passing acts that have no effect domestically, and it can be done bi-partisanly. The conservatives get their border patrol amped up, and the liberals get increased gun control measures passed. We can play a major part in ending this situation.

EXCELLENT REPORT, Laura you did a great Journalist job. You actually gave more information in half an hour that the Mexican Goverment wants to accept.

I live in El Paso and see signs of this conflict everyday. One of my co-workers that lives in Juarez and works in El Paso brings the news paper from there everyday, and there's always a killing on the front cover. The fact that El Paso and Juarez really are sister cities and mass amounts of commerce moves through the borders everyday gives a definitive answer to whether or not the violence in Mexico has affected El Paso. In my apartment complex alone, the parking lot is full of very nice cars ( Im talking Hummers, Yukons, Escalades) and all with Chihuahua license plates. So many people with money, and without, and fled across the border to escape violence. And it's been said around here that some of these people are being killed in the U.S. and are brought back across the border.

By the way, the police chief she talks about being wounded was brought to an Army hospital in El Paso, which they then had secured at all exits with armed men.