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.

Related Article: FBI’s involvement in the Merida Initiative.

Sources: El Paso Intelligence Center, El Paso Police Dept. El Paso Sheriff's Dept. Juárez Police Dept. Chihuahua State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez, El Paso County Attorney's Office, State of Texas. Jaime Torres Valadez, spokesman for Ciudad Juarez’s public safety department, FBI & DEA