travel university international san diego

Mexican Cartels Infiltrating Collages and High School Campus in the United States

By Michael Webster: Investigative reporter May 7, 2008, 14:00 PDT

In a recent drug bust at San Diego State University Federal agents and SDSU police culminated a one-year research on traffic drugs throughout the campus and found it to be more sophisticated, more pervasive and more dangerous and powerful than they expected or have seen before. The arrests coincide with the first anniversary of cocaine-related death a freshman woman.

According to local press reports ninety-six suspects, including 75 SDSU students, have been arrested on drug related charges as a result of the undercover operation, launched after Jenny Poliakoff, 19, was found dead in his apartment off campus, after a night of celebration.

One of the main suspects in this international drug investigation is Omar Castaneda, a gang member from Pomona with ties to Mexican drug cartels of Tijuana, authorities said.

Castaneda, 36 years after his arrest was arraigned in San Diego Superior Court on charges of possessing cocaine for sale. He is suspected of being an important link between drugs flowing California from Tijuana and sales at SDSU and other California schools.

The violent Tijuana drug cartel also known as the Arellano Felix organization (AFO) has a business and keep all fatal drug trafficking activities in Baja California and San Diego California. Their reach controls drug smuggling in Sinaloa, Jalisco, Michoacán, Chiapas and Baja California, and has strong ties to San Diego, California. The AFO dispenses an estimated $ 1 million weekly in bribes to Mexican officials, police and Mexican army officers and maintains its own security force, well armed, trained, paramilitary. The DEA considers the AFO the most violent and aggressive the posters of the border with Mexico. Here is the profile of the DEA in the history of the AFO and its leaders. Click on or google: Dangerous Mexican Cartel Gangs

The SDSU Police Department approached the DEA and county narcotics officers working group for assistance in December 07 when it became clear that the traffic of drugs on campus was widespread and involved Mexico's organized crime cartels drugs and gang members who feared that the measure was its ability stripes to handle a potentially very complicated international drug trafficking investigation.
"We were in contact with various types of narcotics," said The SDSU Police Chief John Browning. "If you're serious about this, you have to go with someone who has the resources to take it to the next level."

As the investigation was unfolding, the campus dealt with another drug-related death. An autopsy showed that Mesa University student Kurt Baker died 24 February in an SDSU fraternity of oxycodone and alcohol intoxication.
"We know that drug use in college... But when you have an organization that in fact based on an area of the university, that's something completely different, "said Garrison Courtney of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration." Simply I do not. "
Research indicates that lucrative university and high school campuses are fertile markets for drug traffickers. Mexican cartels have known this for years and is believed to have infiltrated many U.S. campuses by band members of the cartel. Federal authorities say Mexican drug cartels who are ultimately responsible for border violence by cement ties to street and prison gangs like Barrio Azteca U.S. side. Azteca and other bands of the U.S. retail drug they get from Mexican cartels and Mexican gangs. Mexican gangs run their own distribution networks in the United States, which produce most of the methamphetamine used north of the border. They have even passed this Colombians several times to buy cocaine directly from producers in Bolivia, Peru and Afghanistan, even. These same gangs often work as substitutes or cartel enforcement on the U.S. side of the border. Intelligence suggests Los Zetas. Click or google: They are known as "Los Zetas have hired members of different bands at different times, including, El Paso gang Barrio Azteca, Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate, MS-13, and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos to promote their criminal efforts. The authorities on both sides of the border that many of these gang members and others substitutes for Mexican drug cartels powerful have infiltrated and operate openly in many countries of Latin school campus especially in border states with Mexico, including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

One suspect, Phi Kappa Psi member Michael Montoya, worked as a duty officer community on campus and earned a master's degree in homeland security next month. Another student arrested on suspicion of possession of 500 grams of cocaine and two guns was a criminal justice major.

Authorities identified 22 SDSU students as drug dealers who sold to undercover agents. At least another 17 people allegedly supplied the drugs. The rest of the suspects apparently bought or possessed illegal drugs.
Officials said that students seven fraternities were involved in the drug ring that operated openly across campus.
Evidence showed that "most members were aware that occur organized drug dealing fraternity houses, "officials said. Drug agents confirmed that" a hierarchy existed for the purposes of selling drugs for money. "
Authorities said Theta Chi fraternity as a center for treating cocaine.

One dealer claimed, Theta Chi member Kenneth Ciaccio, sent text messages to his "faithful customers" announcing that cocaine sales would be suspended for next weekend because he and his partners "are expected in Las Vegas, authorities said.
The same message posted "sale" prices of cocaine if transactions completed before the dealers left San Diego.
Until yesterday, Ciaccio was featured on SDSU web site promoting the Compact for Success program, which guarantees certain Sweetwater Union High School District students admission to college if they maintain a B average
SDSU President Stephen Weber said that even when police campus decided to ask for help from other authorities, "it was not clear that we were going to end at the point where we were today."
Ramon Mosler, chief of the narcotics division of the District Attorney's Office in San Diego California, said the investigation could have happened at any school in United States. Mosler said his unit joined the university, since it took the unusual step of asking for help.
"Oftentimes administrations do not want to make these things, and that's unfortunate, "Mosler said." I think it's important to do this from time to time to wake people up. It raises awareness of all the dangers of drugs. "

According to the search warrant affidavit, Thomas Watanapun sold $ 400 worth of cocaine to undercover agents from a Lexus sedan registered to his father in Los Angeles.

Authorities said some of the suspects made little effort to conceal their activities.
Dealers "no were demanding about who they sell, "said Mosler.
He was also accused Patrick Hawley, 20, who was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery and selling of cocaine near campus, authorities said.
According to a 2007 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University almost half of 5.4 million full-time college students nationwide drug abuse or alcohol at least once a month.

Police officers San Diego say street gangs here continue to have strong ties to organized crime groups in Tijuana. A gunman killed recently in an attack in Tijuana is believed to belong to both a gang in Barrio Logan and the Arellano Felix Cartel. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson reported.
For years, groups of drug traffickers Mexicans have recruited U.S. gang members to do everything from drug smuggling to murder. Arellano Felix Tijuana Drug Cartel and a gang of Barrio de San Diego Logan neighborhood go back at least 15 years.
Many of the students enrolled in American schools are believed members of gangs that are now coming from the U.S. as they rotate military services. Many are veterans who where encouraged to join the U.S. military for combat training by Mexican cartels and leaders of gangs.

Cartels face the police and the army on a regular basis in Mexico and we expect these same tactics will soon off and allow them to confront the U.S. Police in a much more professional, effective and dangerous.

Richard Valdemar, a 30-year-veteran of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, travels the country lecturing and teaching police gang members with military training. Valdemar and other gang experts say gangs are encouraging members to join the military training to learn urban warfare and learn the latest weaponry.

emphasis current military urban warfare plays into the mentality of street fighting gangs, experts say.
"When people come into the army, they teaches how to use weapons, defensive tactics and use of many sophisticated techniques, "said LaRae Quy, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Take it back to the streets with them. This is a legitimate concern for law enforcement. "
Valdemar cites former Marine sergeant at Camp Pendleton. Jesse Quintanilla as a high-profile example. A military court sentenced Quintanilla to death in 1996 for killing his director and wounding his commanding officer.
When the interrogators Quintanilla asked why he committed the crimes, Quintanilla said it was for "Brown brothers," according to Valdemar. Quintanilla showed them a tattoo on chest with the word "Sureno," a reference to a band of California, according to court documents.
Army Headquarters in Washington recruitment, DC, dismiss the claims as urban myth. An Army spokesman said army background checks are extensive and weed gang members.

The The Arellano Felix Organization (AFO), often referred to as the Tijuana Cartel, is one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations and aggressive drug operating from Mexico, is without doubt the most violent. More than any other trafficking organization in Mexico, this organization extends its tentacles directly from high numbers of steps in the enforcement and judicial systems in Mexico to street-level people in U.S. cities. The AFO is responsible for transport, importation and distribution of multiple tons of cocaine, marijuana, and large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine in the United States from Mexico. The AFO operates primarily in the Mexican states of Sinaloa (their birth place), Jalisco, Michoacán, Chiapas and Baja California Sur and Norte.

In Baja, the drugs enter California, the main shipping point in the distribution network in the United States.
The Arellano family, composed of seven brothers and four sisters, inherited the organization from Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, to his incarceration in Mexico in 1989 for complicity in the murder of DEA Special Camarena Enrique agent. Alberto Benjamin Arellano Felix assumed leadership of the family structured criminal enterprise and provides close to a businessman to manage operations drug trafficking.

The AFO also maintains complex communications centers in several major cities in Mexico and the U.S. to conduct electronic surveillance and vigilance against the measures against law enforcement. The organization employs radio scanners and equipment capable of intercepting both hard line, radio and telephones phones to ensure the security of AFO operations. In addition to technical equipment, the AFO maintains caches of sophisticated automatic weapons obtained from a variety international sources. Click on or google: Mexican cartels drug and terrorist are recruiting more fighters to train as soldiers
A Force Joint Task composed of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been established in San Diego, California, for the purpose of the AFO, the Working Group is investigating AFO operations in southern California and research related to regional transport, that track drug distribution and money laundering throughout the AFO United States. Click on or google: Dangerous Mexico / US Criminal Enterprises Operating Along the border with Mexico

Sources:
DEA
FBI
San Diego sheriff's office
San Diego Trubune

About the Author

America's leading authority on Venture Capital/Equity Funding. A trustee on some of the nations largest trade Union funds. A noted Author, Lecturer, Educator, Emergency Manager, Counter-Terrorist, War on Drugs and War on Terrorist Specialist, Business Consultant, Newspaper Publisher. Radio News caster. Labor Law generalist, Teamster Union Business Agent, General Organizer, Union Rank and File Member Grievances Representative, NLRB Union Representative, Union Contract Negotiator, Workers Compensation Appeals Board Hearing Representative. Investigative Reporter for print, electronic and on-line News Agencies.

Travel in San Diego, CA of Sept 2007

AAA Southern California: Coachella Valley, Colorado Desert, Imperial Valley, Inland Empire, Lower Colorado River, Metropolitan Los Angeles, Orange County, Salton Sea, San Diego Area, Tijuana, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Disneyland Resort, (Griffith Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Knotts Berry Farm, Legoland, Los Angeles International Airport, San Diego Zoo, Universal Studios, University of California at Los Angeles: Metropolitan Los Angeles Map, Mileage Chart, Communities, Cities, Towns, Major Roads, Highways, Parks, Recreation Areas, Forests, Ski Areas, Points of Interest: Sectional Series 2008) $6.95 AAA Southern California: Coachella Valley, Colorado Desert, Imperial Valley, Inland Empire, Lower Colorado River, Metropolitan Los Angeles, Orange County, Salton Sea, San Diego Area, Tijuana, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Disneyland Resort, Griffith Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Knotts Berry Farm, Legoland, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), San Diego Zoo, Universal Studios, University ...