Narconews: Zetas Burn Media's Script in Drugs War

Our correspondent on the Texas-Mexico border, Bill Conroy, follows up his string of reports for Narco News debunking politically motivated government travel warnings regarding northern Mexico with a new report on the narco-mercenary gang known as the Zetas in city of Nuevo Laredo. The product of several interviews with DEA and Homeland Security officials, Conroy paints a more complete picture of the Zetas and their context than the mafia soap opera version portrayed in the commercial media.

http://www.narconews.com/Issue37/article1305.html

Conroy, as Narco News reported earlier this week, has been the subject of intimidation from the Department of Homeland security, which has sent agents to both his house and office to pressure him into revealing his source for a previous story on Narco News. A true authentic journalist, Conroy refused to do so, and continues to enjoy the trust of his many whistleblowing and insider sources within border law enforcement agencies.

"The Zetas," Conroy reports, "are a very amorphous group that started out from a core of Mexican special forces defectors who over time have either recruited or trained additional members. But make no mistake about it; the Zetas are very good at what they do. One former DEA official says they are 'better than the Secret Service.'

"'In terms of weapons, communications, parameter control and security, these guys are very good,' he adds.

"A major reason for their 'professionalism' in this area is that many of the Zetas have received some specialized military or other tactical training from U.S. agencies, including from the DEA, FBI and U.S. military."

The shifting alliances of groups like the Zetas and their narco employers paint a picture not of competing regional mafias (as the commercial media often conveys, using names like "the Gulf Cartel" to describe the players), but of a complex trading system that mirrors North American capitalism itself (just much more violently). As Conroy writes of the responses of U.S. and Mexican governments to the phenomenon, "the militarization of the border in the name of the war on drugs isn't likely to change that game, but rather likely only allow for more bullets to be spent."

Read the entire report, here:

http://www.narconews.com/Issue37/article1305.html

From somewhere in a country called América,

Dan Feder Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com

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