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 Editorials | Issues | March 2008 
Drug Cartels Turn More to Terrorist Tactics
 Alfredo Corchado - Dallas Morning News
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| | Cartels spread fear with internet videos, taped executions | | |
The use of training camps is just one tactic that Mexican drug cartels are borrowing from international terrorists, U.S. and Mexican officials say.
In testimony before Mexico's Congress last fall, Genaro García Luna, Mexico's public security minister and top law enforcement official, noted the increasing use of another terrorist tactic – using videos and the Internet to spread fear. Cartels have made videos of executions and posted them on the Internet – sometimes with music added.
"The delinquents, narco-traffickers are copying a pattern used by Middle Eastern terrorists after Sept. 11, 2001," Mr. García Luna said, referring to the videos. "That's the most serious point in terms of combating organized crime ... that a group of thugs, with this criminal strategy, can generate fear and intimidate entire communities."
Some officials have begun referring to cartel operatives as "narco-terrorists."
Another practice is the creation of clandestine cells in various locations, which are then called upon to carry out killings and other assignments. Authorities said such cells exist in McAllen, Brownsville and Laredo, as well as the Mexican cities of Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros.
Although drug cartels may be adopting the practices of international terrorists, U.S. and Mexican officials stressed that there was no evidence of Middle Eastern terrorists using training camps or operating in the region. |
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