Alien invaders… NOT!

I wasn’t going to pay attention to the latest dubious “Mescans attacking Ammurica” stories… you know, the kind with headlines like “Mexican Military Raiding The Homes of Phoenix Police Officers” or the slightly more alarming that the variant “Mexican Cartel Zetas Attack and kill an American in Phoenix“.  Coming as they do from not very reliable sources, I was surprised to see the alarmist (but semi-reliable) Stratfor Terrorism Intelligence Report riffing off this supposed event.

Not that the story was going to hold up:.  These were good old American gangsters who got their “tactical training” (if they had any… they were caught, which means they weren’t exactly the A Team) courtesy of the Arizona Department of Corrections, their long-time landlord.  One of them claims to have had “some military training”… whatever that means.  Hell, maybe he was in JrROTC or got thrown out of basic training.  None, apparently, are even Mexicans.

At least Stratfor got it right that the guys who invaded somebody’s home in Phoenix and killed somebody were gangsters wearing police-type uniforms (one of the other sources assumed anybody wearing military type clothing — you know, they stuff you pick up your local Militias R Us, neighborhood gun shop… or even WalMart, for that matter — and sorta looked Mexican must have been Mexican military guys in the pay of Mexican gangsters.

While it now appears that the three men arrested in Phoenix were not former or active members of the Mexican military or police, it is not surprising that they employed military- and police-style tactics. Enforcers of various cartel groups such as Los Zetas, La Gente Nueva or the Kaibiles who have received advanced tactical training often pass on that training to younger enforcers (many of whom are former street thugs) at makeshift training camps located on ranches in northern Mexico. There are also reports of Israeli mercenaries visiting these camps to provide tactical training. In this way, the cartel enforcers are transforming ordinary street thugs into highly-trained cartel tactical teams.

Though cartel enforcers have almost always had ready access to guns, including military weapons such as assault rifles and grenade launchers, groups such as Los Zetas, the Kaibiles and their young disciples bring an added level of threat to the equation.

Nowhere does Statfor say these bozos were Zetas, or anything else.  But they do make a good point.  Thugs with access to guns are likely to make Mexico as dangerous as… oh… Arizona.