Breaking: Multiple ranches in laredo, tx taken over by los zetas

[Twoller]

You are a pretty reliable source of information, generally.

Still there are some other possibilities. The property owners of the ranches in question may actually be illegals or their enablers and the takeover is more an internal issue for the land owners. I'd like to know more about the landowners or areas in question.

This may be why Texas is reluctant to confront the issue. It opens up a whole can of worms about illegal and non-citizens owning property.

In this case, it is land. But more basically, you should not be able to register a car if you are not here legally. The automobile is the most powerful weapon in the hands of illegal immigrants. They don't have to own land, but they must be on happy terms with somebody who does. That's another thing that needs to be confronted. You should have to be here legally to own land and it should be a felony to house illegal immigrants.

If housing illegals is epidemic among legal residents, then perhaps conditional land owning licenses should be involved for non-citizens property owners.

[Kathy63]

No the landowners weren't illegals, or illegal enablers. They escaped. From the look of things, and this I cannot confirm, they are being held so that they do not talk.

It reminds me of the beginnings of what went on in Zimbabwe where the white farmers who escaped massacres were held in silence so no one knew what was going on until the whole thing exploded.

As far as I am hearing from my two Laredo sources, and these are people who actually live in Laredo. The State is acting as if this is a local law enforcement matter. It's being left to the border patrol and county sheriff to deal with as any other street crime.

I am by no means any kind of military strategist, but historically and logically, the gang now occupying two ranches near Laredo will already have or soon will make contact with American gangs IN Laredo. The next attack would be on Laredo itself from without and within. The goal would be to seize that port of entry and open a floodgate. With an absent federal government and an uncaring state government success is just about guaranteed.

The question is, these are Texans. They could very well bristle up with guns like a porquipine in which case it would be a serious war. So the question. Would state and federal officials step in at that point and if so, on which SIDE?

[Ayatollahgondola]

I don't want to act like I am in the know or have firsthand info on this,

however from what I can tell, this story had its' origins in Jeff Schwilk. Schwilk has a history of exaggeration, fabrication, and sensationalism. Remember the 100K plus defamation suit he lost. It's a little difficult to lose a defamation suit when the claims are truthful.
Also like to point out his enemies list on his SDMM website. It's getting bigger all the time, and it reads more like it was written by a drunken reporter from the National Enquirer.
I'd consider the source first. Not sayin' that this type of scenario isn't possible or likely; Just reminding everyone to keep their feet on the ground, and not to end up getting labeled as a chicken little

[Kathy63]

I thought so too. Until I heard from a couple of Laredoans. Schwilk didn't come up with this story first. It was the San Diego Examiner who first broke the story.

[Kathy63]

I was able to dig up a bit more.

The zetas have had a ranch in Texas for quite awhile.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6432122.html

This is from the Houston Chronicle and confirmed by the FBI. Evidently, the ranches seized are contiguous to this ranch.

The FBI is advising law enforcement officers across the country that a Texas cell of Los Zetas — an increasingly powerful arm of the Mexican Gulf Cartel drug trafficking syndicate — has acquired a secluded ranch where it trains its members to “neutralize” competitors in the United States.

In order to ensure its share of the lucrative illegal drug trade, the cartel’s members reportedly are operating north of the border to collect debts and spy on competitors. They have also protected cocaine and heroin shipments that were bound for Houston, where they were repackaged and shipped on to Alabama, Delaware, Georgia and Michigan, according to the FBI.

The information, which was disseminated Monday to state, local and federal agencies, does not provide specifics, such as the location of the ranch, but includes a notation that the information came from reliable FBI contacts.

[Borderwatch]

If you were in Laredo PD and you wanted to leak information would you do it to a media source who could legally protect your ID or to a "Minuteman" In San Diego?

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[Kathy63]

From what I have heard from those IN Laredo, Laredo PD isn't entering into it. This is Border Patrol and County Sheriff since the area in question isn't within the City of Laredo.

In any case, the original source was the San Diego Examiner so instead of a San Diego Minuteman, it was a San Diego reporter.