An Iraqi-Mexican drug operation –in California

Here is another good (but sad) example of the influence the drug problems in Mexico is having here in the United States.

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and local law enforcement authorities arrested about 60 people for alleged drug trafficking that involved Mexico's most powerful cartel and members of an Iraqi immigrant community. Many of the suspects are Iraqi Chaldeans - Christians who fled their homeland amid threats from al Qaeda and other extremists.

"Operation Shadow Box," a six-month investigation, was carried out by the Drug Enforcement Administration and police in the city of El Cajon, a city east of San Diego.

Investigators said the suspects worked out of an Iraqi social club in El Cajon and shipped drugs supplied by the Mexican cartel to Detroit. Authorities seized drugs, guns, ammunition and $630,000 in cash.

Officials were tipped off after neighbors and even some of the club members' spouses complained for years about the establishment's criminal activity. The investigation is still ongoing, so there could be more arrests.

In this operation the Mexican cartels brought in the drugs and the Iraqi group transported them to Detroit for distribution and sale. In most case like this it is only a matter of time until the cartels take over more and more of the distribution operation bringing their heavy and bloody tactics into the Unites States, all the way to Detroit, with them. If members of the Iraqi immigrant community had not tipped off and cooperated with law enforcement, the inevitable result would have been cartel-style violence and death stretching from San Diego to Detroit.

I know we are assisting the Mexican government with its “war on drugs” but this entre operation serves as a salient example of why we need to secure our southern border. Many people have the point of view that securing the border will not solve, or resolve, our immigration problems. They are absolutely right. But that is because they are completely separate problems which happen to share one aspect, crossing the border. Illegal immigration is a complex issue which requires careful, humane and fair handling. Securing the border will go a long way in helping find the correct solutions to the immigration problem but that is only part of the reason it is necessary. The illegal flow of drugs, arms, ammunition, explosives, human trafficking and cash across the border with Mexico demands that border be better secured. The spilling over of drug related violence makes it even more imperative. 

Live Long and Prosper....