Mexico Trucker Online Articles

DOJ Report debunks the myth that Mexican trucks are the main conveyance for illegal drugs

The U.S. Department of Justice National Drug Intelligence Center has released its National Drug Threat Assessment 2011 and to the consternation of many who have made the claim that Mexican trucks are the main conveyances with which drugs enter the US, pretty much debunks this idea.

And as usual, we can count on Charlie Morasch, a Landlinemag.com staff hack, to spin the report in a direction that evidence doesn’t indicate.

Morasch uses quotes from a FBI special agent, Kevin Donovan to get his points across, yet one of the remarks attributed to this agent totally blows one of OOIDA and the TEAMSTER positions against Mexican trucking clean out of the water.

In that regard, of Mexican trucking firms being owned by cartels for the express purpose of moving contraband, Donovan is quoted as saying;

In some instances, drug organizations purchase trucks and establish their own motor carrier for the purpose of controlling the transportation leg of their operation.

“It does offer them the opportunity to have more control over the individuals that are transporting the loads. But oftentimes the individuals transporting the loads won’t even necessarily know they’re carrying narcotics because it’s secreted in a legitimate load. That way the driver doesn’t even appear to be nervous because they don’t even know the drugs are there.

Establishing a motor carrier, however, isn’t widely used for reasons every trucking business is aware of: Truck ownership, maintenance and state and federal licensing upkeep are costly.

“From a business perspective, it is an expensive route to take.”

“And the bottom line is,” he said, “it’s a business.”

And it’s certain these trucks would never stand up to the scrutiny that would allow them to operate throughout the US.

Donovan stopped short of saying trucks were the most widely used method for illegal drug transport into the US, something OOIDA, Teamsters and others opposed to Mexican trucks continue to maintain.

So, how do these trans national criminal organizations (TCO’s) move their product? According to the report, they generally smuggle smaller loads of cocaine,heroin, and methamphetamine in noncommercial vehicles (cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks), most likely to blend in with cross-border traffic. Some of the larger loads come across in non commercial and commercial vehicles but likely as not, they’re caught at the border.

Interestingly enough, The number of illicit drug seizures involving noncommercial conveyances at the Southwest Border greatly exceeds the number of seizures involving commercial conveyances.
Analysis of NSS seizure data reveals that only 578 of the 34,274 seizure incidents at and between Southwest Border POEs between 2005 and 2010j involved commercial vehicles. These seizures accounted for less
than 10 percent of the total quantity of illicit drugs seized.

More than 99 percent of illicit drug seizures made between POEs in Arizona and New Mexico involve marijuana; more than 91 percent of the marijuana seized in these incidentsis seized from smugglers on foot.

At the interior POE’s in Texas, Signs indicate that more than 900 US CDL holders have had their licenses revoked under the Texas Hold Em’ Initiative. This is further proof of what the DOJ reports as to the method that drugs make their way into the country. Not by Mexican trucks but by non descript personal vehicles and on the backs of humans.

OOIDA stooge Peter DeFazio wants to renegotiate NAFTA, but only for Mexican trucks

On the first anniversary of the shutdown of the Cross Border Trucking program with Mexico, the job losses are mounting for American workers as American business’s continue to lose market share from the LEGAL tariff’s Mexico instituted in retaliation for our failure to comply with our obligations under NAFTA. 57 members of Congress in addition to more than 1400 trade groups have called on President Obama, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk to get the issue settled. Secretary LaHood stated in a recent interview that they were close to a resolution to the issue. The tariff’s, the job losses and loss of market share are the fault of people like Teamsters President James Hoffa, OOIDA mouthpiece Todd Spencer and their stooges in Congress such as Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, and James Oberstar of Minnesota, who has strangely, stayed silent during this latest round of debate. Realizing the very real possibility of the border being open to cross country movers, including Mexican trucks, who have proven to be safe and compliant with US laws and regulations, Peter DeFazio is preparing a letter for fellow congressmen demanding a renegotiation of Article 1202 of NAFTA, National Treatment of Cross-Border Trade in Services. The purpose is to forbid Mexican trucks from access to the US and theoretically, remove the legal tariff’s which aare causing so much concern. The letter, which was sent to OOIDA for their approval, states in part; Read more

Margarita’s on the Border and Homeland Security is Out to Lunch

A van stuffed front to back with nearly 6,000 pounds of marijuana ran out of gas as it headed toward the Paso Del Norte border crossing and an inspection lane manned by Margarita Crispin, who was sentenced in April 2008 to 20 years in federal prison for helping drug traffickers. PHOTO: DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL, EL PASO

On July 1st, MTO reported on the arrest of Customs and Border Protection officer Margarita Crispin of El Paso and followed up on the story on April 21, 2008 when she entered a guilty plea to the charges against her.

Andrew Becker placed this follow up in Mother Jones titled “Will Corruption Cross the Line?”

The rumors about Margarita Crispin started soon after her first day as a customs officer in El Paso, Texas. In March 2003, Crispin started working the line at the Paso Del Norte bridge, across from Ciudad Juárez. Nearly one-fifth of all drugs seized coming across the border enter through the El Paso-Juárez area, and the region is viciously contested by Mexican cartels. So when Crispin waved off the dogs that sniff out drugs in the long line of cars waiting to enter the United States, saying she didn’t like them around her, it raised a few eyebrows.
Read more

Wall of Shame

Local landowners and politicians say they are being ignored by officials in Washington with regards to the proposed construction of a border fence – again.Tuesday, the White House announced President Bush was threatening to veto a House homeland security bill that mandated considering local input on the construction of the proposed fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. According to the Associated Press, the administration said the mandate for local input would “serve as an impediment to gaining control of the border.”
Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas considered the proposed veto a disgrace.

“Unbelievable,” he said. “In other words, we don’t have a vote on the border?”

Salinas added that not only is the path of neglect being traveled by Washington a detriment to the democratic way of life, but the entire fence proposal is equal to a dishonor.

“The wall of shame is exactly what they want to build,” he said. “I invite every member of the Senate that has never been to Laredo, Texas, to come and see us.”

Joseph Hein, a local schoolteacher who sits on the Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee and owns a 580-acre ranch that sits on the banks of the river, said Washington policymakers are trying to regulate a part of the country they have little knowledge about.

“The best way (to put it) is, if you were to give me the opportunity to make decisions for New York, or Wyoming,” he said. “Unless you’re really there and you know what’s going on, you’re making decisions without having factual knowledge of the area.”

Hein said Washington is under the impression that people opposed to the fence are against secure borders, which is inaccurate. He said that instead, more technology and manpower, what the government has dubbed a “virtual fence,” is the answer. He also said he felt the fence proposal is financially motivated more than it is a means of security.

“Any fence you put up in the area is going to need repair,” he said. “Whoever gets the contact is going to get super-rich.”

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, an advocate for the consideration of local input, has not been swayed by the length of the debate.

“We should not have Washington telling us how to deal with border security,” he said Thursday.

In a letter sent last month to Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security, Cuellar suggested that the addition of specific language to the committee’s Homeland Security Appropriations bill. The letter states the language “speaks to the importance of maximizing cost-effectiveness, local consultation, minimizing intrusion on local communities, as well as consideration of terrain and existing natural barriers.”

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who voted for the fence’s construction last year, said he was disappointed by Bush’s statements.

“In Washington, people tend to view things as a one-size-fits-all and to look at local and state participation as interference,” he said. “I don’t feel that way at all.” The senator also said that the difference in terrain among various border states needs to be considered by the Bush administration because Texas, Arizona and California are very different.

Cuellar said the senator’s comments indicate the that the border fence is not a straight-party issue, although he did say Republicans have authored four amendments that seek to strike out any language mandating local consultation.