Conroy: On Mexico Border, Zetas Burn Media's Script in War on Drugs
May 28, 2005
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Our correspondent on the Texas-Mexico border, Bill Conroy, follows up his string of reports for Narco News debunking
politically motivated government travel warnings regarding northern Mexico with a new report on the narco-mercenary gang
known as the Zetas in city of Nuevo Laredo. The product of several interviews with DEA and Homeland Security officials,
Conroy paints a more complete picture of the Zetas and their context than the mafia soap opera version portrayed in the
commercial media.
Conroy, as Narco News reported earlier this week, has been the subject of intimidation from the Department of Homeland
security, which has sent agents to both his house and office to pressure him into revealing his source for a previous
story on Narco News. A true authentic journalist, Conroy refused to do so, and continues to enjoy the trust of his many
whistleblowing and insider sources within border law enforcement agencies.
"The Zetas," Conroy reports, "are a very amorphous group that started out from a core of Mexican special forces
defectors who over time have either recruited or trained additional members. But make no mistake about it; the Zetas are
very good at what they do. One former DEA official says they are 'better than the Secret Service.'
"'In terms of weapons, communications, parameter control and security, these guys are very good,' he adds.
"A major reason for their 'professionalism' in this area is that many of the Zetas have received some specialized
military or other tactical training from U.S. agencies, including from the DEA, FBI and U.S. military."
The shifting alliances of groups like the Zetas and their narco employers paint a picture not of competing regional
mafias (as the commercial media often conveys, using names like "the Gulf Cartel" to describe the players), but of a
complex trading system that mirrors North American capitalism itself (just much more violently). As Conroy writes of the
responses of U.S. and Mexican governments to the phenomenon, "the militarization of the border in the name of the war on
drugs isn't likely to change that game, but rather likely only allow for more bullets to be spent."
Read the entire report, here:
From somewhere in a country called América,
Dan Feder Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin