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"People, don't be fooled: La Familia Michoacana is with you and does not condone acts of genocide." And they use a dove as their symbol!
Too many interesting stories for one post- Here are some more:
- This article is incredible: Nazario Moreno Gonzalez, head of the vicious Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana, published a book of "Thoughts" this year, reminding readers to be polite, pious, and tell their friends "I love you!" Also, more commentary on how the cartels perform Human Network Operations, gain Information Access Superiority, and provide social services in the increasingly hollow Mexican state:
The drug gang has bought many legitimate businesses that range from mango and avocado farms to drug and hardware stores and car washes. The group's appointed delegates serve as a shadow power behind local governments.
"They have become substitutes for the police and the authorities. They tell people when to keep noise down at night," said Juventino Bravo Rojas , a deacon at the local Catholic parish...
The group's control is extraordinary. To grasp the extensive system of lookouts that La Familia operates, one only has to climb aboard an army patrol vehicle with a mounted .40-caliber machine gun in the cargo bed, and cruise... During a lengthy ride with a radio scanner blaring, one could regularly hear hidden cartel sentries reporting on the passage of the vehicle... The sentries would sign off with a religious phrase: "May God repay you."
My favorite part, however, is when their unnerving similarity to the Islamist terror organizations like Hezbollah and the Taliban is pointed out by... Los Zetas, a brutal gang of cartel enforcers.
- Non-state actor super-empowerment: two cybercriminals stole 650,000 credit card numbers for an estimated $12 million of damage and, in the spirit of open-source software, posted free tutorials online on how you can do the same, all at the ages of 17 and 18. Detectives caught them by following the breadcrumbs on web forums, showing that the internet can easily be a tool for control and not just crime.
- Police in Nogales, Arizona, received threats from a Mexican cartel through an informant that officers will be targeted if they do not turn a blind eye on drug smuggling when off duty. Is the drug violence finally crossing the border?
- Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, Jamaican drug lord and the target of a massive manhunt, was captured on Wednesday. Residents of West Kingston rejoiced to hear he was unharmed and sang his praises for taking care of the poor and providing the social services they lacked from the Jamaican state. We predicted this here when we talked about Jamaica as a hollow state.
- Ciudad Reynosa's Cano and Blunt are self-proclaimed narco-rappers who quit their factory jobs and now get cars, girls, and street cred by writing raps commissioned by the Gulf Cartel.
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