Picture this: the USA decides it is time to take the drug war to the home ground of the cartels. It imports Mexican Army Special Forces and trains them in dirty warfare, urban warfare, and various nasty tricks. They send them home where the newly trained forces gather and train allies in the various police forces… and then return to the US to run drugs and kill their enemies.

Welcome to the nightmare that is the new reality among hidden peoples: Los Zetas. While the news doesn’t cover it very much, there is a terrible drug war going on in Nuevo Laredo, Juarez and other border towns. Chiefs of Police are killed within days of their swearing in. In Nuevo Laredo the police were so complicit in kidnapping (including many US citizens) and street crime that the government made them turn their guns in! Within a couple of weeks, they were returned. If it stayed in Mexico, many Americans wouldn’t care.

But they are here. Dozens of murders, many in broad daylight, in major cities such as Houston, Phoenix, Tucson, Dallas, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Los Angeles… the list goes on and on… have been attributed to the Zetas, Mexican Commandos operating on our streets. (By the way, there are some sites that claim that US Army personnel or police are involved. There is no evidence for that to my knowledge) They use automatic weapons and advanced communication gear, are well stocked with money, and enter the US using false IDs, collecting their weapons from caches placed ahead of time or from friends. The first murders known to be committed by Zetas were back in February 2005 in Dallas. "The Zetas are bold, reckless, and won’t think twice about pulling the trigger on a cop…" said a Dallas based DEA agent who asked that his name not be passed along. Say that same sentence in any major city (and some with populations less than 50,000) and you will get widespread agreement from law enforcement officers in all departments and at all levels.

This is a real problem. They are here, but they blend in with the local Hispanic or Latino populations. Law abiding immigrants or second and third generation US Latinos want nothing to do with them, but are often tarred by the actions of this rogue spec ops force. Think about it: would you like to be lumped in with the KKK or the Nation of Islam? Thought so.

Sometimes they aren’t hidden. Recent news stories about Mexican gunmen shooting at Border Patrol agents aren’t telling the whole truth. Many of those incidents take place between the US forces and uniformed Mexican Army special forces. Why are they doing this? I’ve heard theories, but none I feel comfortable passing along. I’m more concerned with the hidden Zetas that have been "captured" via surveillance cameras and fingerprints committing crimes in the last few months in places as far afield as Seattle and Nashville. Most of these stories don’t make it to the newspapers. Some people think the stories are killed so that racial anger isn’t stirred up (which is always possible). Others think the papers are too busy selling politics and Anna Nicole Smith stories (last night’s special on CNN for example, which spent a whole hour speculating on what the legal battles would have been if ANS’s first son hadn’t died last year…ludicrous and sad). 

Support your local police officer. Thank them at every opportunity. Contribute to their charities. Their job is harder than you thought — they have some dangerous hidden people out there, organized, armed, and willing to kill without hesitation. Watch and pray.