Cartel War Explodes Threatening to Spill into America

[727Sky]

An all-out cartel war just exploded south of the border in Mexico and now officials are warning the violence could spill into the United States. A mile from the Texas Mexico border Cartel Gun battles resulted in six people killed and vehicles with Texas license plates burned and shot to pieces - this is all according to state police. Written by: Chris Cappy and Diego Aceituno Edited by: Savvy Studios But there is one other organization that might stand in the way of the cartel - aside from their own factions. The Mexican military has been deployed to stop the war. They’ve been tasked with urban combat in a city with a population of 1 million people, a difficult job for any unit. Squads of soldiers are seen pictured in luxury apartment buildings and homes in the city’s center, some of them bombed out burnt up cartel living rooms. Gun Battles between Mexican soldiers and the cartel have sent locals diving for cover in super markets and cafes. In response Cartel members set fire to vehicles and left them in the middle of the road in an effort to block military reinforcements from reaching the city. Still over 125 armored vehicles have arrived.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

Interesting timing, just after the U.S. presidential election.

[727Sky]

What started as a small Venezuelan prison gang, is now fast spreading across the United states of America and police and law enforcement as well as all authorities from the FBI to DEA are trying to stop them. Tren De Aragua has expanded through tactics of attacking people to trafficking everything from weapons to peeps. You might already be familiar with them because a video clip of the gang went viral recently, they made national headlines for terrorizing an apartment complex in U.S state of Colorado. But they're also in New York City and Los Angeles as well as Texas. Be sure to join https://www.pepperbox.tv/ for exclusive content and uncensored videos. You get access to early videos from myself and all the guys over there like Fat Electrician, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator and more.

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

I've gone on and on about Venezuela for a long time as a lesson learned in real-time. I've also considered Mexico as a threat for even longer with border towns at greatest risk. I've also felt that these border problems will reach the bigger cities like Chicago and Detroit, those two in particular as they are closet to my area. Of course, the video indicated that they are already in a few places in Michigan.

ETA: A good search on Google and AOL only returned incidences of Tren de Aragua in Colorado, Chicago, Florida, Texas, and Connecticut, but not a thing in Michigan or Detroit Michigan. Makes me think this video isn't that great. The map in the video shows Grand Rapids then either Ann Arbor or the West Side of Detroit, and one place in the UP. From what I can tell it is in the middle of the Ottawa National Forest with the small town of Iron River closest to the area on the map.

It seems that my security plans should be put into place now. I like the idea of starting with a moat and drawbridge. I don't have a castle to defend, and it ain't much, but it's all mine.

A log stockade with watch towers, like a fortress from the pioneering days would be more like it based on available materials.

[Ninurta]

I've gone on and on about Venezuela for a long time as a lesson learned in real-time. I've also considered Mexico as a threat for even longer with border towns at greatest risk. I've also felt that these border problems will reach the bigger cities like Chicago and Detroit, those two in particular as they are closet to my area. Of course, the video indicated that they are already in a few places in Michigan.

ETA: A good search on Google and AOL only returned incidences of Tren de Aragua in Colorado, Chicago, Florida, Texas, and Connecticut, but not a thing in Michigan or Detroit Michigan. Makes me think this video isn't that great. The map in the video shows Grand Rapids then either Ann Arbor or the West Side of Detroit, and one place in the UP. From what I can tell it is in the middle of the Ottawa National Forest with the small town of Iron River closest to the area on the map.

It seems that my security plans should be put into place now. I like the idea of starting with a moat and drawbridge. I don't have a castle to defend, and it ain't much, but it's all mine.

A log stockade with watch towers, like a fortress from the pioneering days would be more like it based on available materials.

TDA ia just the most recent of several south of the border gangs that have taken to operating in the US, and is not yet as finely infiltrated and integrated as some of the others.

It's M.O. is also different from most of the others. Where the Mexican cartel operations in the US seek to keep a low profile, because too much publicity is bad for business, TDA and similar gangs like MS-13 try to increase their publicity profile in order to generate terror among the populace, hoping that they can then operate with impunity in an atmosphere of fear. TDA ahd MS-13 also are more prone to attack the populace in general than the Mexican cartels are. The Mexican cartels generally confine their violence when they deem violence necessary, to rival gangs. TDA and MS-13 feel that anyone in the general population is fair game.

We've not seen much of TDA here yet, but I'm sandwiched in between the territories of two Mexican cartels. We have the Sinaloa cartel to the west of me in the Cumberland Mountains and Kentucky, and the Jalisco cartel (CJNG, Jalisco New Generation Cartel) to the east of me, in the Blue Ridge and eastern VA. Their presence is likely to be what is inhibiting TDA and MS-13 from making inroads into this area. Both Sinaloa and Jalisco are some bad mothers, but they prefer a low profile here so as not to inhibit their primary business model, which is drug distribution.

MS-13 has a presence in Northern Virginia and Maryland - the DC area - which may inhibit the infiltration of TDA there unless they form an alliance.

TDA and MS-13 are more "direct to consumer" operations, where they parasitize everyone they meet, not just the dopers.

Regarding the stockade, I'd like to offer some advice, which you can either take or leave as suits your inclinations. We've had a few different kinds here with varying results.

Actual stockades, with corner blockhouses, curtain walls, and the whole nine yards, are more suitable if you have a larger force of defenders - platoon strength or better. The reason is they have a lot more area to cover and be defended, so they require more personnel.

For smaller operations, say a fire team up to platoon size - more to the point, a family-sized defensive force or less - I think what we used to call a "blockhouse" or "fort house" here is more appropriate. Back in the day, there were a LOT more fort houses here than there were actual stockaded forts. In this area, there were only 3 stockaded forts, but 18 to 24 fort-houses. They are easier for smaller groups to both build and defend.

They are really fortified log cabins, usually built on a square plan with at least tow floors. The upper floor overhangs the lower floor to proved defense for the lower walls. The overhanging strip has it's own loop holes to shoot at miscreants up against the lower walls who often tried to set the structure on fire, since it was log-built. You could shoot them through those loop holes and still maintain cover for yourself.

Both upper and lower walls had heavy shutters over the windows with "plus sign" shaped loopholes to shoot out of. The whole was self-contained and defensible with a smaller group of defenders.

So, if you have 15 or more defenders, then a stockade sized to the number of defenders is probably the way to go, but if you have 15 or fewer, then a fort house may be more appropriate. They're hard to beat for small defensive forces, especially when combined with a defense in depth - rings of obstacles and booby traps surrounding them.

This information is gleaned from experience received during the southern Appalachian Indian Wars in West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Tennessee, and Western North Carolina. Attacking forces generally numbered from 3 to 30 personnel, and defending forces were usually of similar size, although the two were not usually evenly matched - you would usually have few attackers against more defenders, or few defenders against more attackers, in which case the fort houses were of great value. One of those old fort houses still stands not far from here, and was built around 1770 by the Witten family. It's called "Witten's Fort" if anyone wants to look it up.

I have often wondered if, given modern construction materials available, whether building a block house out of cinder blocks filled with concrete and rebar, using steel I-beams for the floor joists, might not be a better solution. Something built like that, with a log facade for aesthetics and bullet absorption might be the way to go, if one can afford the materials.

Dugouts with log and earth overhead cover, with a narrow observation slit covering the business side, might do well for observation posts/ listening posts to house 1 or two man teams to cover approaches and give advanced warning.

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[Michigan Swamp Buck]

Great advice Ninurta, I'll be looking into blockhouse design. 

I was exaggerating about the moat sort of. I have a decent size ditch out front and a back way out on the two-track trails. If things got extreme enough, I could drop a bunch of trees on the road as well. What I really need to do is talk with neighbors and begin organizing before it becomes necessary.

[Ninurta]

Great advice Ninurta, I'll be looking into blockhouse design. 

I was exaggerating about the moat sort of. I have a decent size ditch out front and a back way out on the two-track trails. If things got extreme enough, I could drop a bunch of trees on the road as well. What I really need to do is talk with neighbors and begin organizing before it becomes necessary.

Here is a page on Witten's Fort-House to get you started. There are some photos taken during it's deconstruction, move, and reconstruction that might assist.

Moats are not a bad idea, but they are often hard to explain unless well camouflaged! My "moat" here is actually a creek. It won't stop foot traffic, but it'll slow them down, and stop vehicular traffic altogether. The other side of the property is protected by a 700 foot tall or so ridge, the top of which is sloped at about 75 degrees, making it a tough traverse to approach from that side whether in a vehicle or on foot. I've climbed it, and near the top one slides back 3 steps for every 4 of upward movement. The loose leaves over loose dirt combined with the slop make it all but impassable.

Creative use of the natural terrain is one of the best defenses you can construct with the least amount of work and finance.

.

[727Sky]

[727Sky]

As a Marine friend once said we should have put a battalion of Marines on the border and had them move south until we had a border we could defend...Probably around the Panama Canal..