RICHARDSON: BORDER DRUG BATTLES AFFECT E.V.

From Oct. 15-28, officers from the Chandler, Mesa, Scottsdale and
Tempe police departments and officers from county adult probation and
juvenile authorities rounded up and arrested 50 wanted felons, many
who were members of street gangs.

Over the past year, these same East Valley officers, with the
assistance of the FBI, DEA, ATF, ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service,
arrested 673 people wanted by the police for criminal activity. Again,
many gang members were represented in these numbers.

Cooperative police work where dangerous criminals are identified
through aggressive intelligence-gathering and then targeted by police
for capture is the way police work is supposed to be done. This is a
far cry from the sheriff raiding Mesa city buildings with 60 officers,
some reportedly armed with machine guns, to arrest two suspected
undocumented workers.

Real police work like was done in the East Valley over the past year
by city and federal police sends a strong message to criminals who
look for a place to operate from.

The recent violence in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, is a frightening
reminder of just how ferocious and close our enemies are. The
assassination of the assistant chief of the Sonora State Police last
Sunday tells everyone that the drug cartels will stop at nothing.
Reports in the Los Angeles Times told of how the chief was riddled
with bullets and blown up with two fragmentation grenades.

Just last month, a dozen people were killed in a shootout between drug
traffickers and police in Nogales. For years, the drug war battles
were being fought along borders with Texas and California, now they're
being fought and 90 minutes south of us.

The recent kidnapping of a 5-year-old boy in Las Vegas whose
grandfather reportedly had an unpaid debt to Mexican drug traffickers
showed the world the cartels will do their business on either side of
the border.

Neither Sen. John McCain nor President-elect Barack Obama ever made
the drug wars in Mexico and along our border a campaign issue.

The Los Angeles Times also reported that 4,000 Mexican citizens have
been slain this year thanks to the drug business, and since 2006, 500
Mexican police officers have been killed.

The current battles being fought all along the Arizona-Mexico border
should be a wake-up call for our elected policy officials.

As the cartels battle along the border and expand their operations into
the United States, they're also establishing alliances and partnerships
with our own home-grown career criminals. In the April's U.S. Attorney
General's Report to Congress on the Growth of Violent Street Gangs in
Suburban Areas: "Reports from law enforcement officials are an
increasing concern to federal, state, and local law enforcement
officials. Mexican drug traffickers affiliated with the Federation, the
Gulf Cartel, the Juarez Cartel, and the Tijuana Cartel are cultivating
relationships with street gangs and prison gangs that operate in
suburban areas. Traffickers maintain close working relationships with
members of domestic gangs located in the Southwest Region."

That's Arizona.

Our state has long been the path of least resistance for cartel
operations, thanks to failed statewide law enforcement efforts and the
lack of a coordinated anti-crime strategy. Arizona's statewide policy
makers and law enforcement officials haven't done a very good job -
and it shows.

On Sept. 29, the Cox News Service reported the Mexican crime cartels
are well armed and doing a $40 billion a year business. They've got
the money, men and guns to fight the war against law and order, and so
far they've won throughout South and Central America.

Police officials tell me they're moving north in their quest to
control organized crime throughout the entire hemisphere.

Will much of Arizona and Maricopa County continue to be the cartels'
pathway to America?

Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East
Valley.