Beheadings etc.. what the hell is going on in Mexico?

[Pekka]

And why did they arrest the top drug dudes and not the soldiers as well? That will leave the soldiers in the streets, of course there will be a war.

Like they do in Italy with the mafia, they take everyone out at the same time like in this last bust they just did.

[Pekka]

Or was this done on purpose in hopes of seeing them kill each other?

[Dinner]

Likely just incompetance.

[Pekka]

Pretty harsh one, it's too obvious. I call for on purpose. They know it'll mean lots of bodies, innocent too, but maybe they figure at the end it pays off. I don't know, but seems like a ****ty plan that should have no consideration at all to begin with.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Pekka
Yeah, but this says it's also an open war against cops.. five heads of cops just got stuck in the PD fence with a note that this should teach some respect.. and that's just to begin with. That's crazy man.. to me that sounds like declaring an open war against police, and if you do that, you better have a lot of muscle. I guess they do.

But what about the police, what are they going to do, besides being in the recieving end? don't they have an army to come in and get everyone they know and just.. jail the ones they missed to shoot?

The army does get used in drug enforcement. It's also a bunch of one year national service conscripts, except the rich kids find ways out. There is political penetration (a lot of organized crime is not just drug based, but political based - think of Governor Gotti or Senator Giancana) and organized crime penetration of the police and military, so most serious operations would be compromised, and anyone honest and hardcore knows they don't know who can be trusted.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Likely just incompetance.

No, they're pretty much pushed into following the US' prioritization of targets. The US used to have "arrangements" with the Arellano-Felix people, and primarily targeted the Sinaloan and Jalisco operations run by Amado Carrillo Fuentes and Rafael Caro Quintero. After Carrillo Fuentes purportedly died, and Quintero was imprisoned in relation to the murder of Kiki Camarena, enforcement focused on Miguel Caro Quintero, who used bribes, threats and witness "accidents" to get charges against him dismissed. He and his brothers keep fairly low profiles.

Meanwhile, the Arellano-Felix brothers and sisters had a pretty free run for a while, and they "forgot" their quid pro quos with the US, so now they've become the enforcement fetish despite the fact they're barely even regional players in the Tijuana-Mexicali area.

El Mayo Zambada gained control of the Sinaloa-Jalisco action after the probable, but never-quite-reliably confirmed death of Carrillo Fuentes, and El Mayo is argually more ruthless than Pablo Acosta was, or at least the same. (Acosta preceded Carrillo Fuentes)

The soldiers aren't touched because they have too much firepower, many of them are in or related to police and military officers, and there is just too many of them.

The current "action" isn't random soldiers acting independently (although a lot of Tijuana kidnappings and other non-drug actions are done by ex Arellano Felix freelancers). It's directed from the top. The Mexican authorities are thoroughly penetrated, outgunned, outmanned in some areas, and would be taking on people with as lot of political protection. Not just on that side of the border, either.