According to this article, the home addresses of government agents are being solicited by Mexican drug dealers, for disposal of agents interfering in their business. Between anonymous remailers and payment systems, a real Assassination Politics market could be set up. Don't even need untraceable e-cash, though this would be better. Glad I'm not a DEA or INS agent. --Tim May
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 22:42:08 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <199708150542.WAA25283@sirius.infonex.com> From: Mix <mixmaster@remail.obscura.com> Comments: This message did not originate from the address above. It was remailed by an anonymous remailing service. If you have questions or complaints, please direct them to <complaints@remail.obscura.com> Subject: Cartel Leaders Set Snipers To Work In Border War Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns,misc.legal,misc.survivalism,alt.news-media,alt.politics.usa.misc,alt.politics.media,alt.politics.clinton Mail-To-News-Contact: postmaster@nym.alias.net Organization: mail2news@nym.alias.net Lines: 58 ... Cartel leaders set snipers to work in border 'war' By John Hiscock Electronic Telegraph, London
August 11, 1997
AMERICAN Border Patrol agents have become targets of snipers working for drug smugglers trying to take control of the border with Mexico. A five-mile strip of frontier near San Diego in California has become so dangerous that a specially-trained squad of border patrol sentries armed with assault rifles has been drafted in to combat the snipers, who have fired at agents seven times in the past two months.
The agents believe that Mexican drug cartel leaders have issued instructions to kill any law enforcement officers impeding drug smuggling operations. Their fears have been heightened by a bulletin from the Immigration and Naturalisation Service that said two drug cartel leaders in the Mexican border city of Tijuana had "reportedly contracted with local gangs on both sides of the border to kill federal law enforcement personnel", preferably on American soil. In addition, officers recently received reports that cartel henchmen have put a price on their heads by offering to pay £7,000 for the home address of any United States federal agent.
Dianne Feinstein, a Californian senator, says that border patrol agents, whose job until recently was to arrest mainly frightened and unarmed Mexicans trying to cross the frontier at night, are now in the front line of a vicious drug war. "This is a border on alert, a border where anything could happen," she said. "These cartels are moving drugs across the border and are operating with impunity and that adds an increased risk to the lives of border patrol agents. This is a different border than it was two years ago."
In addition to being the most popular spot for illegal aliens attempting to cross, the border around San Diego is now the main gateway for cocaine and heroin bound for the US. Since the introduction of Operation Gatekeeper, President Clinton's 1994 anti-illegal alien initiative that poured more money and agents into the San Diego area, the drug smugglers have found themselves increasingly caught up in the patrols' swoops on illegal border-crossers.
"We've made it increasingly difficult for drug traffic," said John Williams, the chief of San Diego's 2,000-strong border patrol sector. "We're making it tough on crime and that certainly has some bearing on their reaction. The escalation of violence is of grave concern to me and my agents."
Members of the elite special protection unit carry M-16 assault rifles, with a range of more than a mile, while all agents are now being issued with semi-automatic pistols and shotguns.
-- There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."