War on Drugs Update - SoCal Up to no Good

Silly frat kids - This is a fascinating tale of idiocy coming out of San Diego State University. 96 people were arrested, $100,000 worth of drugs were seized, as well as 4 guns, from the Theta Chi fraternity after an undercover drug bust. Best line of the article, "They weren't picky about who they sold to," he said, alleging that undercover officers would simply call them and say, " 'Hey, I heard you deal. Will you sell to me?' "And they did." Frat nerds + drug dealing = extraordinary studity every time. I remember a story from when I was at UCLA that some kid in a fraternity was dealing drugs when no one in his house even knew. That is, until 2 guys showed up at his door with sawed-off shot guns, tied him up and robbed him blind in the light of day.

And a few more stories from south of the border. It appears that the hit-squad division of one of the largest drug cartels in the Gulf region, Los Zetas, is recruiting new employees (might not be a bad place to start looking for us job seeking graduates). And they are doing it in a particularly brazen way...by hanging huge banners and posting signs around border towns that they are hiring. The signs offer food, training, health care and education for families, and good pay (up to $5,000 per week). Unfortunately, it seems that they are looking for ex-military and military deserters, so I may not qualify. They even list phone numbers for interested parties to contact, which the authorities believe are legit.

And about 2 weeks ago, a shootout between rival drug gangs left 15 people dead in the streets of Tijuana(the article says 13, but 2 more have since died). The article can't actually pinpoint exactly who was involved, but speculations range from gang vs. gang, gang vs. informants, and gang vs. undercover police.

What both articles point to is that the surging brazenness and violence coming from the Mexican drug industry is a direct response to increased efforts on the part of the Mexican military (with U.S. money and advice) to fight back against the drug cartels. In times of extreme irony I like to invoke song lyrics. Wilco's song War on War goes...

Its a War on War
Its a War on War
Its a War on War
Its a War on War

Your gonna lose
You have to loo-oo-oo-oose
You have to learn how to die-ie-ie
If you wanna-wanna stay alive