Evil on Mexico's Northern Border

I continue to be shocked at the descent of Mexico into a violent and lawless place. For generations Americans would cross the border for a few days of fiesta. You'd be crazy to do it these days. 4 US citizens found strangled in Tijuana

TIJUANA, Mexico – The bodies of four U.S. citizens were found strangled, beaten and stabbed in a van in this border city, two days after they reportedly left their Southern California homes for a night at the Mexican clubs, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The victims, ages 19 to 23 years old, were found tied up on Saturday, but their deaths were not reported earlier because they were under investigation, said Fermin Gomez, an assistant state prosecutor in Baja California.

UPDATE: I can't help but think of Steve Earle's song The Week of Living Dangerously

Well I headed south on 35 hell bent for vinyl
I hadn't never had her up past 55 before
Well somethin' 'bout that little red line always looked so final
Buddy you'd be surprised how fast a Chevrolet truck can go

Now, down in Mexico they've got a little place called Boystown
Where a man's still a man if you know what I'm talkin' about
Well, I walked into the Cadillac bar and I laid my cash down
I said "there's plenty more where that came from" and the lights went out

Well I woke up in a county jail 'cross the line in Laredo
With a headache and a deputy staring at me through the door
Well he said "Now how you got across that river alive, I don't know
But your wife just made your bail so now you're really dead for sure"

Shell Casings and Corpses

The title of a new horror movie? Nope. What British newspaper The Independent describes is littering the streets of Vancouver. From heaven to hell: 18 die as drugs war rages on streets of Vancouver

Once upon a very recent time, Vancouver had a clean, safe image. Nestled between a spectacular bay and snow-capped mountains, this Canadian city, which is twice the size of Birmingham, was described by The Economist as the most liveable in the world. Not any more. As it prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, what it's got now is not cuddly, eco-friendly publicity, but blood-spattered streets littered with shell casings and corpses.

Vancouver is the battlefield in a war between myriad drug gangs, which include Hell's Angels, Big Circle Boys, United Nations, Red Scorpions, Independent Soldiers and the 14K Triad. Guns – often machineguns – are fired almost daily. "We've always been told by media experts to never admit that there is a gang war," the chief of police, Jim Chu, said last month. "Let's get serious. There is a gang war and it's brutal." Vancouver's Mayor, Gregor Robertson, confessed that the police are fighting a losing battle. Since mid-January, the city has recorded 50 gang-related shootings, 18 of them fatal. And the violence is not confined to seedy neighbourhoods. The cross-fire is happening in quiet, residential cul-de-sacs and the car parks of up-scale shopping centres. It's a suburban civil war.

(...)

In the long run, many British Columbians, on both left and right, accept that legalisation and regulation are the answer. Just the sales tax on C$7bn of drugs would pay for several hospitals and schools, policing costs could be reduced, property crime by addicts to pay for their drug habits would be slashed, and the gang wars could be quickly reined in. "But the international politics are unbelievable," said Dr Rob Gordon, director of Simon Fraser's school of criminology. "The DEA [US Drug Enforcement Administration] starts to foam at the mouth at the idea of there being a huge, legal marijuana farm just north of the border. Under George Bush, the concensus was that if Canada ever moved to exercise its economic sovereignty, they would shut the border down by searching every vehicle."

It's definitely getting that Chicago in the 1920's feel to it these days.

BC Premier Gordon Campbell is upset at the criticism.

"It's a shame that you have got some people that are going to try and take some cheap shots," Mr. Campbell told reporters following a speech.

"[People] will come here. They will discover not just Vancouver, but all of British Columbia. They will discover Canada, and the Asia Pacific, and I think they will be excited. It will be a great Olympics and I am sure The Independent will write the great stories when the time comes."

Kandahar on English Bay

I was chatting with a few people last night about all the gangland shootings in Vancouver, meanwhile outside the guns were blazing:

Vancouver — Gunfire across Metro Vancouver Tuesday night has left two dead, two injured and one home riddled with bullets following four separate incidents stretching from Vancouver to Burnaby and Surrey.

(...)

The incident comes as Greater Vancouver has recorded almost two dozen shootings in recent weeks, nine of them fatal, ...

Does anybody know where I can pick up a flack jacket on the cheap?

UPDATE: The Toronto Star reports that the violence in Vancouver is a spill over from the Mexican Drug Wars.

Almost all cocaine in Canada comes via Mexico, the hub for South American producers. Canadian-based organized crime groups buy the drug either directly from the cartels in Mexico, or from middlemen in Los Angeles and other American cities.

When the supply of cocaine is hampered by crackdowns and the price goes up, says Fogarty, competition for the remaining kilos gets tense in Canada. The bigger players with good links to the south prevail, leaving the smaller ones scrambling.

"People are running around trying to find other sources of cocaine. The price goes up and the guns come out," said Fogarty.

UPDATE II: CBC

The shooting followed the arrest of several people over the weekend with links to the Lower Mainland's notorious UN gang, which police allege is engaged in a violent tuff war with rival gangs for control of the region's illegal drug trade.