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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Grisly slayings brings Mexican drug war to US
2009-04-19
COLUMBIANA, Ala. -- Five men dead in an apartment. In a county that might see five homicides in an entire year, the call over the sheriff's radio revealed little about what awaited law enforcement at a sprawling apartment complex.

A type of crime, and criminal, once foreign to this landscape of blooming dogwoods had arrived in Shelby County. Sheriff Chris Curry felt it even before he laid eyes on the grisly scene. He called the state. The FBI. The DEA. Anyone he could think of.

"I don't know what I've got," he warned them. "But I'm gonna need help."

The five dead men lay scattered about the living room of one apartment in a complex of hundreds. Some of the men showed signs of torture: Burns seared into their earlobes revealed where modified jumper cables had been clamped as an improvised electrocution device. Adhesive from duct tape used to bind the victims still clung to wrists and faces, from mouths to noses. As a final touch, throats were slashed open, post-mortem.

It didn't take long for Curry and federal agents to piece together clues: A murder scene, clean save for the crimson-turned-brown stains now spotting the carpet. Just a couple of mattresses tossed on the floor. It was a typical stash house.

But the cut throats? Some sort of ghastly warning.

Curry would soon find this was a retaliation hit over drug money with ties to Mexico's notorious Gulf Cartel.

Curry also found out firsthand what federal drug enforcement agents have long understood. The drug war, with the savagery it brings, knows no bounds. It had landed in his back yard, in the foothills of the Appalachians, in Alabama's wealthiest county, around the corner from The Home Depot.

One thousand, twenty-four miles from the Mexico border.
Rest at the link.
Posted by:tu3031

#22  I'll be sure to appreciate it's self-evindence when I move someplace that doesn't have a border nation ruled by drug lords.
Posted by: Mike N.   2009-04-19 22:18  

#21  The data show that, judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization framework has been a resounding success. Within this success lie self-evident lessons that should guide drug policy debates around the world.

link
Posted by: rammer   2009-04-19 19:20  

#20  I bow to your expertise.
Posted by: Pappy   2009-04-19 19:02  

#19  the United States already incarcerates more ppl than any other country that gives official records, if you locked up everyone for "one seed of pot"3/4 the country would be in jail on some charge. Why is everyone so big on talking about pot when you don't see too many pot heads robbing the local quickie marts at gunpoint. Also these cartels aren't doing all this killing over some weed, go after the big meth labs and such if you are gonna do any damage too them at all, more than likely most the pot that is smuggled into the US now is coming from north of the border or grown locally
Posted by: rabid whitetail   2009-04-19 18:04  

#18  Not particularly, GT. If you think they'll connect your telling them why you won't eat there anymore and an ICE raid, don't say anything to them.

If, on the other hand, you can get several of your friends to do the same thing at about the same time as you, they wouldn't have any reason to specifically connect you to the raid.

You live there - you decide.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-04-19 17:15  

#17  Barbara, are you trying to get me killed?:-)Ofcourse, I left out earlier that I most definitely wont tell them why I stop eating there.

The day the kitchenaids say hello to my leetle friends the cops, they wont know why I stopped eating there, or why they suddenly come under investigation. All can behold the power of the anonymous tip off.

I would urge anyone reporting illegal immigration to err on the side of discretion. A lot of these "KitchenAids" have gangster druggie pals by the dozen. But ofcourse, Im not divulging any big secrets here.
Posted by: GirlThursday   2009-04-19 14:53  

#16  I have come to the opposite conclusion about the drug market allocation problem. We will not solve it until we deal with supply, by legalizing it, or demand, by making use a mandatory felony, imprisonment crime for even one see of pot. The dealers are simply capitalists meeting market demand in spite of government attempts to monopolize the market.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2009-04-19 14:44  

#15  hey besoeker, i know ATL is known for road work, but look i think it started before Lagrange and was damn nerar doowntown before it ended, i'm not used too the traffic out there in that thar big city, i'm gonna tell ya I was scared too stop and use the bathroom until I got too the Braselton exit from Phenix AL.
Posted by: rabid whitetail   2009-04-19 14:44  

#14  The problem is this - between the culture is so saturated with drug use (high school, college, Hollywood - heck, Palin's in-laws dealing drugs) that something like this would never be passed into law.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2009-04-19 14:33  

#13  We spend billions every year on the war on drugs. We spend additional billions to get drug users and dealers off the streets and into prison.

I have come to the conclusion that we will not solve the drug trafficking problem without an expedited death penalty (1 year from sentencing and appeals to execution) for drug dealers. The problem is this - between culture is so saturated with drug use (high school, college, Hollywood - heck, Palin's in-laws dealing drugs) that something like this would never be passed into law. NAMBLA's manifesto has a better chance of getting passed than a drug dealer death penalty. And so the problem will fester on.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2009-04-19 14:32  

#12  Yes, I wont hesitate to place that call Monday morning. They did incur that 'risk' when they broke the law. Leaving behind good business practices to drive up a profit margin at the expense of everything else is not acceptable. It wasn't acceptable on Wall Street, and its not acceptable at the 2 star diner either. Many Americans sit idly by watching this go on all around small towns, USA, every day.

When people drive down a street and see an entire landscaping crew that is Mexican with an American Foreman, do they actually think all those guys have papers? Maybe sometimes, but not likely. Selective ignorance truly has gotten the best of the good ole USA.
Posted by: GirlThursday   2009-04-19 14:02  

#11  One solution. Enjoy!
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-04-19 13:56  

#10  "I don't want to put a small business at risk"

How would you be putting them "at risk," GT?

They did that when they BROKE THE LAW by hiring illegals instead of Americans.

Report them. Also, stop eating there and tell them why you're stopping. And tell your friends about their kitchen help, too.

Especially any who happen to be unemployed and would be willing to work there if they were hiring legals....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-04-19 13:49  

#9  I share your worry Besoeker, I think people may be finally getting most fed up about this, hopefully.

I just learned my fave local diner here, one of many, their ENTIRE kitchen staff are entirely illegal immigrants.

With the current unemployment crisis, those workers are thieves. Americans deserve jobs back.

Im just not sure, am I hurting or helping our economy if I report them? I dont want to put a small business at risk, but at the same time, that business has no business flagrantly ignoring the rule of law. Whats a girl to do?
Posted by: GirlThursday   2009-04-19 13:35  

#8  Ditto Whitetail. I seldom venture north of the Hartsfield Airport and never, I say again never ride the MARTA (Moving Albanians Rapidly Through Atlanta).

Mind the left-lane Escalades on I-85. They've taken recommended speeds on the Bundesautobahn to an entirely new level. Isn't it ironic that the Dwight D. Eisenhower "National Defense Highway Sytem" is turning out to be the capillary and network of our nation's undoing.
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-04-19 13:19  

#7  Sad too say besoeker but i see this coming staright too the ATL since we are a straight beltway for all this crao too spread up the east coast. I was coming through Phenix , Eufalla , Dolthan AL from Panama City last week and just by looking at the cars in these shit hole cities you can tell the local economy is not supporting the 24's and the Escalades the locals are driving.
Posted by: rabid whitetail   2009-04-19 12:30  

#6  Someone stiffed the cartels or they are getting rid of the competition.

There is no interest by either party in trying to control illegal immigration across the Mexican-USA border so long as there are millions of potential voters for whichever party manages to wave the magic wand and make these illegals legal. If you don't control the border, you don't control the flow of drugs from these cartels into the US. Maybe I'm just feeling cynical this morning.

We spend billions every year on the war on drugs. We spend additional billions to get drug users and dealers off the streets and into prison. Drug use also costs untold amounts in wasted lives, human misery, and increased crime. The war on drugs has been going on for some 30 years. Governmental budgets increase each year. The problem is still with us after 30 years with no evidence of abatement. Damn, this whole thing is like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the mountain throughout eternity.

It doesn't seem like government is interested in solving illegal immigration problems or drug problems.
Posted by: JohnQC   2009-04-19 09:14  

#5  Sorry, Columbiana is in Shelby County, not Jefferson County. I don't know why the story calls Shelby County Alabama's wealthiest.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2009-04-19 08:47  

#4  Cherelet and Tenille1095, it's in the same County as Birmingham. Central Alabama, and it used to be fairly isolated with onle a 2-lane road in and out. I haven't been there in 30 years so I guess things have changed quite a bit.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2009-04-19 08:43  

#3  Slain with American made electricity and knives no doubt. I blame us. Five that no longer qualify for Barry's guest worker program and amnesty.
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-04-19 07:51  

#2  Alabama's wealthiest county

Strange, that..
Posted by: Cherelet and Tenille1095   2009-04-19 05:12  

#1  Viva Azatlan!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2009-04-19 03:25  

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