View Full Version : Stacked Deck: Rewards of Millions in the Hunt for Latin Narco Terrorists
Stacked Deck: Rewards of Millions in the Hunt for Latin Narco Terrorists
August 02, 2006 12:27 PM
Richard Esposito Reports: (http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/08/stacked_deck_re.html)
The war on terror is closer to U.S. borders than many think. In Central America, Colombia and other South American nations, three terrorist groups control considerable countryside, wield enormous political clout and fuel their activities by selling cocaine and heroin.
ABC News has obtained a just printed deck of playing cards that law enforcement officials are circulating in Latin America. There U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and U.S. military supplies worth billions of dollars each year are two of the most important tools in fighting the war on terror and on drugs.
The "ACES" of FARC -- Pedro Antonio Marin, Guillermo Varga and Victor Rojas -- command $5 million rewards.
"In the past, state sponsors provided funding for terrorists," a State Department official told the Senate Commission on the Judiciary in 2003, when the trend toward narcotics financing had escalated. "In recent years ... terrorist groups have looked increasingly at drug trafficking and other criminal activities as sources of revenue."
Nowhere is this more true than in Latin America where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (AUC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) cultivate narcotics, tax the raising of opium crops and control distribution of heroin and cocaine.
FARC's strength and the size of its armed forces are directly related to its successful use of narcotics for funding the organization's activities.
The State Department, law enforcement and intelligence analysts tell ABC News that FARC's largesse is a substantial corrupting influence on the government and the military.
U.S. policy is determined to buttress the influence of Colombia's government in Bogotá. FARC is determined to destabilize it.
While the government has made some inroads, FARC has remained powerful until recently when the Drug Enforcement Administration using financial crime tools and paramilitary-trained agents cracked down hard and collared a number of key FARC officials. But still many remain at large.
The "recompensa" for "KINGS" of FARC is also $5 million for information leading to their capture. The "JOKERS" in the deck -- those already collared by U.S. feds and Colombian national narcotics cops -- include FARC's chief of finance, Nayibe Rojas, who was extradited to the United States for prosecution recently.
The deck bears the logo of Colombia's counter-narcotics forces and the motto, "Dios y victoria," God and Victory. But a little cash on the barrelhead, it seems, never hurts.
NousDefionsDoc
08-02-2006, 20:55
The "ACES" of FARC -- Pedro Antonio Marin, Guillermo Varga and Victor Rojas -- command $5 million rewards.
WHAT?!! Why wasn't I told?
I have a deck from the Army - there must be several versions.
Okay.. Wait now we try to turn the war on drug, which seems to be a failure into the GWOT??
Lets see here, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (AUC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) all cultivate narcotics, tax the raising of opium crops and control distribution of heroin and cocaine to the U.S and the world are all now enemy's for GWOT?
Look I understand the FARC's strength and their size and how teh FARC armed forces are directly related to its successful use of narcotics for funding the organization's activities. But terrorists??
Why don;t we target the crime families here in the U.S. for fund terrorists overseas with the funds that go off shore?
Just don't this way of thinking here.
My 4th Point .02's
NDD are we doing the wrong work down here?
NDD are we doing the wrong work down here?
Work..
He already said he was playing cards. He had that Ace up his sleeve for that eye one actuador
NousDefionsDoc
08-02-2006, 21:18
NDD are we doing the wrong work down here?
Apparently, but we can adapt quickly.
control distribution of heroin and cocaine to the U.S and the world
No, they don't control distro.
The FARC are terrorists, Gs and drug traffickers. Depends on where you are and what day it is. The good guys caught 80 kilos of some kind of explosives coming in to town today - getting ready to inaugurate the President on Monday.
If you don't believe they are terrorists, check this out:
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=210812
About 50 blocks from my house.
Roycroft201
08-02-2006, 22:20
NDD,
Your link requires a subscriber log-in.
Is it possible to post the article here?
Thanks,
RC201
NousDefionsDoc
08-02-2006, 23:28
Colombia: The FARC's Urban Offensive
March 03, 2003 17 15 GMT
Summary
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are using Bogota as a testing ground for a national urban offensive against the Colombian state and civilian population. If the strategy succeeds, Colombia's cities could be shattered by a wave of large bomb attacks.
Analysis
While Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez steps up his military offensive against rebels and paramilitary groups in oil-rich Arauca Department, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are taking the war to Bogota.
Between December 2002 and Feb. 7, 2003, when a car bomb destroyed Bogota's exclusive El Nogal Club, government security forces deactivated 12 car bombs, seized six tons of explosives and captured eight homemade mortars aimed at public buildings in Bogota, according to Colombian news reports. And three hours before the El Nogal bombing, security forces seized five anti-tank rocket-launchers that FARC urban commandos allegedly planned to use in attacks against the U.S. embassy, the attorney general's offices and the defense ministry.
The FARC's offensive in Bogota marks a new phase in the rebel group's war against the Colombian state: the use of large bombs against civilian populations in crowded public areas. Until recently, the guerrilla group waged its campaign for political legitimacy through attacks against military or police targets or by bombing bridges, pylons and oil pipelines. However, the destruction of the El Nogal Club confirms an important -- and deadly --shift in the FARC's use of explosives. By attacking the populace of Bogota with both large car bombs and small devices, such as briefcase bombs, the FARC apparently is waging a wider and more exteme campaign designed to cause panic, demoralize the public and undermine support for President Alvaro Uribe Velez.
As the FARC's urban teams gain more experience in Bogota, it is likely that bombs will start going off in other Colombian cities as well. For instance, Colombian security forces on Feb. 10 seized several ice cream trucks packed with explosives in the city of Barranquilla.
The FARC's senior command has assigned a high priority to its urban offensive in Bogota. The El Nogal attack and other recent FARC actions -- including a briefcase bomb that exploded at a restaurant in a hotel where legislators stay during the congressional session, and the mortars fired in downtown Bogota during the Uribe administration's inauguration ceremonies in August -- were carried out by elite urban groups under the direct command of Manuel Marulanda and Jorge Briceno, according to Bogota daily El Espectador.
Both the FARC's First Front and the Teofilo Forero Mobile Column, an elite rapid deployment unit reportedly under the direct command of Briceno (also known as Mono Jojoy), are supplying bomb-makers and mortar manufacturers for the attacks in Bogota, according to Colombian military intelligence sources.
Colombian military intelligence sources believe the FARC has about 400 trained urban commandos deployed in Bogota and other cities. Of this number, between 30 and 50 rebels broken up into at least 10 to 15 cells have been deployed into Bogota since mid-2002, for the specific purpose of planning and executing attacks like the one against the El Nogal Club.
The cells are difficult to penetrate because they operate independently, and members of one cell have no contact with members of any others. Instead, they take orders directly from Briceno through two of his handpicked lieutenants, intelligence sources tell Stratfor.
Colombian intelligence sources also believe the FARC has recruited about 200 students from public and private universities into its networks in Bogota and other cities. University students participated in the attack on El Nogal and other attacks since last August in Bogota. The inclusion of middle-class university students also gives the FARC more direct access to potential targets where Colombian business and political elites tend to concentrate.
The average rural FARC fighter would have difficulty blending in with middle- and upper-class Colombians in urban settings, but more polished and educated university students generally fit right into the background. This makes it easier for the FARC to conduct surveillance of potential targets, to gather intelligence and to prepare and execute attacks.
The FARC also uses bomb-manufacturing skills and urban terrorism techniques that it is believed to have learned since 1998 from Irish Republican Army and ETA militants, Colombian government sources say. These skills extend from building large car bombs that can be rigged for remote-controlled and electronic detonation to small briefcase and book bombs. They also include improvements in manufacturing homemade mortars that can launch explosive charges over distances of several hundred yards.
Colombian Defense Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez acknowledged recently that there is no definitive proof of international links between the FARC and groups like the IRA and ETA. However, the circumstantial evidence of such links is quite persuasive, since three suspected IRA members reportedly well-versed in making bombs and mortars were arrested in Colombia more than a year ago after spending months inside the FARC-controlled DMZ.
FARC leaders know they don't have the personnel or resources to fight an urban guerrilla war with conventional arms or large units. However, with trained bomb-makers and mortar men broken up into small clandestine cells, the organization may gain significant mobility and strategic advantages in an urban setting -- where the rebels are numerically outnumbered by government security forces and the civilian population is overwhelmingly hostile to the rebels.
The FARC's new bomb-manufacturing skills and young, polished operative potentially may give Colombia's largest rebel group some international mobility it previously lacked. As the United States continues to expand its military footprint in Colombia, the FARC may decide to exploit that mobility by sending its bomb-makers on missions to neighboring countries.
Look I understand the FARC's strength and their size and how teh FARC armed forces are directly related to its successful use of narcotics for funding the organization's activities. But terrorists??
Why don;t we target the crime families here in the U.S. for fund terrorists overseas with the funds that go off shore?
Just don't this way of thinking here.
FARC is a threat to the Colombian government and Colombia is of strategic importance to us, therefore a threat to Uribe is threatens us. The fact that FARC traffics drugs only means that they have ample funds to wage attacks on the Colombian government through the methods of “terrorism”. I would argue that our government saying they are “waging a war on…” anything other than a government, is little more then a sound bite and simplification of a complex problem.
The crime families in the US, while a problem, ultimately are not the source of the money going offshore. Ultimately, that money comes from kids in the suburbs, junkies in the cities and all walks of life in between. For the most part both Democrats and Republicans refuse to acknowledge this.
NDD, thanks for the STRATFOR article. What is the read on FARC’s shift in bombing strategy? If I recall Escobar resorted terrorizing in the urban areas when he started to feel the pinch, is there a parallel here?
NDD,
STRATFOR suggests that as the US becomes more involved in Colombia, FARC may begin to engage in international terrorism, perhaps against the US homeland.
Could existing drug trafficking channels be used to transport personnel CONUS? Is this a real threat?
Thank you,
Solid
Team Sergeant
08-03-2006, 10:51
NDD,
STRATFOR suggests that as the US becomes more involved in Colombia, FARC may begin to engage in international terrorism, perhaps against the US homeland.
Could existing drug trafficking channels be used to transport personnel CONUS? Is this a real threat?
Thank you,
Solid
LOL, you're killing me Solid. STRATFOR, is that a think tank for airsoft missions?:rolleyes:
How many decades do you think we've been involved in the drug war?
Why do you think we've not won the war? If we did win the drug war where then would all the hollywood celebrities, basketball players, rock stars, congressmen, etc get their supply from?:rolleyes:
One of the last jobs I had was Counter-Drug Deck Officer for Special Forces Command. I've been to a number of international counter drug conferences. Let me tell ya, we ani't going to win the drug war until we stop "using" here in America.
Another secret, they ain't selling coke to the "poor" Latin American people.
Read the intel and then come to an opinion, don't post what STRATFOR is suggesting......
TS
LOL, you're killing me Solid. STRATFOR, is that a think tank for airsoft missions?:rolleyes:
How many decades do you think we've been involved in the drug war?
Why do you think we've not won the war? If we did win the drug war where then would all the hollywood celebrities, basketball players, rock stars, congressmen, etc get their supply from?:rolleyes:
One of the last jobs I had was Counter-Drug Deck Officer for Special Forces Command. I've been to a number of international counter drug conferences. Let me tell ya, we ani't going to win the drug war until we stop "using" here in America.
Another secret, they ain't selling coke to the "poor" Latin American people.
Read the intel and then come to an opinion, don't post what STRATFOR is suggesting......
TS
From the mouth of the TS
Well said!
NousDefionsDoc
08-03-2006, 17:12
First of all - the TS and I are of one mind on the drug thing. The upside to the war on drugs is it gets a lot of people employed.
Things change, it ain't over 'til the fat lady, don't count your chickens, etc. but -
The FARC right now do not present a threat to the Colombian government. They don't present a threat to the USG either.
They are terrorists. They do destabilize the region some.
Colombia is, I think, going to end up being one of those El Salvador-like success stories. The Colombians are winning. Even they don't realize it at times. I think in part because the war is a comfortable war. People have learned to live with it.
It is a mistake to try to analyze "The FARC" as a whole. Their leadership doesn't have control over every move. They are not very disciplined and they often make huge mistakes.
There is no "bombing strategy" - they are just told to "go fook with them" and they do. There is no master plan anymore. No strategy. Mostly they are just trying to survive and make as much money as they can for themselves before they get busted or put down.
NDD, Thank you, that is good to hear.
I take it STRATFOR is not thought of highly?
NousDefionsDoc
08-03-2006, 18:18
Stratfor is ok. Just use more than one source and maintain a healthy scepticism at all times.
Thanks, NDD.
When I read that the FARC may engage in CONUS action, my BS meter went off the charts. Not only did it seem like something that would take a LOT of industry on the part of the FARC, but also it seemed like a very, very bad idea strategically.
I guess it was another case of an intelligence company trying to make its report more revelant to CONUS firms... :rolleyes:
Thanks again,
Solid
Team Sergeant
08-04-2006, 08:21
Thanks, NDD.
When I read that the FARC may engage in CONUS action, my BS meter went off the charts. Not only did it seem like something that would take a LOT of industry on the part of the FARC, but also it seemed like a very, very bad idea strategically.
I guess it was another case of an intelligence company trying to make its report more revelant to CONUS firms... :rolleyes:
Thanks again,
Solid
Again think....
What do you think would happen if the sissies known as the FARC used the same tactics they are currently using in LA and attempted to employ them in CONUS?
Most attacks would fail due to superior counter-terrorist/LE/intelligence capabilities, US support for intervention of some form in Colombia would be galvanized?
Solid