-By Warner Todd Huston
A shocking new report finds that murderous Mexican drug cartels may be hiring members of the US military to act as guns-for-hire both in Mexico and the United States.
After the conviction of a member of the army who was a gang member before entering the service, many are starting to worry that some members of the military are turning mercenary and selling their services to the drug dealers.
Recently Private Michael Apodaca, former Army Lt. Kevin Corley, and Sgt. Samuel Walker were all arrested and convicted of taking murder-for-hire contracts from Juarez and Los Zetas drug cartels.
Some of this is born of gang affiliation, a problem that has been growing inside the U.S. military for some time.
“There has been a persistent gang problem in the military for the past six to eight years,” said Fred Burton, vice president for STRATFOR Global Intelligence.
“We have seen examples over the past few years where American servicemen are becoming involved in this type of activity,” Burton said.
As Fox News reports:
Growing ties between U.S.-based gangs, which have long infiltrated the military, and the Mexican cartels could be making American soldiers even more readily available to the cartels south of the border. The FBI National Gang Intelligence Center reports its concern with gang members with military training poses a unique threat to law enforcement personnel because of their distinctive weapons and combat training skills and ability to transfer these skills to fellow gang members. As of April 2011, the NGIC has identified members of at least 53 gangs whose members have served in or are affiliated with U.S. military.
Gang members with combat training not to mention access to military weapons is a threat the FBI is closely watching. Recently the FBI National Gang Intelligence Center identified members of 53 gangs with members serving in the U.S. military.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, MrConservative.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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