Someone on Undernet #politics was nice enough to translate this and send it to me. It seems perfectly consistent with other world events especially the Chavez connection and a collation of various Stratfor reports on Mexican security issues.
Thanks threefity !
Al Dia – July 18, 2008
Assassins go with radicals to train.
Mexico City – Mexican assassins that work for drug cartels are supposedly receiving training courses in the handling of arms from radical Islamic organizations in Iran, where they travel via Venezuela and Syria in small groups, the Mexican daily El Universal reported yesterday.
The paper stated that these actions have been going on since 2005 and based its text on “reports in restricted circulation” from the DEA (of the USA) and on the testimony of an unidentified functionary of the US state department.
The paper also explained that in Mexico the drug dealers have contracted Iranians tied to terrorist groups of the Middle (east) for the purpose of giving training in the northern states of the country. (Mexico)
Some male members of the extremist Islamic groups have entered into marriage with Mexican women and have acquired Latin names that would make an eventual entry into the United States easier.
According to the report, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and other organizations are running the courses given in Iran, and they include training the Mexicans in the handling of bazookas and rocket launchers, among other high caliber weaponry, along side sympathizers of al-Qaida.
The assassins that supposedly participate in these programs belong to the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels and they receive instruction in five areas: arms and explosives, tactics, leadership, training and commando operations.
“Since the narco traffickers and the terrorists operate in clandestine ways, both groups use similar methods”, signaled the DEA, according to the daily paper. (El Universal)
For his part, the State Dept. functionary indicated that the flights of the assassins to Iran are weekly and in some cases they travel using Venezuelan passports.
Also – The USA asked Venezuela for passenger lists, but the South American country has not provided them.
One of the reasons for the Iranian training is that the Mexican cartels are acquiring more and more powerful weaponry of higher caliber, like rocket launchers, to confront the army (Mexican) that has been deployed in various states to fight against them since December 2006.
At the end of the courses, “the assassins return to Mexico to train new members that are recruited by way of announcements in newspapers and the internet in Mexican border states (with the USA)”, added the newspaper.
The same newspaper, in it’s editorial today, criticized the secrecy that exits surrounding the issue and urged that Mexico and the U.S. begin to share “openly” the information available regarding the issue.
In addition: The DEA reports were made available to the US Congress so the legislators would have the information regarding the supposed connection between the Islamic organizations and the Mexicans.
