Mexican Drug Cartels Invade Texas, Seize Ranches!

Has the Los Zetas drug cartel seized ranches in Laredo, Texas? Not so much.

Reports from The Examiner and The Cypress Times that thugs from the Los Zetas drug cartel have seized two Laredo, Texas ranches are spreading through the blogosphere.  Is this the first wave of the Reconquista?

Well, Confederate Yankee’s Bob Owens called the Laredo Police Department and the Webb County Sheriff’s Department and told that no such thing was happening.

The Laredo Times could also find no information to support the claim. There’s are registration-only stories on the front page with headlines “Stores close due to cartels” and “Cartel loses chopper,” so they do seem to be reporting aggressively on the cartels.

FILED UNDER: Borders and Immigration,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. grampagravy says:

    As long as they only take Texas–who cares?

  2. ILiveinLaredo says:

    Wow. “As long as they only take Texas-who cares?” How incredibly un-American of you… I hope you understand the absurdity of your comment. I know you were trying to be funny & I have a pretty high tolerance for such things… but wow. You should be ashamed of yourself. You obviously do not realize who these people are that are rumored to be taking over areas in Texas. Your comment is not only appalling, but downright cruel. The disrespect that you have for this country and its inhabitants makes me feel very sorry for you. It’s the apathetic attitude that you possess that is wrong with many people in America today… If it doesn’t affect ME, then who cares, right?! I hope you don’t have children because it’s people like you who instill such lack of values in kids today that are screwing up this country.

  3. Michael Reynolds says:

    Laredo:

    Dude. Chill pill. It was just a throwaway line.

  4. anjin-san says:

    it’s people like you who instill such lack of values in kids today that are screwing up this country.

    Were you equally upset about Rick Perry’s comments about Texas secession?

  5. Lt Scrounge says:

    If the feds stay out of the way, the Texans will take care of it themselves. Where would you like the body bags sent? The problem is that the feds will insist on stopping the people from doing the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED JOB OF SECURING THE COUNTRY FROM INVASION, while REFUSING to do it themselves.

    Don’t believe me about it being the federal government’s responsibility to protect the states from invasion? Read the Constitution. It is a bit wordy, but not nearly as long as the thousands of pages of legislation that the idiots in DC have been voting to pass WITHOUT even reading. Don’t believe that the Federal government will fight to prevent the people from protecting the borders from invasion? Have you heard about the Dept of Justice SUING Arizona to prevent implementation of a law that requires law enforcement officers to ask for proof of citizenship if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is not in the country legally and to arrest them if they are not? On what grounds is the suit being filed? The grounds are that enforcing immigration is a federal responsibility and the states can not override the federal law, even though the AZ LAW DOESN’T do anything other than to enforce the laws that the federal government REFUSES to.

  6. ILiveinLaredo says:

    Arizona >>> Keeping illegals… illegal.

    When you live here & woke up this morning hearing rumors of such happenings & think… “Is it safe for me to leave the house today? Do I need to head out of town for awhile?”, comments such as those of apathy and disregard are highly offensive. Laredo is a scary place to live. I have to be here due to my husband’s job… otherwise, you’d better believe we’d get the hell out of dodge. There are numerous law abiding Americans who reside in this area… many of which work for the government. It would be nice to know that other Americans were supportive of securing the safety of these families. So a throwaway line?… Yes, indeed it was. But now is not the time nor the place for it when people involved in the situation are scared for their lives.

  7. reid says:

    What is it with this talking point that the federal government REFUSES to enforce the border? (And “invasion”? Come on.) Of course there are thousands of border patrol agents on the border. Lots are getting through still, but it’s ridiculous and insulting to them to say that nothing is being done.

  8. cshpy says:

    It’s my understanding of the constitution (I could be mistaken) that should the feds fail to enforce a federal law and cause harm to their citizens, states have the right to nullify that law and take such law into their own hands! Maybe if all those citizens who have been victimized by the feds failure to secure the border, start suing the government they’ll wake up!!!!!
    I’m firmly against amnesty for illegal immigrants, as it is a slap in the face for those who did it right – INCLUDING Mexicans! I think Obama’s on the right track with fine’s, making them learn English at their expense, making them pay back taxes, etc. unless deportation is cheaper! The borders do need to be secured first, though! And for some unknown reason….the 3500 acres of land that has virtually been taken over by drug cartels on federal land is not being seen as an ‘invasion of the US’…..if the 3500 acres were between Baltimore and DC…or if 2 drug cartels pulled up on Virginia Beach and started battling it out..you can bet your last dollar troops would be sent in and this would be taken care of immediately!!!!!! What makes a piece of soil in one part of our country greater and more valuable than the same amount of US soil in another part? US soil is US soil!!!!! Are we to wait until the 3500 acres becomes 350,000? or maybe 3,500,000? Or maybe Obama is hoping that Arizona will become part of Mexico?

  9. wr says:

    Laredo — Your life does sound hard. Here’s a hint on how to make it better: Stop listening to lies from morons on the internet. There are a lot of people out there who would like nothing better than a race war, and they put out stories like these in order to make you fear and hate. Stop paying attention to them and your level of misery will go way down. And don’t worry, if Scary Brown Men really do invade, it wil be on the regular news…

  10. Franklin says:

    FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED JOB OF SECURING THE COUNTRY FROM INVASION, while REFUSING to do it themselves.

    LOOK AT ME I NEED ATTENTION.

    But seriously, I’m curious if you’re aware that Obama is deporting illegal aliens at *double* the rate that Bush did in his last year of office, and has *quadrupled* the auditing of businesses employing illegal aliens. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072501790.html

    This isn’t too mention the 10,000 new border agents. I realize more needs to be done, but they’re not “refusing” to do it themselves.

  11. Franklin says:

    (now with better HTML, sorry for the repeat post …)

    FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED JOB OF SECURING THE COUNTRY FROM INVASION, while REFUSING to do it themselves.

    LOOK AT ME I NEED ATTENTION.

    But seriously, I’m curious if you’re aware that Obama is deporting illegal aliens at *double* the rate that Bush did in his last year of office, and has *quadrupled* the auditing of businesses employing illegal aliens. Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072501790.html

    This isn’t to mention the 1,000 new border agents. I realize more needs to be done, but they’re not “refusing” to do it themselves.

  12. anjin-san says:

    Tea Party trolls… yawn.

    People who were not even bright enough to get on “America’s Stupidest People”

  13. grampagravy says:

    Perpetuating this kind of crap by giving it bandwidth on OTB or anywhere else undermines the credibility of the website doing so. All it does is make the gullible like Laredo pee themselves and spread fear and poison.
    Sure, let Dodd spew junk, let Zelsdork fill some space with his crazy rants, even give G.A. a place to vent when he’s off his meds, but for Christ’s sake you guys running this thing need to give the dumba$$es a clue that you’re kidding when you post junk. Otherwise you are making yourselves part of the problem.
    Sure, fear-mongering gets you clicks, but how about a little responsibility?
    I’ve enjoyed this site, but it would only take about one more of these to inspire me to move on and not look back.
    My apology’s to you Laredo, I had no idea there was anyone so deluded out there.

  14. James Joyner says:

    Perpetuating this kind of crap by giving it bandwidth on OTB or anywhere else undermines the credibility of the website doing so. All it does is make the gullible like Laredo pee themselves and spread fear and poison.

    Not sure what to do with those who are immune to facts. The point of this and similar stories on OTB is:

    1. Point out a meme that’s spreading

    2. Point out that it’s unfounded

    I suppose we could ignore these things altogether but then I get accused of perpetuating the meme by failure to comment on it.

  15. grampagravy says:

    Personally, I would rather be castigated for rising above idiocy than be called out for feeding the frenzied loonies.