Does US Citizenship Protect A Drug Lord?

Letter to Romans: Since a 41-year-old US citizen now runs Mexico’s No. 1 drug cartel, constitutional & other legal restraints on hunting him down means he at least can THINK he has advantages “other capos could only dream of.”

At least, that’s the gist of the WSJ story profiling the “California-born stepson of the late kingpin ‘El Mencho’. According to the piece, “No sooner was slain kingpin Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Osequera buried in a golden coffin in early March, serenaded by popular ballads & surrounded by carloads of floral displays, than his California-born stepson began ascending to the throne of the Jalisco New Generational Cartel, Mexican &. US officials said.” Yet, “US intelligence agencies may now face legal hurdles in directly targeting & collecting personal data on Valencia Gonzalez because of his place of birth. Those risks hindering a partnership that has developed between Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum & Washington that is making increasing use of information provided by US military, law enforcement & intelligence agencies.” It especially means the critical element of SPEED in taking action against the cartel’s leader is now in danger. Think of the War in Iran and how important speed as well as secrecy was in eliminating most of the terrorist-sponsoring Islamic Republic’s leadership. Meanwhile, the WSJ notes, law enforcement agents are ARGUABLY more constitutionally limited in the tools they use to investigate American citizens who haven’t been tried & convicted of a felony & Mexico itself won’t let them operate inside its borders.

The key word may be the word “arguably,” since military operations against US citizens by President Obama set a bunker-busting precedent, including the CIA drone assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, a New Mexico-born cleric & leader of al Qaeda’s Yemen branch. And recently over 150 people in drug laden speed boats described as “narco-terrorists” & belonging to designated terrorist organizations, have been blown up without a trial. The Administration doesn’t know or care in the real world of warfare if some having US birth certificates.

Davd Soul