State attorney general visits San Ysidro border

The California attorney general will cross the border next week, along with the attorneys general from four other states.

“I will be taking a group of attorneys general from the United States to Mexico, to talk with our Mexican counterparts,” said Attorney General Kamala Harris, “…about what we can do to increase collaboration.”

Harris will update their Mexican counterparts on the rise in methamphetamine coming across the border. 

“Approximately 70% of the methamphetamine that is trafficked into the US is trafficked right here.”

She will emphasize weapons and human smuggling as a major problems.

“Two-hundred-and-fifty-thousand weapons are trafficked across the U.S./Mexico border each year…Just in the 2010-2012 cycle, approximately 1,300 human beings being trafficked through this area.”

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis talked about the interaction between the Mexican drug cartels and street gangs in San Diego.

“Our office continues to see the influence, however, of Mexican drug cartels in San Diego,” Dumanis said, “and the alliances that they make without local street gangs to spread their criminal enterprises.”

All of this, including financial crimes and money laundering, are in a comprehensive report the attorney general will release this week. These issues are not new. What is new is the criminal organizations embracing technology to stay ahead of law enforcement.

“Sinaola and other gangs operating just on that side of the border are increasingly sophisticated and increasingly lethal in the way they do their work, and so we must be vigilant.” 

“We are renewing our focus and dedicating our resources to addressing that as one of the newest and latest methods and tools that organized criminal groups have used to commit their crimes.”

The irony is the technology being used against us was created here in the United States. There's also a political component to this trip to the border: it's an election year. Candidates have to show the law and order flag, and both Dumanis and Harris are running for re-election.