Report: Mexican drug cartels adopting military tactics

From the El Paso Times.com - by Diana Washington Valdez - Mexican drug cartels are using military weapons and tactics while also recruiting Texas teenagers to carry out their operations, which are evolving into full-blown criminal enterprises, experts said. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven C. McCraw said last week in a report given to Congress that the cartels "incorporate reconnaissance networks, techniques and capabilities normally associated with military organizations, such as communications intercepts, interrogations, trend analysis, secure communications, coordinated military-style tactical operations, GPS, thermal imagery and military armaments, including fully automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades." McCraw, an El Pasoan and former FBI official, testified about his findings before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight, Investigations and Management. Read more