Cartels are as big a threat in U.S. as terrorism

From NM Politics.net - by Heath Haussamen - When I pause to think about it, it seems surreal that I live in the United States, and I also live 45 miles from one of the biggest war zones in the world. And yet, it’s true. That reality – the drug war that has plunged Mexico into chaos – is as big a threat in the United States as terrorism, one border security expert is arguing. From a recent column by Sylvia Longmire for CNN:
“Mexican drug cartels are arguably as dangerous and deadly as terrorists, and they were operating far inside our borders well before 9/11. “…According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center, members of Mexican cartels are operating in more than 270 U.S. cities and thousands of smaller communities. … This is the real and current major threat to our national security – tens of thousands of violent Mexican cartel members who are living and operating under our noses in our cities, communities and public lands.”
Longmire is a former special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations who also worked for years as an intelligence analyst and border security expert for the California Emergency Management Agency. Read more

Cartels are as big a threat in U.S. as terrorism