Mexico's violence intensifies, becomes more gruesome

Summary executions, kidnappings, torture, and beheadings — we are not talking about al Qaeda, but about Mexican cartels. The cartels have executed more than 10,000 people since January — five times the rate three years ago, before Mexican president Felipe Calderon deployed the Mexican military against the syndicates.

“The cartels don’t have to work like Colombia did for a middle man in Florida or in Texas or anywhere. They have people they know,” Tony Leal, the chief of the Texas Rangers, told Fox News.

Family and friends help the cartels move their product with ease across the porous U.S. border. They even recruit in U.S. prisons.

The Mexican drug business, valued at $40 billion a year, is divided among seven cartels:

• The Arellano Felix Organization, or Tijuana Cartel, is based south of San Diego.
• The Juarez Cartel is situated south of El Paso.
• Their war with the rival Sinaloa cartel has left 2,300 people dead in Juarez this year.
• La Familia is a pseudo-religious cult that operates as a cartel near Mexico City.
• There are also the Zetas, rogue Mexican Special Forces.
• Members of the Zeta once served as the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel in eastern Mexico. Earlier this year, they broke away, creating their own cartel.
• There is also the Beltran Levya, whose American-born kingpin leader is known as “La Barbie,” nicknamed because his blond hair made him look like a Ken doll. He grew up in El Paso, played football in high school, was recruited in a U.S. prison, and was arrested in Mexico in August.

Fox News notes that the cartel leaders are an eclectic group. The head of the Zetas is known simply as the Executioner and uses tigers to scare his victims.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes became head of the Juarez cartel in 1997 after his brother died undergoing plastic surgery.

“Shorty” Guzman, only 5-foot tall, heads the Sinaloa cartel. He made last year’s Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest people.