OSINT Nuggets - Allsource Global Management

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 

Punching and Counterpunching 1 

Arizona/Southwest Border 2 

OSINT Russia 7 

OSINT Mali 12 

OSINT China 16 

OSINT USA 19 

Gang Facts 20 

Drug Smuggling 22 

Drone News 23 

Recommended Sites 24 

DEA Alert 25 

Open Source Intelligence 

(OSINT): Open source 

intelligence refers to intelligence 

based on information gathered 

from open sources, i.e. 

information available to the 

general public. This includes 

newspapers, the internet, books, 

phone books, scientific journals, 

radio broadcasts, television, and 

others. Collection of information 

in OSINT format is a very 

different process in comparison 

to the collection of other 

intelligence disciplines because, 

by definition, the information 

sources are publicly available 

versus covertly collected. 

Although there is some 

debate as to the usefulness 

of the longbow against armor 

at the battles of Crecy, 

Poitiers, and Battle of 

Agincourt during the Hundred 

Years War, I am going to 

start out with this as an 

introduction to the punch 

(measures) and 

counterpunching 

(countermeasures) title. Bear 

with me as my only intention 

is to make a point and not 

start a debate on the 

longbow’s efficiency or when 

it was first used. 

Infantry against infantry 

was the norm for warfare, but 

oh my, how boring. Armies 

beat each other senseless 

until there were only a few 

survivors, but what was the 

point? The winner now has a 

few more acres of land, but 

not enough people to till the 

soil; a waste of men and real 

estate. So along comes the 

knight in shining armor, and 

could very well be considered 

the first tank on the 

battlefield. 

Regular infantry with their 

weapons were useless 

against the knight on 

horseback. They had to get 

OSINT Nuggets 

Volume 2, Issue 2 Monday, December 3, 2012 

Punching and Counterpunching 

up close and personal, 

which is not a good tactic, 

to engage the knight, but 

still their weapons of 

crossbows, hammers, 

lances, and other types had 

little effect against the 

armor. (I must also add that 

war is not about fighting 

fair; it is about 

overwhelming your 

opponent to end the conflict 

as soon as possible) 

A company commander 

does not engage another 

company; he engages a 

platoon. A battalion 

commander does not 

engage a battalion; he 

engages a company or 

less. The same goes for 

brigades and higher. The 

idea is to try and maintain 

at least a 3 to 1 advantage. 

Now you know why the 

United States has so many 

weapons in comparison to 

other countries? 

Enter the longbow; a 

counterpunch to the knight 

in armor. With the longbow 

it was possible to engage 

the knight from long 

distances without having to 

get too close. The arrows 

had good penetration 

Publisher & Layout Design: Mr. E. Ben Benavides, bbenavides@agmaz.com 

Chief Editor: Mr. Brad Branderhorst, bbranderhorst@agmaz.com 

against the iron armor and 

also against the horses that 

would stumble and fall 

throwing off their riders who 

now became easy prey, 

because of their heavy 

armor, for the ground 

infantry. 

The solution was to add 

armor mesh underneath 

steel armor (steel was 

better suited against the 

longbow), and provide 

additional padding for the 

horses. (The additional 

padding can be compared 

to the reactive armor that is 

added to modern tanks to 

protect against antitank 

weapons.) The problem 

was that the suspension 

system, the horse in this 

case, could not support the 

additional weight for long 

distances and so became 

even more vulnerable in 

close combat. 

The longbow faced its own 

counterpunch with the 

introduction of gunpowder, 

muskets and artillery, which 

were able to engage the 

archers from even greater 

distances and inflicting 

greater damage. So, as 

The views expressed in this Newsletter are those of the authors and do not reflect policy or 

position of AllSource Global Management. 

All input is based on open source harvesting and should not be considered open source 

intelligence, but more specifically should not be considered as actionable intelligence. 

Anyone wishing to contribute an item for publication is highly encouraged and should contact Mr. 

Benavides at the above email.

you can see, for every punch there 

is a counterpunch which leads to a 

counter counterpunch which leads 

to a counter counter counterpunch, 

which, well, you get the idea. 

That’s exactly what is happening 

now every time a new weapon 

system is developed or improved, 

and the same goes for tactical 

warfare. We just have to develop a 

better system! In other words, my 

gun just has to be bigger than 

yours. 

Sad to say it is not going to stop. 

The United States, as every country 

is aware of, leads the world in 

technology which ultimately finds its 

way into better weapons. This of 

course worries other countries like 

China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Iran, 

and even Israel and others, who in 

turn want to develop their own 


systems to counter the cowboy with 

the big iron on his hip. You may ask 

why I did not list North Korea, but 

the fact remains that North Korea 

could never respond with anything 

of substance other than a nuclear 

weapon which would mean the end 

of their way of life with a massive 

retaliatory strike. China and Russia, 

particularly China, have put the 

U.S. on notice, not necessarily 

verbally but in other ways, they are 

not about to be outgunned and so 

continue with their own groundbreaking 

hi-tech weapon 

developments which in turn forces 

the U.S. to respond by ratcheting 

up the ante. 

These are the big players and we 

tend to ignore the smaller ones like 

Turkey, South Africa, Egypt 

(perhaps), and South Korea (with 

Arizona, The Southwest Border and Beyond 

Page 2 of 25 

U.S. blessing), and let’s not ignore 

France, Germany, and the United 

Kingdom with their own advanced 

systems. 

The days of the Cold War ended 

when the Former Soviet Union 

imploded economically because 

they could not keep up with U.S. 

spending in practically every 

category. If need be current 

countries will act like North Korea 

and deprive their citizens, albeit not 

by starving, in order to keep a 

strong military with the latest 

weaponry. 

Beginning with the January 

newsletter I intend to have a 

section devoted to the latest 

weaponry developed or in 

development around the globe. 

The following article I have placed under this title because of the vicinity of Arizona to Colorado at the four corners 

region. Just a hop and a skip for some wacky tabacky. 

November 8, 2012, Marijuana legalization votes this week in Colorado and Washington State don't just set 

up an epic state-federal showdown on drug law for residents. The measures also open the door for marijuana tourism. 

Both marijuana measures make marijuana possession in small amounts OK for all adults over 21 — not just state 

residents but visitors, too. Tourists may not be able to pack their bowls along with their bags, but as long as out-of-state 

tourists purchase and use the drug while in Colorado or Washington, they wouldn't violate the marijuana measures. 

Of course, that's assuming the recreational marijuana measures take effect at all. That was very much in doubt 

Friday as the states awaited word on possible lawsuits from the U.S. Department of Justice asserting federal supremacy 

over drug law. 

So the future of marijuana tourism in Colorado and Washington is hazy. But that hasn't stopped rampant 

speculation, especially in Colorado, where tourism is the No. 2 industry thanks to the Rocky Mountains and a vibrant ski 

industry. 

The day after Colorado approved recreational marijuana by a wide margin, the headline in the Aspen Times asked, 

"Aspendam?" referring to Amsterdam's marijuana cafes. 

Colorado's tourism director, Al White, tried to downplay the prospect of a new marijuana tourism boom. 

"It won't be as big a deal as either side hopes or fears," White said. 

Maybe not. But many are asking about marijuana tourism. 

Ski resorts are "certainly watching it closely," said Jennifer Rudolph of Colorado Ski Country USA, a trade 

association that represents 21 Colorado resorts. 

Any plans for an adults-only après lounge where skiers could get more than an Irish coffee to numb their aches? 

"There's a lot that remains to be seen," Rudolph said with a chuckle. "I guess you could say we're waiting for the 

smoke to clear." 

The Colorado counties where big ski resorts are located seem to have made up their minds. The marijuana 

measure passed by overwhelming margins, with more support than in less visited areas. 

Ninety percent of intelligence comes from open sources. The other ten percent, the clandestine work, is just the more dramatic. The real intelligence hero 

is Sherlock Holmes, not James Bond. Lieutenant General Sam Wilson, USA Ret. former Director, Defense Intelligence Agency


Page 3 of 25 

The home county of Aspen approved the marijuana measure more than 3-to-1. More than two-thirds approved 

marijuana in the home county of Colorado's largest ski resort, Vail. The home county of Telluride ski resort gave marijuana 

legalization its most lopsided victory, nearly 8 in 10 favoring the measure. 

"Some folks might come to Colorado to enjoy some marijuana as will be their right. So what?" said Betty Aldworth, 

advocacy director for the Colorado marijuana campaign. 

Washington state already sees a version of marijuana tourism. 

Every summer on the shores of the Puget Sound, Seattle is host to "Hempfest," which according to organizers 

attracted around 250,000 people over three days this year. For those three days, people are largely left alone to smoke 

publically at a local park, even as police stand by. 

"People travel to Seattle from other states and countries to attend Seattle Hempfest every year to experience the 

limited freedom that happens at the event," said executive director Vivian McPeak. "It's reasonable to assume that people 

will travel to Washington assuming that the federal government doesn't interfere." 

McPeak draw parallels to Amsterdam where an annual "Cannabis Cup" attracts tourists from all over the world and 

Vancouver, British Columbia, which has lax marijuana rules that have borne marijuana cafes drawing travelers. 

Amsterdam's marijuana tourism is in a hazy spot these days, though. The incoming Dutch government suggested a 

national "weed pass" that would have been available only to residents and that would have effectively banned tourists from 

Amsterdam's marijuana cafes. The "weed pass" idea was scrapped, but under a provisional governing pact unveiled last 

week, Dutch cities can bar foreigners from weed shops if they choose. 

In Denver, some feared that the Colorado marijuana vote could deter tourists, not to mention business visitors. 

"Colorado's brand will be damaged, and we may attract fewer conventions and see a decline in leisure travel," Visit 

Denver CEO Richard Scharf said in a statement before the vote. 

Colorado's governor opposed the measure but said after its passage that he didn't envision marijuana tourism 

materializing. 

"I don't think that's going to happen," Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper said. "They're going to flock here to buy 

marijuana as if they're going to take it back? On an airplane? That seems unlikely to me." 

Colorado's measure specifically bans public use of the drug. But guidelines for commercial sales are still to be 

worked out. The state's 536 medical marijuana dispensaries are banned from allowing on-site consumption, but lawmakers 

could set different rules for recreational marijuana shops. 

Marijuana backers downplayed the impact on tourism. Aldworth pointed out that pot-smoking tourists wouldn't 

exactly be new. Colorado ski slopes already are dotted with "smoke shacks," old mining cabins that have been illicitly 

repurposed as places to smoke pot out of the cold. And the ski resort town of Breckenridge dropped criminal penalties for 

marijuana use two years ago. 

"Some folks come to Colorado and enjoy some marijuana while they are here today," Aldworth said. 

The sheriff of the county including Aspen was sanguine about the prospects of pot-smoking visitors. 

"For me, it's going to be live and let live. If people want to come to Colorado because pot is legal — and that's the 

sole reason — it's up to them," Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo told The Aspen Times. "I am not the lifestyle police." 

http://news.yahoo.com/pot-votes-co-wa-raise-specter-weed-tourism-100015982.html 

Related Site: 

Mexico Study: US Legalization Cuts Cartel Profits http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-study-uslegalization-cuts-cartel-profits-17612383 

Comment/Analysis: There’s a new song being sung in Colorado and Washington, and 

it goes something like this. “I grow pot in my backyard, Heeeeeey marijuana, heeeeey 

marijuana”. 

Perhaps the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington will turn out to be a 

good thing, and perhaps not. This depends on how the drug cartels are going to react to the 

new legislation. 

For the past several years the DEA and other agencies have been finding marijuana 

growing in California, Colorado and Idaho national parks with 14,500 plants found in 2009 at 

one Colorado national park alone and with suspected links to the Mexican drug cartels. The 

cartels are sure to be happy now since an increase in border security dating back to 2009, and the difficulty of smuggling 

marijuana into the USA, growing marijuana on public lands in the United States is even more appealing and less risky now. 

Can we expect for the cartels to increase their activity in states with legal marijuana I ask rhetorically? Don’t answer 

that. Can we expect the movement of drugs across the borders? Can we expect an increase of tourists specifically for drug 

use? Yes, yes, yes! 




Page 4 of 25 

What does it do for parents that up until now have steered their children away from drugs and are now getting 

stoned with the help of older friends. Those states have made a terrible mistake in my humble opinion. One can only hope 

the legislation is struck down. 

Something else to puff on. South of the border a farmer would rather grow marijuana instead of corn, beans or 

whatever because the profits are greater and he has a family to feed. That marijuana will eventually make its way into the 

U.S. with help from the cartels. If that farmer gets caught growing marijuana he ends up in jail for something that is now 

legal in some American states. Something is wrong with this picture. 

Oct. 25, 2012, Mexico’s Drug Lords Ramp Up Their Arsenals with RPGs. When a Mexican SWAT team stopped 

a stolen Cadillac van in the border city of Piedras Negras, it was not a surprise when they were greeted by a tirade of bullets 

as the criminals blasted and ran. But after they kicked open the trunk, the officers realized they could have been victims of 

more catastrophic firepower. The gunmen had been in possession of an arsenal of weapons that included three Sovietmade 

antitank rockets complete with an RPG-7 shoulder-fired launcher. If the criminals had got a rocket off, they could 

easily have blown the SWAT vehicle to pieces. RPG-7s can also take out helicopters and were used in the Black Hawk 

Down episode in Somalia in 1993. 

The rockets, found on Saturday, are part of an increasingly destructive array of weaponry wielded by Mexican drug 

cartels, like the feared Zetas, in reaction to attacks on them by police and soldiers. While security forces have taken down 

several key cartel bosses this year, gunmen have struck back, setting off five car bombs, hundreds of fragmentation 

grenades and several shoulder-fired rockets. Soldiers even seized one homemade three-ton tank with a revolving gun 

turret. When Mexican marines on Oct. 7 claimed to have killed Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano, he was also alleged to be 

found with an RPG-7. (Lazcano’s corpse was stolen from the morgue, and the Zetas are now believed to be led by his No. 

2, Miguel Treviño.) 

The shoulder-fired rockets cause particular worry because of their range and explosive power. Mexican dignitaries 

often move in helicopters with the army flying Black Hawks supplied by the U.S. under the Mérida Initiative. “The RPG-7 is a 

weapon that causes incredible devastation from Iraq to Afghanistan,” says Rachel Stohl, an expert on arms proliferation at 

the Stimson Center in Washington. “When they fall into the hands of criminal groups, it changes the dynamics and escalates 

the conflict. Instead of just a gunfight on a street, you have military firepower.” 

Combatants normally use RPG-7 rockets to target nearby vehicles, but they can reach up to 3,000 ft. (900 m) and 

are sometimes wielded as a form of artillery, scattering shrapnel at anyone close by. Those fearing spillover were quick to 

note that gunmen in Piedras Negras could potentially fire a rocket over the Rio Grande into the neighboring U.S. city of 

Eagle Pass. There have been sporadic gunfights across the river over the years, with gunmen recently firing at U.S. Border 

Patrol agents near the Texas town of Los Ebanos. (More often, Mexicans have been the victims, like when Border Patrol 

agents shot dead a 16-year-old boy in Sonora state this month.) 

The gun trade has been a long-running bone of contention over the Rio Grande, with Mexico complaining that most 

of the firearms used by cartel assassins are purchased from U.S. stores. Of almost 100,000 guns seized at Mexican crime 

scenes since 2007, 68% have been traced to the U.S. The U.S. gun lobby argues that heavier weapons such as the Soviet 

rockets and fragmentation grenades come from the other direction, smuggled from Central America. Thousands of RPG-7s 

were used by all sides in the region’s Cold War conflicts in the 1980s. Since then, gangs have stolen many from lingering 

stockpiles in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras to sell them on the black market. The Honduran government reports that 

it lost 22 RPG-7s and several rockets in a single 2010 theft. On a visit to Honduras earlier this year, a senior police officer 

said he had intelligence of Zeta operatives going to the capital, Tegucigalpa, to buy hardware. 

When groups like the Zetas wield rockets and tanks, some pundits question whether they should continue to be 

labeled as drug traffickers — or need a more martial description. The cartel was founded in 1998 by 14 Mexican army 

defectors, and they carried their battle tactics into the crime world. “The Zetas are a criminal paramilitary organization that is 

spreading through Mexico and Central America like the bubonic plague,” says Mike Vigil, former head of international 

operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration. 

The Zetas have used their firepower to make their stronghold in northeast Mexico, by the Rio Grande Valley, the 

country’s most violent corner. While other regions, like the area around Ciudad Juárez, have seen significant decreases in 

murders since 2010, Coahuila state, home to Piedras Negras, has witnessed its bloodiest year on record, with more than 

640 gangland killings; neighboring Nuevo León has recorded over 1,000 such deaths since January. In total, almost 60,000 

people have fallen in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderón took power in 2006 and declared a military 

offensive on cartels. In the same period, 25 of Mexico’s 37 most wanted cartel bosses have been killed or arrested. 

The buildup of cartel weaponry could also be a problem for incoming President Enrique Peña Nieto when he takes 

office in December. Peña Nieto, who returns the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to power after 12 years in the 

wilderness, has promised to halve the number of homicides in Mexico in his first year. While all applaud the target, Peña 

Nieto has given little concrete information about how he will achieve the goal. When Zeta squads roam the countryside with 




Page 5 of 25 

RPG-7s, some say Peña Nieto could be forced to continue a military line similar to Calderón’s. “There will probably be a 

change in rhetoric,” says political analyst Jorge Chabat, “but there is a little room for maneuver in tactics.” 

http://world.time.com/2012/10/25/mexicos-drug-lords-ramp-up-their-arsenals-with-rpgs/ 

This article from “How Stuff Works” is probably the best 

way of explaining the basics of a rocket propelled grenade and 

what makes them so lethal with their anti-tank capabilities. 

The RPG-7 anti-tank grenade launcher is robust, simple 

and lethal. It is also extremely popular. As it exists today, the 

RPG-7 is the result of many years of 

revisions and modifications. The 

"original" RPG -- based on the German 

Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon - was 

eventually followed by the RPG-2, the 

RPG-3 and so on. In fact, although the RPG-4 had passed field 

trials in 1961, test findings of a newer model, the RPG-7, were 

released that same year, but with much improved firing range 

and armor piercing capabilities. So in 1961 it was the RPG-7, not 

the RPG-4, which the Soviet Armed forces adopted for actual 

use. Today, the RPG-7 is used by the armies of over forty different countries and is also used, reportedly, by a range of 

terrorist organizations in the Middle East and Latin Americas. 

Firing an RPG-7 

The RPG operator or an artillery assistant takes a propelling charge (booster, in image above) and screws it onto 

the end of a warhead. Basically, this is a stabilizing pipe that has four stabilizing fins that are folded around it with two 

additional fins at its rear end. A cardboard container encases the back end of the stabilizing pipe. Inside the cardboard 

container, a squib of nitroglycerin powder is wrapped around the stabilizing pipe and a primer or charge of gunpowder is 

stuffed into the end of the stabilizing pipe. 

The RPG operator or artillery person then takes this assembled artillery and loads it into the front end of the RPG 

launcher so that it lines up with the trigger mechanism. 

After the RPG operator pulls the trigger, this is what happens: 

1) The force of the built-up gases throws the grenade out of the tube at approximately 384 feet per second (117 

meters per second). The abrupt acceleration of the grenade leaving the launcher triggers a piezoelectric 

fuze that ignites the primer (pyro-retarding gunpowder mixture). This then ignites the squib of nitro, thereby 

activating the rocket propulsion system (sustainer motor) to carry the grenade the rest of its trajectory. 

2) A socket in the breach block alleviates recoil during firing. The exhaust gases exit to the rear of the launcher 

unit and the operator is free to immediately reload the weapon. In practice, however, no RPG operator would 

ever remain stationary and spend the time to reload; the launching flash and whitish blue-gray smoke provides 

a clear indication to the enemy of the RPG launcher's location. An effective, surviving RPG operator is one who 

quickly changes position and gets under cover. 

There are several types of grenades that can be used in the RPG-7. Some have a point initiating, base-detonating 

(PIBD) piezoelectric fuze: meaning that they are impact grenades. And, many others have back-up time delay systems, so 

that if they have not reached a target in a certain amount of time (something like four and a half seconds) the grenade will 

self destruct. The most commonly launched grenades are a High Explosive (HE) or High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT) 

rounds. 

Impact grenades must be unarmed until they are actually fired because any accidental contact might set them off. 

Since they are usually shot from a launcher, they must have an automatic arming system. In some designs, like the one we 

describe above, the arming system is triggered by the propellant explosion that drives the grenade out of the launcher. In 

other designs, the grenade's acceleration or rotation during its flight arms the detonator. 

As for the back-up timed delay, the same fuze mechanism that sets off the the rocket would set this off. The spark 

ignites a slow-burning material in the fuze. In about four seconds, the delay material burns all the way through. The end of 

the delay element is connected to the detonator. The burning material at the end of the delay ignites the material in the 

detonator, thereby exploding the warhead. 

Comment/Analysis: Let’s not act surprised at what is being discovered in the hands 

of the cartels as far as weapons are concerned. I am certain Fast and Furious is still fresh in our 

minds. [This arsenal uncovered by police in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in April turned out to 




Page 6 of 25 

include weapons from the ATF's ill-fated Fast and Furious operation.] Blow up the photograph and study the weapons 

pictured. Plenty of AK-47s for sure, an anti-aircraft machine gun, sniper rifles and grenade launchers to name a few, and of 

course a picture of Tony Montana (Al Pacino) from the film “Scarface”. 

The sniper rifle has a maximum range of 7,450 yards and a maximum effective range 

of 2,000 yards. 

With a .50-caliber rifle in the foreground, the U.S. House National Security and 

Foreign Affairs subcommittee holds a hearing on U.S.-Mexico border violence, Thursday, 

March 12, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) 

It is known that the Sinaloa has already attempted to purchase a Stinger surface-toair-missile; 

a Dragon fire anti-tank weapon; a Law Rocket anti-tank weapon; and two AT-4 

recoilless anti-tank guns. 

https://sites.google.com/site/reynosalightning/Downhome/Narco-Breaking- 

News/sinaloadrugcartelmembertriedtobuystingermissilecnnreports 

http://borderreporter.com/2011/03/3-accused-of-trying-to-buy-stinger-missiles-anti-tank-weapons-for-sinaloa-cartel/ 

Related Sites: 

World Guns http://world.guns.ru/grenade/rus/rpg-7-e.html 

How Rocket-Propelled Grenades Work http://science.howstuffworks.com/rpg.htm 

Oct 31, 2012, Smugglers' SUV gets stuck atop Calif. border fence. Suspected 

smugglers who tried to use ramps to drive an SUV over a 14-foot-tall border fence had to abandon 

their plan when the Jeep became stuck on top of the barrier, authorities said Wednesday. 

Agents patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border near the Imperial Sand Dunes in California's 

southeast corner spotted the Jeep Cherokee teetering atop the fence early Tuesday, Border Patrol 

spokesman Spencer Tippets said. The vehicle was perched about five miles west of the Colorado 

River and the Arizona state line. 

Two smugglers on the Mexican side of the border were trying to free the Jeep when the agents approached, 

Tippets said. They ran further into Mexico and escaped. 

The Jeep was empty, but agents said it was probably filled with contraband like bales of marijuana before it got 

high-centered atop the fence. 

The smugglers had built ramps to drive up and over the fence, something that has been tried at least once before. 

In April 2011, agents found a truck that had ramps built onto it and had driven up to the border fence. A pickup had driven 

up and over the fence, but it was spotted and its occupants were captured, Tippets said. 

The agency's Yuma sector has seen a 95 percent reduction in human smuggling in recent 

years, freeing up agents to focus on drug smugglers. 

"Because of how successful we are we don't have all the clutter like we had in years past," 

Tippets said. "Now that all the clutter is gone, we're able to focus on things that are bigger threats." 

The terrain in western Arizona and eastern California has little vegetation and is much less 

rugged than the land in southeastern Arizona, so smugglers have a harder time making it into the U.S. 

without being spotted. 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BORDER_SMUGGLING_RAMP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DE 

FAULT&CTIME=2012-10-31-19-05-18 

Comment/Analysis: Perhaps a car catapult would have worked out better. Leave the motor running and hit the 

ground speeding north. 




Page 7 of 25 

Related Posts: 

Pot-firing catapult found at Arizona-Mexico border 

http://www.komonews.com/news/national/114698289.html?tab=video&c=y 

November 3, 2012, A few miles west of downtown, past a terra-cotta-tiled gateway 

emblazoned with “Bienvenidos,” the smells and sights of Mexico spill onto 26th Street. 

The Mexican tricolor waves from brick storefronts. Vendors offer authentic churros, 

chorizo and tamales. 

Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood is home to more than 500,000 residents 

of Mexican descent and is known for its Cinco de Mayo festival and bustling Mexican 

Independence Day parade. But federal authorities say that Little Village is also home to 

something else: an American branch of the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel. 

Members of Mexico’s most powerful cartel are selling a record amount of heroin and 

methamphetamine from Little Village, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. From there, the drugs are moving 

onto the streets of south and west Chicago, where they are sold in assembly-line fashion in mostly African American 

neighborhoods. 

“Chicago, with 100,000 gang members to put the dope on the street, is a logistical winner for the Sinaloa cartel,” 

Jack Riley, the DEA’s special agent in charge of the Chicago field division, said after a tour through Little Village. “We have 

to operate now as if we’re on the Mexican border.” 

It’s not just Chicago. Increasingly, as drug cartels have amassed more control and influence in Mexico, they have 

extended their reach deeper into the United States, establishing inroads across the Midwest and Southeast, according to 

American counternarcotics officials. An extensive distribution network supplies regions across the country, relying largely on 

regional hubs like this city, with ready markets off busy interstate highways. 

One result: Seizures of heroin and methamphetamine have soared in recent years, according to federal statistics. 

The U.S. government has provided Mexico with surveillance equipment, communication gear and other assistance 

under the $1.9 billion Merida Initiative, the anti-drug effort launched more than four years ago. But critics say that north of 

the border, the federal government has barely put a dent into a sophisticated infrastructure that supports more than 

$20 billion a year in drug cash flowing back to Mexico. 

The success of the Mexican cartels in building their massive drug distribution and marketing networks across the 

county is a reflection of the U.S. government’s intelligence and operational failure in the war on drugs, said Fulton T. 

Armstrong, a former national intelligence officer for Latin America and ex-CIA officer. 

“We pretend that the cartels don’t have an infrastructure in the U.S.,” said Armstrong, also a former staff member of 

the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and now a senior fellow at American University’s Center for Latin American and 

Latino Studies. “But you don’t do a $20 billion a year business . . . with ad-hoc, part-time volunteers. You use an established 

infrastructure to support the markets. How come we’re not attacking that infrastructure?” 

A reported 8.9 percent of Americans age 12 or older — 22.6 million people — are current users of illegal 

drugs, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Health 

and Human Services — up from 6.2 percent in 1998. Demand for and the availability of illegal drugs is rising. 

Charles Bowden, who has written several books about Mexico and drug trafficking, said policy failures have 

exacerbated the problems. “The war on drugs is over,” he said. “There are more drugs in the U.S. of higher quality and at a 

lower price.” 

A national network 

Of the seven Mexican organized crime groups that traffic drugs across the United States, the Sinaloa cartel 

dominates the business, selling most of the heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine. One Mexican nationalsecurity 

expert estimated that the cartel moves a kilo of cocaine over the U.S. border about every 10 minutes. 

The Sinaloa, named after a Mexican Pacific coast state, is headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, one of the 

world’s most brutal and sought-after drug lords. 

Officials say the Sinaloa cartel typically sends its drugs across the border to distribution cells in cities such as Los 

Angeles. From there, dozens of operators — including truck drivers who conceal the packages amid shipments of fruits, 

vegetables and other consumer goods — bring the drugs east and north, unloading them at nondescript warehouses, 

condominiums and duplexes managed by the cartel. 

The DEA has estimated that Mexican drug trafficking organizations now operate in 1,286 American cities. That 

number, however, includes both major regional hubs such as Chicago, with direct links to large Mexican cartels, and scores 

of communities where smaller trafficking groups happen to be led by Mexican citizens who may have no operational 

connections. The DEA said it was not able to provide a full list of the 1,286 cities. 




Page 8 of 25 

Besides Los Angeles and Chicago, Atlanta has emerged as a major distribution hub. The access to interstate 

highways and a growing Hispanic population allow cartel members to travel freely and blend into the general population, 

leading the organizations to bulk up operations. 

In Atlanta, officials said, four rival cartels are battling for control: the Beltran Leyva; remnants of La Familia 

Michoacana; the Knights Templar, a splinter group of La Familia; and the Sinaloa. 

Seizures of heroin in the city have increased 70 percent in the past two years and traffickers are selling a better 

quality of “Mexican Brown” heroin to many who are already addicted to pharmaceutical painkillers, said Harry S. Sommers, 

the DEA’s special agent in charge of the Atlanta field division. The drug is now mostly being smoked or snorted, not injected 

by needle. 

“There’s not a significant difference between Oxycontin and heroin,” Sommers said. 

“Sometimes they give the heroin away at first and get people hooked on it.” 

The increasing amount of heroin agents are seeing in Chicago and Atlanta is reflected 

nationwide, a ccording to the DEA. In the first nine months of this fiscal year, 1,394 kilograms 

of heroin were seized, compared with 487 kilos of heroin seized at the southwest border in 

fiscal year 2008 and 773 kilos in 2009. Heroin arrests nationwide are up, too. In the first nine 

months of this fiscal year, 3,350 people were arrested on heroin charges, compared with 2,510 in 

2008. 

Mexican meth 

Officials say the cartels’ ability to infiltrate U.S. cities reflects calculated business decisions. 

In recent years, U.S. officials have cracked down on American-made methamphetamine by passing federal and 

state laws to restrict the sale of the precursor chemicals used to manufacture it, particularly pseudoephedrine, a common 

over-the-counter decongestant for allergies and colds. 

The cartels have filled the void. Mexican-produced meth now accounts for 80 to 90 percent of the product sold in 

the United States, and it is swiftly moving into major urban hubs including Phoenix, Denver, St. Louis, Chicago and Atlanta, 

according to the DEA. 

Federal agents have seized 7,574 kilos of methamphetamine at the southwest border in the first nine months of this 

fiscal year, compared with 2,237 kilos in 2008 and 3,064 in 2009. 

“We’ve seen a sudden increase of meth in Chicago in just the last several months,” said Riley, the special agent in 

charge there. “Until now, meth has been mostly a rural phenomenon. We haven’t seen this on the streets in large cities. It’s 

an indication of the cartels seizing the market.” 

The Sinaloa cartel has both slashed the price and produced a purer form of meth that gives users a faster and 

longer-lasting high, Riley said. To get the methamphetamine on the streets, the cartel is using its existing distribution 

networks. 

Experts say Mexican cartels have also been calculating in their use of violence. In Mexico, more than 60,000 people 

have been killed in the past six years in mass murders, beheadings and mutilations as the cartels have fought for control. 

Bowden, who spent years in Mexico writing about the violence, said it’s no accident U.S. cities haven’t seen the 

same levels of brutality. “In the U.S., murder is bad for their drug business,” he said. “In Mexico, it is business.” 

A tenacious foe 

Each time the federal government succeeds in prosecuting cartel members, the groups deploy new lieutenants to 

keep the drugs flowing north and the cash and U.S. guns going south into Mexico. 

The DEA and other federal agencies say that they are making strides in combatting organized crime with new 

“strike forces,” composed of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. In Chicago, for example, the DEA-led strike 

force has worked with the FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Chicago police; Immigration Customs 

and Enforcement; and other state and federal agencies to bring down traffickers. 

Officials also said large drug busts across the country have netted scores of dealers, thousands 

of kilos of drugs and tens of millions of dollars in cash. 

The Justice Department, in the meantime, is extraditing an increasing number of high-ranking 

cartel members to the United States for prosecution, including Jesús Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the son 

of Guzman’s top partner in the Sinaloa cartel and a trafficker who officials say is the biggest Mexican 

drug kingpin to be prosecuted in a U.S. courtroom. 

Despite major drug seizures, Armstrong, the former national intelligence officer, said officials have 

not scored lasting gains. 

“It’s because the U.S. government hasn’t broken the system,” Armstrong said. “They’ve arrested dealers. But the 

distribution system and its network are alive and well.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-citiesbecome-hubs-of-mexican-drug-cartels/2012/11/03/989e21e8-1e2b-11e2-9cd5-b55c38388962_story.html 




Page 9 of 25 

Comment/Analysis: I would not expect any significant progress against the cartels and the most one could expect 

is to bust low level individuals with little or no knowledge of the inner moving parts of the organization. The one issue I see is 

that too many agencies are involved and little has changed in the past 20 years when it comes to sharing information – they 

just don’t want to share. 

I had the opportunity to converse with a high ranking law enforcement individual in a major U.S. city about how 

information was being shared. I should have kept my mouth shut! I couldn’t shut him up after that question, not about 

sharing but rather how it was not being shared. To put it mildly, he was pissed. According to him, there are approximately 40 

state and federal agencies in his area with close to a thousand foot soldiers on the ground conducting counterdrug 

operations and they just seem to be stepping on each other’s toes and sharing very little. I do not name the individual or the 

city for obvious reasons. 

The cartels have too much invested (drugs) in the major cities to let any disruption in their operations take place. 

Just like a terrorist organization (which, in effect, is what they are) the pecking order is hard to crack and pinpoint the actual 

leadership which is like a starfish where if an arm is cut off it will regenerate (regrow) another. 

As long as there is an American appetite for drugs do not expect any real progress. 


16 Maps Of Drug Flow Into The United States. Despite growing momentum for drug policy reform in Latin America, 

continual carnage in Mexico and a U.S. government-sponsored study that rips U.S. drug policy, America's 40-year war on 

drugs is still raging. http://www.businessinsider.com/16-maps-of-drug-flow-into-the-united-states-2012-7?op=1 

OSINT Russia 

November 5, 2012, Russian Sub Skirts Coast. A Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine cruised within 200 

miles of the East Coast recently in the latest sign Russia is continuing to flex its naval and aerial power against the United 

States, defense officials said. 

The submarine was identified by its NATO designation as a Russian Seirra-2 class submarine believed to be based 

with Russia’s Northern Fleet. It was the first time that class of Russian submarine had been detected near a U.S. coast, said 

officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of anti-submarine warfare efforts. 

One defense official said the submarine was believed to have been conducting anti-submarine warfare efforts 

against U.S. ballistic and cruise missile submarines based at Kings Bay, Georgia. 

A second official said the submarine did not sail close to Kings Bay and also did not threaten a U.S. aircraft carrier 

strike group that was conducting exercises in the eastern Atlantic. 

Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, north of Jacksonville, Fla., is homeport for two guided missile submarines and 

six nuclear missile submarines. The submarines are known to be a target of Russian attack submarines. 

Meanwhile, the officials also said that a Russian electronic intelligence-gathering vessel was granted safe harbor in 

the commercial port of Jacksonville, Fla., within listening range of Kings Bay. 

The Russian AGI ship, or Auxiliary-General Intelligence, was allowed to stay in the port to avoid the superstorm that 

battered the U.S. East Coast last week. A Jacksonville Port Authority spokeswoman had no immediate 

comment on the Russian AGI at the port. (Note: For more information on Auxiliary-General 

Intelligence see http://www.fas.org/irp/world/russia/fapsi/shcherbakov.htm and 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliary_General_Intelligence . 

“A Russian AGI and an SSN in the same geographic area as one of the largest U.S. ballistic 

missile submarine bases—Kings Bay—is reminiscent of Cold War activities of the Soviet navy tracking 

the movements of our SSBN’s,” said a third U.S. official, referring to the designation for ballistic missile submarines, SSBN. 

“While I can’t talk about how we detected it, I can tell you that things worked the way they were supposed to,” the 

second official said, stating that the Russian submarine “poses no threat whatsoever.” 

According to naval analysts, the Russian attack submarine is outfitted with SS-N-21 anti-submarine warfare 

missiles, as well as SS-N-16 anti-submarine warfare missiles. It also is equipped with torpedoes. 

The U.S. Navy deploys a series of underwater sonar sensors set up at strategic locations near the United States 

that detected the submarine sometime late last month. 

The submarine is currently believed to be in international waters several hundred miles from the United States. 




Page 10 of 25 

The official said the deployment appeared to be part of efforts by the Russian navy to re-establish its blue-water 

naval power projection capabilities. 

Naval analyst Miles Yu, writing in the newsletter Geostrategy Direct, stated that Russia announced in February it is 

stepping up submarine patrols in strategic waters around the world in a throwback to the Soviet 

period. 

“On June 1 or a bit later we will resume constant patrolling of the world’s oceans by 

strategic nuclear submarines,” Russian Navy Commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky was quoted as 

saying Feb. 3. 

During the Cold War, Moscow’s submarine forces carried out hundreds of submarine patrols annually to maintain its 

first- and second-strike nuclear capabilities. By 1984, the Soviet Union was declining but its naval forces conducted 230 

submarine patrols. Today the number is fewer than 10 patrols. 

Richard Fisher, a military analyst with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said Russian submarine 

patrols in the Atlantic have been reduced but remain “regular.” 

“As was their primary mission during the Cold War, Russian SSNs [nuclear attack submarines] would likely be trying 

to track U.S. nuclear missile submarines deploying from Kings Bay, Ga., and to monitor U.S. naval deployments from 

Norfolk, Va.,” Fisher said in an email. 

While the Sierra-2 is comparable to the U.S. Los Angeles-class attack submarine, Russia is building a new class of 

attack submarines that are said to be comparable to the latest U.S. Virginia-class submarines, Fisher said. 

The submarine deployment followed stepped-up Russian nuclear bomber activity near 

U.S. borders last summer, including the transit of two Bear-H strategic bombers near the Alaska 

air defense zone during Russian strategic bomber war games in arctic in late June. 

Then on July 4, in an apparent Fourth of July political message, a Russian Bear-H flew 

the closest to the U.S. West Coast that a Russian strategic bomber had flown since the Cold 

War when such flights were routine. 

In both incidents, U.S. military spokesmen sought to downplay the threat posed by the air incursions, apparently in 

response to the Obama administration’s conciliatory “reset” policy of seeking closer ties with Moscow. 

U.S. and Canadian interceptor jets were scrambled to meet the Russian bombers during the flights last summer. 

The officials did not provide the name of the Russian submarine. However, the sole Sierra-2 submarine still 

deployed with Russia’s Northern Fleet is the nuclear powered attack submarine Pskov that was first deployed in 1993. 

Confirmation of the recent Sierra-2 submarine deployment followed a report from U.S. national security officials who 

said a more advanced and harder-to-detect Russian Akula-class attack submarine had sailed undetected in the Gulf of 

Mexico in August. 

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, in response to thereport first published in the Free 

Beacon, stated in a letter to Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) that “based on all of the source information available to us, a 

Russian submarine did not enter the Gulf of Mexico.” 

Navy spokesmen did not say whether an Akula had been detected elsewhere in the Atlantic around that time 

period. 

A Navy spokesman said later that the last time an Akula was confirmed as present near the United States was 

2009. 

The U.S. is not the only country responding to increased Russian strategic bomber activity. 

Norway’s military has detected an increase in Russian strategic bomber flights near its territory, the most recent 

being the flight of a Bear H bomber on Sept. 11 and 12 that was shadowed by NATO jet fighters. 

Norwegian Lt. Col. John Espen Lien told the Free Beacon in an email that the number of Russian bomber flights this 

year was more than in the past, with 55 bombers detected. 

According to Norwegian military data, Russian aircraft flights near Norwegian coasts began increasing in July 2007 

and increased from 14 flights in 2006 to 88 in 2007. There were 87 in 2008 and 77 in 2009 and a decline to 37 in 2010 and 

48 in 2011. 

“Most of these strategic flights are … Tupolev TU-95 Bear [bombers],” he 

stated. “In 2007 (and partly 2008) we also identified some TU-160 Blackjack. 

Lately we have also identified some TU-22 Backfire.” 

http://freebeacon.com/russian-subs-skirt-coast/ 




Russian Seirra-2 

Page 11 of 25 

Entered service 1992 

Crew 61 men 

Diving depth (operational) ? 

Diving depth (maximum) 750 m 

Sea endurance ? 

Dimensions and displacement 

Length ~ 111 m 

Beam ~ 11.5 m 

Draught 9.4 m 

Surfaced displacement 7 600 tons 

Submerged displacement 9 100 tons 

Propulsion and speed 

Surfaced speed 10 knots 

Submerged speed 32 knots 

Propulsion 

One pressurized water reactor, rated at 

190MW delivering power to one shaft, 2 

x 1002 hp emergency motors 

Missiles 

Armament 

SS-N-15 Starfish or SS-N-16 Stallion 

anti-submarine missiles; SS-N-21 

Samson cruise missiles 

Torpedoes 

Other 

4 x 650-mm and 4 x 533-mm torpedo 

tubes 

42 mines in place of torpedoes 

Russian Akula-class Attack Submarine: 

Entered service 1986 

Crew 62 men 



Length 111.7 m 

Beam 13.5 m 

Draught 9.6 m 

Surfaced displacement 7 500 tons 

Submerged displacement 9 100 tons 


Surfaced speed 20 knots 

Submerged speed 35 knots 

Nuclear reactors 1 x 190 MW 

Steam turbines 1 x 32 MW 

Armament 

Torpedoes and missiles 

4 x 650 mm and 4 x 533-mm torpedo 

tubes for up to 40 torpedoes or missiles 

Other up to 42 mines in place of torpedoes 

The Project 945A Kondor class (NATO 

designation Sierra II) is a follow-on to the Sierra I 

class. It has a considerably larger sail than the 

Sierra I class. Masts are offset on the starboard 

side to make way for two escape pods in the sail. 

A prominent, much larger, pod on the after fin 

houses the Skat 3 passive, very low frequency 

towed array. 

Soviet titanium technology was far in advance of the West, requiring 

fewer passes to achieve a successful weld. However the cost of the hulls limited 

the numbers built, despite advantages in depth and underwater speed. 

One notable feature of the Sierra II class is the large space between 

the two hulls, which has obvious advantages for radiated noise reduction and 

damage resistance. 

Two Pskov (ex-Zubatka) and Nizhny Novgorod(ex-Okun) remain 

operational at Russia's Northern Fleet. A third of class, Mars, was laid down in 

1990. However it was scrapped before completion in 1992. This boat was built by 

improved Project 945B (NATO designation Sierra III class). 

The Sierra II class was succeeded by the Akula class SSNs. 

The steel-hulled submarines of 

the Project 971 Schuka-B, designated 

by NATO as Akula class were easier 

and cheaper to built than the Sierras, 

and are essentially successors to the 

prolific Victor class. Today, they make up about half of Russia's dwindling fleet of 

nuclear-powered attack submarines. 

The first seven boats (designated in the West as the Akula I class) 

were constructed between 1982-90, and are 

the Puma, Delfin, Kashalot, Bars, Kit, Pantera and Narval. Five more 

(the Volk, Morzh, Leopard, Tigr and Drakon built between 1986-95) are classified 

as the Project 971 U or Improved Akula class, while a 13th boat, the Vepr of the 

Project 971M or Akula II class, was launched in 1995 but was still incomplete at 

the end of 2002. Three additional boats 

the Belgograd, Kuguar and Nerpa launched between 1998-2000 as Akula II 

boats, are also incomplete. At least two more were projected but were not 

built. Nepra began sea trials in 2008 and is expected to commission with the 

Indian Navy as INS Chakra in 2009. 

The design was approved in the early 1970s but modified in 1978-80 

to carry the Granat (SS-N-21 Sampson) land attack cruise missiles. The Akula 

marked a significant improvement in Soviet submarine design as it is far quieter 

than the Victor and earlier SSNs. Furthermore it was far quitter than Western 

countries expected. The use of commercially available Western technology to 

reduce noise levels played an important role in this eroding a long-held NATO 

advantage in the underwater Cold War. Sensors were also much improved, the 

use of digital technology enabling them to detect targets at three times the range possible in a Victor. 

The Akulas sport a massive tear-drop shaped pod on the after fin: this houses the Skat-3 VLF passive towed array. There is an escape pod built into the 

fin. The Improved Akula and Akula II boats are fitted with six additional 533-mm (21-in) external torpedo tubes: as these cannot be reloaded from within the pressure 

hull, it is considered likely they are fitted with the Tsakra (SS-N-15 Starfish) anti-submarine missile. Additionally, the Akula II boats are credited with an increased 

operational diving depth. 

Four Akula I boats were paid off in the late 1990s and are unlikely to return, and they surviving boats are divided between the Northern and Pacific Fleets. 

In the future the older Akula class boats will be replaced by the new Graney class nuclear-powered attack submarines. 



Graney Class Nuclear-powered Attack Submarine: 

Entered service 

Crew 

Diving depth (operational) 

expected in 2012 

50 ~ 90 men 

? 


Sea endurance 100 days 


Length 111 ~ 119 m 

Beam 12 ~ 13.5 m 

Draught 8.4 ~ 9.4 m 

Surfaced displacement ~ 8 600 tons 

Submerged displacement ~ 13 800 tons 


Surfaced speed ~ 20 knots 

Submerged speed 31 ~ 35 knots 

Nuclear reactors ? 

Steam turbines ? 

Electric motors ? 

Armament 

Missiles 24 cruise missiles 

Torpedoes 

Other 

8 x 650-mm torpedo tubes for anti-ship 

missiles and torpedoes 

Mines in place of torpedoes 


Page 12 of 25 

The Project 885 Yasen (NATO 

designation Graney class) is a new Russian 

nuclear-powered attack submarine. It will 

become a successor to the older Akula 

class submarines. The lead 

boat, Severodvinsk, was laid down in 

1993, however project was stopped in 

1996 due to funding problems. In 2003 the 

project received additional funding and work continued. It is 

expected to be commissioned with the Russian Navy in 2011. 

The second submarine of this class, the Kazan, was laid down in 2009. 

It is an improved project Yasen-M boat, fitted with improved electronic systems. 

Considerable changes were made to it's design, as this boat has been laid down 

16 years later than the Severodvinsk. 

Sources from the Russian MoD claim that at least four more 

submarines of this class are planned. All submarines will be built at Sevmash 

naval yard in Severodvinsk. 

The Graney class is larger than the previous Akula class. Armament of 

this submarine includes 24 vertical launch tubes for various cruise missiles and 

eight 650-mm torpedo tubes for torpedoes and anti-ship missiles. Some sources 

claim, that a total of 30 torpedoes and anti-ship missiles are carried. It is worth 

mentioning, that torpedo tubes are fitted behind the compartment of the central 

station. Cruise missiles include the P-800 Oniks (SS-N-26), which has a range of 

about 300 km. This multi-purpose submarine will be capable of striking costal 

targets. 

Hull of this submarine is made of low magnetic steel, with a spherical 

bow sonar. It is considered that the Graney class will be only slightly quieter than 

the improved Akula class. 

It is reported that this submarine will have a crew of 50, suggesting a 

high degree of automation. However other sources claim, that these boats have a 

crew of 90 submariners, including 32 officers. 

The Graney class submarine will have a single pressurized water reactor. This reactor has a service life of about 25 - 30 years and does not have to be 

refueled. Sea endurance of these boats will be limited only by food supplies. 


August 27, 2010, Russian subs stalk Trident in echo of Cold War. A specially upgraded Russian Akula class 

submarine has been caught trying to record the acoustic signature made by the Vanguard submarines that carry Trident 

nuclear missiles, according to senior Navy officers. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/7969017/Russiansubs-stalk-Trident-in-echo-of-Cold-War.html 

Comment/Analysis: Whether or not a submarine entered the Gulf of Mexico (see volume 1, issue 5 of OSINT 

Nuggets) and operated without being detected is still enough for a closer look at funding the Navy anti-submarine projects 

that had been cut. Now with the Russians operating close to the East Coast, the Navy may just be able to wrestle those 

dollars back. A big thank you to the Russians. 

OSINT Mali 

Mali is suffering from the chaotic geopolitical scene. What seems most probable 

is that there will be no military intervention. Whether the local populations in northern Mali, 

accustomed to a very tolerant "Sufi" version of Islam and most unhappy now, will rise up 

against the "Salafists" remains to be seen, argues Immanuel Wallerstein 

Up to very recently, very, very few persons, outside of its immediate neighbors 

and its former colonial power (France) had even heard of Mali, much less knew anything 

about its history and its politics. Today, northern Mali has been taken over militarily by 

"Salafist" groups sharing the outlook of al-Qaeda and practicing the harshest version of 

sharia -- with lapidation (punishment inflicted by throwing stones at the victim, even unto 

death) and amputation as punishments. 




Page 13 of 25 

This takeover has been condemned by a unanimous vote of the UN Security Council, which 

deemed it "a threat to international peace and security." The resolution cited "the rapidly 

deteriorating humanitarian situation" and "the increasing entrenchment of terrorist elements" 

and the potential "consequences for the countries of the Sahel and beyond." The UN declared 

it was ready to consider the constitution of an "international military force [to recover] the 

occupied regions in the north of Mali." 

The resolution was unanimous but toothless. In fact, Mali today represents the 

clearest possible case of geopolitical paralysis. All the major and minor powers in the region 

and beyond the region are genuinely concerned, and yet no one seems willing or able to do 

anything for fear that doing anything would result in what is being called the "Afghanistanization" 

of Mali. Furthermore, there are at least a dozen different actors involved, and almost all of them are 

deeply divided among themselves. 

How did this all start? The country called Mali (what was called the French Sudan during colonial rule beginning in 

1892) has been an independent state since 1960. It initially had a secular single-party government, which was socialist and 

nationalist. It was overturned by a military coup in 1968. The coup leaders in turn created another one-party regime, but one 

that was more market-oriented. It was in turn overthrown by another military coup in 1991, which adopted a constitution that 

permitted multiple parties. One party nonetheless dominated the political situation again. But because of the multi-party 

electoral processes, the Malian regime was now hailed in the West as "democratic" and exemplary. 

Throughout this time, the politicians and senior civil servants in the successive governments all mainly came from 

the ethnic groups in the southern 40% of the country. The more sparsely settled northern 60% was peopled by Tuareg 

groups who were marginalized and resented it. They periodically rebelled and talked of wanting an independent state. 

Many Tuareg fled to Libya (and Algeria) whose southern regions were also peopled by Tuareg. Some Tuareg found 

employment in the Libyan military. The confusion following the fall of Muammar Qaddafi allowed Tuareg soldiers to obtain 

weapons and return to Mali to take up the struggle for Azawad, the name they gave to an independent Tuareg state. They 

were organized as the Mouvement National pour la Libération de l'Azawad (MNLA). 

On March 22, a group of junior officers led by Amadou Haya Sanogo announced a third post-independence coup. 

They specifically alleged that the major reason for the coup was the inefficacity of the Malian army to deal with the 

secessionist pretentions of the MNLA. France, the United States, and most other West African states, declared strong 

opposition to the coup and demanded the restoration of the ousted government. 

An uneasy compromise was achieved between the Sanogo forces and the previous regime, in which a new 

president was installed ad interim. He chose a prime minister with family links to the leader of the 1968 coup. To this day, it 

is not sure who controls what in southern Mali. But the army is ill-trained and incapable of engaging in serious military action 

in the north of the country. 

Meanwhile in the north, the relatively secularist Moslems involved in the MNLA sought alliances with more 

fundamentalist groups. Almost immediately, the latter ousted the MNLA and took over control of all the major cities in 

northern Mali. However, these more fundamentalist elements were in fact three different groups: the Ansar Eddine who 

were local Tuareg; Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), composed mostly of non-Malians; and the Mouvement pour le Tawhid 

et du Jihad en Afrique de l'Ouest (MUJAO), a breakaway from AQIM. MUJAO had broken with AQIM because it deemed 

AQIM too exclusively interested in North Africa, and it wanted to spread its doctrine to West African countries. These groups 

control different areas and it is unclear how united they are, either tactically or in objectives. 

The next series of actors are the neighbors, all of whom are unhappy that the "Salafist" groups have taken effective 

control of such a large region, groups that are quite open about their desire to spread their doctrines to these neighbors. 

The neighbors however are equally divided about what to do. One group is the Economic Community of West African States 

(ECOWAS), which consists of 15 states -- all the former colonies of Great Britain, France, and Portugal plus Liberia -- with 

the sole exception of Mauritania. 

ECOWAS has wanted to help resolve the differences in the Malian government. They have suggested that they 

might be willing to send in some troops to regain control of northern Mali. The problem is twofold. The groups contesting in 

southern Mali are afraid of a semi-permanent intervention of ECOWAS, especially the Sanogo faction. And the only country 

that really has troops to offer is Nigeria, which is very reluctant to envisage this possibility because they need these troops 

to deal with their internal "Salafist" problem, the Boko Harem. 

Mauritania, which has been more successful than other West African governments in containing "Salafist" groups, is 

very fearful of a spread of these forces into Mauritania, especially should they agree to fight them militarily in Mali. Libya, 

aside from the fact that it faces enormous internal turmoil among its many armed groups, is especially afraid that the Tuareg 

populations in southern Libya would join in an expanded Azawad. 

Both France and the United States feel it is urgent to oust the "Salafists" from northern Mali. But the United States, 

overextended militarily as it is, does not want to send in any troops. France, or rather President Hollande, is taking the most 




Page 14 of 25 

forceful stand. They seem to be ready to send in troops. But France is the former colonial power, and French troops in Mali 

could arouse a very strong nationalist response. 

So what France and the United States are trying to do is to convince Algeria, which borders Mali on the north, and 

has a powerful army, to be the lead force in a military operation. The Algerians are hyper-dubious about the idea. For one 

thing, southern Algeria is Tuareg country. For another thing, the Algerian government feels it has contained the "Salafist" 

danger so far and is deeply afraid that a military intervention in Mali would undo this containment. 

So, everyone wants the "Salafist" groups to go away somehow, provided that someone else does the dirty work. 

And large groups in all these countries are opposed to any action whatsoever on the grounds that it would "Afghanistanize" 

the situation. That is, they fear that military action against the "Salafists" would strengthen, not weaken, them by attracting 

an influx of al-Qaeda-oriented individuals and groups to northern Mali. Afghanistan has become the symbol of what not to 

do. But doing nothing is otherwise called geopolitical paralysis. 

The bottom line is that Mali is suffering from the chaotic geopolitical scene. What seems most probable is that there 

will be no military intervention. Whether the local populations in northern Mali, accustomed to a very tolerant "Sufi" version 

of Islam and most unhappy now, will rise up against the "Salafists" remains to be seen. http://www.middle-eastonline.com/english/?id=55236 

Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM): Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is a Salafi-jihadist militant group and 

U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization operating in North Africa's Sahara and Sahel. The group can trace its 

provenance back to Algeria's civil war, and has since become an al-Qaeda affiliate with broader regional and international 

ambitions. While many experts suggest AQIM is the primary transnational terror threat in North Africa, the risk it poses to 

Europe and the United States remains unclear. 

AQIM's activities have garnered heightened scrutiny in recent months, particularly after the group, along with other 

radical Islamist factions, expanded its foothold in Mali's vast ungoverned north earlier this year, and, in September 2012, 

after an initial investigation into a deadly assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, implicated several AQIM 

members. In the wake of these developments, the United States and other international actors are weighing policy 

alternatives, including armed military intervention and increased counterterrorism operations in the region. 

What are the origins of AQIM? 

AQIM's lineage extends back to a guerilla Islamist movement, known as the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which 

violently opposed the secular leadership in Algiers in the 1990s. The insurrection began after Algeria's military regime 

canceled a second round of parliamentary elections in 1992, fearing an Islamist coalition might win power. In 1998, several 

GIA commanders became concerned the group's brutal tactics (e.g. beheadings) were alienating local inhabitants and broke 

away to found the Group Salafist pour la Predication et le Combat. 

GSPC initially drew its support from the Algerian population by vowing to continue the rebellion while avoiding the 

indiscriminate killing of civilians, but an effective government amnesty program and counterterrorism campaign drove the 

group into disarray in the early 2000s. Experts say GSPC's choice to align with al-Qaeda was a change of strategy aimed at 

retaining the group's relevance, and improving recruitment and fundraising. "In order to ensure its survival, the GSPC had 

no choice but to find a new mission that would re-energize its followers," writes Lianne Kennedy Boudali of the Countering 

Terrorism Center (CTC) at the U.S. Military Academy. 

While GSPC leaders pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda multiple times in the early 2000s, the linkage was not 

publically acknowledged until 2006 by Ayman al-Zawahiri—al-Qaeda's then-second in command. Analysts say the merger, 

and the new moniker underscoring the "Islamic Maghreb," symbolized the group's efforts to move beyond the Algerian 

conflict and focus on jihadist aspirations in the broader region. 

What are AQIM's objectives? 

According to West Point's center on terrorism, "a rough sketch" of AQIM's principle objectives includes ridding North 

Africa of western influence, overthrowing apostate "unbeliever" governments (including Algeria, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, 

Morocco, and Tunisia), and installing fundamentalist regimes based on Islamic law or Sharia. Experts say AQIM's narrative 

blends Salafi-jihadi ideology with North African nuances, including references to the early Islamic conquest of the Maghreb 

and the Iberian Peninsula. A component of the Salafi-jihadi philosophy is waging war against the "far enemy," which, in the 

case of AQIM, is primarily Spain and France. The group has referred to Spain as "our country" and called for its reconquest; 

likewise, AQIM has declared war on France, which reciprocated the gesture in 2010. 

In late 2012, some U.S. officials expressed concern that AQIM, which has made territorial gains in northern Mali, 

may target the United States, much like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula—an al-Qaeda affiliate linked to several U.S. 

terror plots. Others say such claims over overblown, noting that AQIM has been known for years as "the most 

underperforming affiliate of al-Qaeda." However, official assessments may change with reports of potential AQIM links to the 

deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in September 2012. 




Page 15 of 25 

Where does AQIM operate? 

A successful counterterrorism campaign forced AQIM from its base of operations along Algeria's Mediterranean 

coast to the Sahel region that includes Niger, Mauritania, and Mali, where the group has established significant footholds in 

major cities. AQIM volunteers were also very active in Iraq during the 2003-2011 war with the United States, often 

performing suicide bombings. 

Unlike other al-Qaeda affiliates, AQIM has not yet been able to execute attacks on Europe or domestic U.S. targets. 

However, arrests of suspected terrorists with ties to AQIM have been made throughout Europe in the United Kingdom, 

Germany, Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Some analysts point to thwarted attacks and arrests of AQIM-linked 

terrorists as evidence the group is capable of attacks in Western Europe. 

In 2012, the U.S. State Department expressed concerns that AQIM was networking (BBC) with other prominent 

terrorist groups in the region, including Nigeria's Boko Haram, Somalia's al-Shabaab, and Yemen's AQAP. The September 

2012 assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi has also raised concerns about AQIM's presence in Libya. 

What are the group's numbers and leadership? 

AQIM is estimated to have several hundred members, but precise data is unavailable. Most of AQIM's major 

leaders are believed to have trained in Afghanistan during the 1979-1989 war against the Soviets as part of a group of North 

African volunteers known as "Afghan Arabs" that returned to the region and radicalized Islamist movements in the years that 

followed. The group is divided into "katibas" or brigades, which are clustered into different and often independent cells. 

AQIM's top commanders, which are all Algerian, "may be rivals as much as comrades or they may operate relatively 

autonomously," according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. 

The group's top leader, or emir, since 2004 has been Abdelmalek Droukdel, also known as Abou Mossab 

Abdelwadoud, a trained engineer and explosives expert who has fought in Afghanistan and has roots with the GIA in 

Algeria. It is under Droukdel's leadership that AQIM declared France as its main target.One of the "most violent and radical" 

AQIM leaders is Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, according to counterterrorism experts. Abou Zied is linked to several kidnappings 

and executions of Europeans in the region. 

Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a founding member of AQIM and the powerful leader of Mali's northeastern Gao region, was 

reportedly killed in battles with Tuareg-led rebels in June 2012, but his death is unconfirmed. 

What are AQIM's tactics? 

AQIM employs many conventional terrorist tactics, including guerilla-style raids, assassinations, and suicide 

bombings of military, government, and civilian targets—but has historically avoided "force-on-force" encounters with military. 

Perhaps the group's most brazen attack was the December 2007 bombing of UN offices in Algiers, which killed dozens. The 

kidnapping—and sometimes execution—of aid workers, tourists, diplomats, and employees of multinational corporations is 

increasingly a prominent tactic. Indeed, AQIM has "largely been relegated to lower-level activities in the Sahel" in recent 

years, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

The group raises money through an array of criminal activity including kidnapping for ransom (KFR) and the 

trafficking of arms, vehicles, cigarettes, and persons, according to the U.S. State Department. Kidnappings not only raise 

funds, but also support prisoner exchanges and discourage foreign enterprise in the region. In October 2012, David Cohen, 

Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the U.S. Treasury Department, cited KFR as "the most 

significant terrorist financing threat today," and noted that AQIM "has likely profited most" from the activity. 

Analysts also say that AQIM is heavily involved in the smuggling of narcotics, providing a vital Sahel way-station 

between suppliers in Latin America and the European market. In July 2012, the head of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Carter 

Ham, described AQIM as al-Qaeda's "wealthiest affiliate" (Reuters). 

What's AQIM doing in Mali? 

AQIM and other Islamist groups, like Ansar al-Din, initially aided the semi-nomadic Tuaregs—a historically 

disenfranchised minority ethnic group—that launched a rebellion in early 2012 against Mali's government forces and 

captured control of the country's sparsely populated north. But they have since marginalized Tuareg forces and begun 

implementing a severe brand of sharia law in the breakaway northern territory. According to the UN, the jihadist influx has 

been particularly brutal for women, many of whom have been raped or forced into marriage and prostitution. 

Mali, a predominantly Muslim, landlocked West African nation that straddles the arid latitudes of the sub-Saharan 

Sahel, achieved its independence from France in 1960, and had been celebrated by western-aid donors as a modest 

democratic success story over the past decade. However, the future political stability of the country is in doubt given the 

success of the insurgency and the power vacuum created by a subsequent military coup deposing President Amadou 

Toumani Touré in March. 

Though there is a transitional civilian government that assumed power with the military's consent in early April, 

AQIM and affiliated groups may leverage the political uncertainty to plot attacks on western targets in the region and 

abroad, some analysts fear. The conflict has generated a humanitarian crisis, displacing over 1.5 million people and 




Page 16 of 25 

exacerbating an already daunting regional food emergency. The region faces its most significant security challenge since 

the Algerian civil war, writes Derek Henry Flood for CTC, noting that "the Sahel has transformed from a rear logistical base 

to the locus of jihadist activity in North and West Africa." 

What are the policy options? 

Prior to the March 2012 coup, the U.S. State Department described Mali as "a leading regional partner in U.S. 

efforts against terrorism," and continues to stress that "the best strategy for dealing with AQIM remains working with 

regional governments to increase their capability, foster regional cooperation, and counter violent extremism." 

The primary vehicle for these efforts has been the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership, an interagency 

(civilian and military) program established in 2005 that partners with over a half dozen countries in the Maghreb and Sahel. 

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Partnership has faced challenges from the outset, including the 

lack of a comprehensive strategic design that goes beyond traditional bilateral aid. Mali is the third partner country, after 

Mauritania and Niger, to experience a military coup since 2008. 

The United States and other international actors are weighing several policy alternatives following the degeneration 

of the Malian security situation and the expansion of AQIM and other jihadist groups in the country's north. In September 

2012, Gen. Carter Ham, the top U.S. commander for Africa, said there "are no plans for U.S. direct military intervention" in 

Mali, but added that logistical and intelligence support may be provided. Some counterterrorism officials say the use of 

drone strikes and commando raids in the region are under consideration. Targeted killings have been an essential U.S. 

strategy in the fight against al-Qaeda in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. As of July 2012, the Pentagon has fewer than 5,000 

personnel, including civilians, on the entire African continent. 

In October 2012, the UN Security Council unanimously backed a resolution calling for the Economic Community of 

West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union, and Mali's transitional government to develop military intervention plans 

in order to retake the country's north from AQIM and its affiliates. France, which sponsored the resolution, stressed that any 

military operations be executed only by Africans. 

"One of the biggest questions with regard to Mali's northern rebels and now entrenched jihadists has been the 

potential role or lack thereof of Algeria," says Flood. Algeria and Mauritania, both of which share huge borders with Mali, 

have ruled out contributing forces to any intervention and stress the need for dialogue and a political solution to Mali's crisis. 

http://www.cfr.org/north-africa/al-qaeda-islamic-maghreb-aqim/p12717 

Related Documents: 

Congressional Research Service - Crisis In Mali. The West African country of Mali is mired in overlapping crises. 

A military coup overthrew Mali’s democratically elected government in March 2012 and insurgent groups seized its vast and 

sparsely populated northern territory. With regard to the crises, Congress may consider issues related to US and 

international aid to Mali, support for ECOWAS, and humanitarian assistance in response to evolving conditions in the Sahel. 

Congress may also consider the possible implications of the situation in Mali for the design, emphasis, and evaluation of US 

counter-terrorism and good governance efforts in Africa. http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital- 

Library/Publications/Detail/?id=153702&lng=en 

Addressing an Imploding Mali. A separatist and Islamist insurgency in the north, weak democratic governance 

and drought are pushing Mali to the brink of collapse. The way forward, argues the author, involves seeking a political 

settlement with secessionists and external intervention to avert a humanitarian disaster. http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital- 

Library/Publications/Detail/?id=152580&lng=en 

Mysterious fatal crash offers rare look at U.S. commando presence in Mali. In pre-dawn darkness, a Toyota 

Land Cruiser skidded off a bridge in North Africa in the spring, plunging into the Niger River. When rescuers arrived, they 

found the bodies of three U.S. Army commandos — alongside three dead women. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mysterious-fatal-crash-provides-rare-glimpse-of-us-commandos-inmali/2012/07/08/gJQAGO71WW_story.html 

Comment/Analysis: With the situation being so fluid it is really difficult to predict what will actually take place but it 

appears that France and the U.S. are willing to provide logistical and intelligence support. If this is the case then it is 

probably a sure thing that the African Union will commit to military operations in the north with the blessing of the UN 

Security Council. 

My suspicion is, based on the mysterious crash article above, that we have active SOF already operating in Mali to 

gather intelligence for the deploying units since the U.S. commitment is for intelligence support. 




Page 17 of 25 

November 9, 2012, The Warhead Gap - China’s tactical and theater nuclear force levels revealed by Russian 

general 

China has nearly 750 theater and tactical nuclear warheads in addition to more than 200 strategic missile 

warheads, a stockpile far larger than U.S. estimates, according to a retired Russian general who once led Moscow’s 

strategic forces. 

New details of China’s strategic and tactical nuclear warheads levels were disclosed by retired Col. Gen. Viktor 

Yesin, former commander of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces, during a conference several months ago. A copy of Yesin’s 

paper was translated last month by the Georgetown University Asian Arms Control Project and obtained by 

the Washington Free Beacon. 

Yesin for the first time disclosed details on China’s theater and tactical nuclear warheads showing a total of 719 to 

749 warheads used on bombers, short- and medium-range missiles, and a new land-attack cruise missile, in a recent paper 

published in the book titled Prospects for China’s Participation in Nuclear Arms Limitation. 

Yesin concludes that China’s nuclear arsenal is “appreciably higher than many experts think.” 

“In all likelihood, the [People’s Republic of China] is already the third nuclear power today, after the U.S. and 

Russia, and it undoubtedly has technical and economic capabilities that will permit it to rapidly increase its nuclear might if 

necessary,” he said. 

Yesin first revealed higher estimates of the Chinese warhead stockpile last spring that he says contain as many as 

1,800 warheads, including up to 900 warheads deployed and ready for use. That estimate is based on China’s stockpile of 

more than 50 tons of weapons-grade uranium and plutonium and contradicts lower warhead estimates done by U.S. 

intelligence agencies and private arms control groups. 

U.S. intelligence agencies have asserted in classified studies that China’s total nuclear force includes about 300 

nuclear warheads. Two liberal arms control groups, the Federation of American Scientists and the Natural Resources 

Defense Council several years ago accused the Pentagon of exaggerating China’s nuclear forces. They asserted China’s 

total nuclear warhead force is about 200 warheads, with no tactical warheads. 

A forthcoming annual report by the congressional United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission 

states that China’s nuclear arsenal includes between 100 and 500 weapons, with a general consensus that Beijing has 

around 240 nuclear weapons. 

The draft annual report also said China is moving ahead with deployment of nuclear missile submarines. 

“China has had a symbolic ballistic missile submarine capability for decades but is only now on the cusp of 

establishing its first credible, ‘near-continuous at-sea strategic deterrent,’” states the report obtained by the Free Beacon. 

The report warns Congress to “treat with caution any proposal to unilaterally, or in the context of a bilateral 

agreement with Russia, reduce the U.S.’s operational nuclear forces absent clearer information being made available to the 

public about China’s nuclear stockpile and force posture.” 

According to Yesin, China’s bombs and warheads include B-4 and B-5 aerial bombs, 2-megaton missile warheads, 

and 500- and 300-kiloton strategic missile warhead. A megaton is the nuclear equivalent to a million tons of TNT; a kiloton 

equals a thousand tons of TNT. 

For its tactical and theater warhead 

arsenal, the Chinese also have a 350-kiloton 

warhead for medium range DF-21 missiles and 

five to 20 kiloton warheads for DF-15 and DF-11 

short-range missiles that are mainly targeted on Taiwan. The 350-kiloton 

warhead can also be deployed on China’s new DH-10 land-attack cruise 

missiles, Yesin said. 

For submarine-launched JL-2 missiles, China has a 500-kiloton 

warhead. 

According to the Russian general, China 

also is building multiple-warhead missiles that will 

require large increases in the number of warheads. 

OSINT China 




Page 18 of 25 

“An advanced development is the multiple independently targeted reentry vehicle (MIRV),” he said, for DF-5A and 

DF-31A ICBMs, and the JL-2. 

Experimental MIRV prototypes may have been fabricated and used in flight tests in 2011, he said. 

The Free Beacon first disclosed that China conducted the flight test of a new long-range missile called the DF-41 

that U.S. intelligence agencies assess will be outfitted with multiple warheads. 

China’s aerial bomb arsenal for its Hong-6 bombers includes 440 B-5 and B-4 bombs, Yesin said. 

For missiles, the retired general said that “all told, 207 missile launchers are deployed within the Strategic Missile 

Forces—48 with ICBMs, 99 with [medium-range ballistic missiles] MRBMs, and 60 with [short-range] SRMs.” 

Total strategic warheads—those capable of reaching the United States—include 208 nuclear warheads, Yesin said. 

The figures presented by the former Russian general are renewing debate about the threat posed by Chinese 

strategic and tactical nuclear forces and whether U.S. intelligence agencies have accurately assessed the threat. 

The Yesin report was produced as part of a series of papers that examined the prospect of trilateral strategic arms 

talks between the United States, Russia, and China. It concludes that 

China’s communist government see little interest in joining such talks 

unless it can use them to force concessions from the United States to 

reduce its nuclear weapons stocks. 

Phillip Karber, a Georgetown University professor who 

sparked the debate through a university project that exposed China’s 

3,000-mile long underground nuclear complex, said the Russian 

debate on China’s nuclear forces shows its strategic analysts are 

“thinking about the instability and dangers of a potential ‘tripolar’ 

nuclear balance” that has received scant attention from U.S. military or 

arms control advocates. 

“The Russian report raises important questions about their and 

our ability to stay in existing arms control treaties and implement deep 

nuclear cuts when the Chinese are not constrained and have 

tactical/theater missile dominance as well as an emerging breakout 

potential over the next decade with unverified numbers of mobile 

MIRVed ICBMs hidden in a extensive underground infrastructure,” 

Karber said. 

Karber said the Russian specialists quoted in the report have credibility because of Moscow’s past and current role 

in China’s nuclear program. Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces also has good intelligence on China’s nuclear arsenal 

because it targeted China for three decades. 

“This close proximity and long track record means that Russian ‘realism’ about Chinese nuclear force potential 

cannot be blithely ignored or discounted as ‘paranoia,’” Karber said. “Their warning against American ‘idealism’ [on China’s 

nuclear arms] needs to be taken seriously.” 

Richard Fisher, a China military specialist with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, also said the 

latest Yesin report is a wake-up call for U.S. analysts. 

“If Yesin’s numbers for Chinese theater nuclear weapons approaches reality, then the Obama administration’s 2010 

reduction in U.S. theater weapons via the retirement of the Navy’s TLAM-N nuclear cruise missiles amounted to an act of 

unilateral disarmament that may prove destabilizing if it tempts China to consider military action,” Fisher said. 

Fisher also said the estimates presented by Yesin may differ from western estimates but “we cannot forget that 

Yesin once was in command of Russia’s strategic missile forces, so it would have been his business to know about China’s 

nuclear forces.” 

Fisher said Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan currently are developing long-range offensive missiles or already have 

advanced space launchers that could be converted to intermediate-range missiles. 

“If Washington does not take steps to strengthen non-nuclear deterrence in Asia, apparently our allies are not going 

to simply accept China’s nuclear missile hegemony,” he said. 

The Navy is developing a new long-range submarine-launched ballistic missile to bolster aircraft carrier strike 

groups. 

“New long range non-nuclear armed missiles combined with new very long-range radar in Japan and the Philippines 

could become a new reconnaissance-strike-complex that could balance China’s emerging similar missile strike forces,” 

Fisher said. 

The new missiles could check China’s missiles for at least the next decade, Fisher said, and “until the U.S. moves 

in this direction, there is probably no chance that China would consider entering into any formal missile limitation 

agreements.” 




Page 19 of 25 

The sponsor was the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 

“There are serious fears concerning the fact that the nuclear potential of the PRC is appreciably higher than had 

been previously thought,” an introduction to the book states. “It is entirely likely that, even as we speak, the PRC is the third 

nuclear power after the US and Russia, and that it undoubtedly has the technical and economic capabilities needed in order 

to quickly increase its nuclear firepower if necessary.” 

“The most important takeaway from this collection, though, is not any particular fact or proposition,” said Jonathan 

Askonas, the Georgetown student director of the Asian Arms Control Project. ”It is a new strategic reality. China is 

modernizing its military in a way that challenges the security interests of other great powers interested in Asian stability.” 

http://freebeacon.com/the-warhead-gap/ 

Related Links: 

China’s Underground “Great Wall”: A Success for Nuclear Primacy. http://csis.org/blog/chinas-underground-greatwall-success-nuclear-primacy 

What’s Down There? China’s Tunnels and Nuclear Capabilities. http://blog.heritage.org/2011/10/26/whats-downthere-chinas-tunnels-and-nuclear-capabilities/ 

OSINT USA 

November 19, 2012, U.S Intensifies Military Encirclement of China. With the emergence of China as the world’s 

second-largest economy and its concomitant renewal of (comparatively minor) territorial claims in the East China Sea and 

South China Sea, the stage is set for a U.S.-Chinese confrontation of a nature and on a scale not seen since before the 

Sino-Soviet split of 1960. 

Following the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization throughout Europe over the past thirteen years – 

every European nation is now a full member of or involved in one or more partnership arrangements with the U.S.-led 

military bloc except for Cyrus, which is under intensified pressure to join the Partnership for Peace program – which has 

enforced a cordon sanitaire on Russia’s western and much of its southern frontier, it was inevitable that the U.S. and its 

allies would next move to encircle, quarantine and ultimately confront China. 

In the past decade the Pentagon has begun conducting annual multinational military exercises in nations bordering 

China (Khaan Quest in Mongolia, Steppe Eagle in Kazakhstan) and near it (Angkor Sentinel in Cambodia), has with its 

NATO allies waged war and moved into bases in nations bordering China – Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and 

Tajikistan – as well as nearby Uzbekistan, and, even before the official announcement of the strategic shift to the Asia- 

Pacific region, acquired the use of new military facilities in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Australia, Singapore and the 

Philippines. 

President Obama’s current visit to Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s 

simultaneous trip to Australia, Cambodia and Thailand are exemplary of this trend. 

Early this year NATO announced the launching of its latest, and first non-geographically specific, partnership 

program, Partners Across the Globe, which began with the incorporation of eight Asia-Pacific nations: Afghanistan, 

Australia, Iraq, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Korea. 

Since the summer of 2010 the U.S. has been courting the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian 

Nations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), 

several of whom are embroiled in island disputes with China, for inclusion into a rapidly evolving Asian analogue of NATO 

which includes the eight above-mentioned new NATO partners and is intended to be a super-Cold War era-like bloc 

subsuming the former members of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) 

and Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS) into a systematic initiative aimed against China. 

The so-called Asia-Pacific pivot also entails the deployment of 60 percent of total American naval assets – 

quantitatively the largest and qualitatively the most technologically advanced and lethal in the world – to the Asia-Pacific 

region. Even before that U.S. Pacific Command’s area of responsibility has included over 50 percent of the world’s surface, 

more than 100 million square miles, with U.S. Central Command bordering China and India in the other direction. The U.S. 

Seventh Fleet, tasked to patrol the waters of the Asia-Pacific, is the largest overseas naval force in the world and will be 

further enhanced by the U.S. Navy’s intensified deployment to the region. The U.S. has eleven of the world’s twelve nuclear 

aircraft carriers and all eleven supercarriers. 




Page 20 of 25 

Washington is also incorporating several Asia-Pacific nations into its global interceptor missile grid, in its initial 

avatar launched in conjunction with NATO and the so-called European Phased Adaptive Approach which will station 

increasingly longer-range land-based missiles in Romania and Poland and Aegis class cruisers and destroyers equipped 

with Standard Missile-3 interceptors in the Mediterranean and likely later in the Baltic, Norwegian, Black and even Barents 

Seas. 

The Pentagon’s partners in the Asia-Pacific wing of the international missile system, which targets China as the 

European version does Russia, include to date Japan, South Korea, Australia and Taiwan, with the Philippines reported to 

be the future host of two Forward-Based X-Band Radar-Transportable interceptor sites of the sort deployed to Turkey at the 

beginning of this year and to Israel in 2008. 

China is a critically important component of the two groups representing the greatest potential for a multi-polar 

world, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Russia, its partner in 

both, confronting the same threats from the West, must, in its own interest as well as those of world peace and equilibrium, 

support China against American brinkmanship and gunboat diplomacy. http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2012/11/19/u-sintensifies-military-encirclement-of-china/ 

Comments/Analysis: In comparison to other countries, the U.S. is more open when it comes to publishing 

information which makes it easier to harvest open source information. 

Gang Facts 

If You Don't Know About Gangs - You Should: 

Part I http://www.corrections.com/news/article/30918-if-you-don-t-know-about-gangs-you-should-part-i 

Part 2 http://www.corrections.com/news/article/30919-if-you-don-t-know-about-gangs-you-should-part-ii 

Part 3 will be published next month. 

The above was in the October newsletter and I had promised to include Part 3 in the November issue, however, it 

has not been published as of today. 

October 28, 2012, A to Z: Deadly slang by gangs of New York. The crab got a biscuit and is drinking the bumble 

bee’s milk.Translation: a Crip gang member has a gun and is looking to kill a Latin King rival.New York gangs aren’t just a 

frightening menace driving up crime in the city. They operate in a shadowy underworld with their own signs, signals and 

terminology.But a forthcoming book by gang expert Lou Savelli pulls back the veil, revealing thousands of insider terms for 

everything that makes up gangster life: guns, drugs, money and murder. 

“Gangs have their own language to represent who they are and to show their camaraderie,” says Savelli, a leading 

consultant who founded the NYPD’s gang unit and is now deputy director of the nonprofit East Coast Gang Investigators 

Association. 

“The slang they develop helps protect them from law enforcement. They also don’t want other criminals ripping 

them off.”Savelli says the emergence of small youth crews and the rising power of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) pose 

significant threats. 

“There’s more sex-trafficking and prostitution from last year,” he said. 

He noted that a federal gang-intelligence report on Oct. 12 noted that 48 percent of the crime nationwide is 

committed by gangs. 

No wonder Police Commissioner Ray Kelly recently called for doubling the size of the NYPD’s gang unit. 

Some of the 5,000-plus words and phrases in Savelli’s book, “Gang Related: Signs, Signals and Slang of Modern 

Gangs and Organized Crime” — a work in progress intended both for cops and general readers — have already made it 

into everyday use: bling, chilling and po-po, for example. 

Others, like bumble bee, a name the Latin Kings got in the 1990s when they wore puffy goose-down jackets in black 

and gold, are limited to the criminal community. 

Here, an A to Z guide of some of the terms Savelli highlights: 




Page 21 of 25 

Adidas: “All Day I Destroy a Slob.” This from the Crips, a gang of about 3,200 in New York who have taken to 

wearing T-shirts from the sports apparel company instead of identifying themselves with their signature blue hats and 

bandanas. The phrase is a boast aimed at their main rivals, the Bloods, a gang of 7,000 whom they derisively call “slobs.” 

Biscuit: A gun. “Ya gotta biscuit?” is used by street and motorcycle gangs. Other terms for gun: gat, nine (for the 9mm 

handgun), puppy (among Jamaicans) and pump (for shotgun). 

Crab: The Bloods’ term for Crips. “It’s a way to disrespect them,” says Savelli. Crab is the sexually transmitted 

variety. 

Drinking milk: A Crip term for targeting or killing a rival, stolen from the Bloods in the 1990s, when jailed Blood 

members devised a way to disrespect others in prison -- by stealing food off their tray or drinking their milk. It’s now used 

widely by various gangs. 

Elbow: Used by drug dealers to describe a pound (that is, “lb.”) of drugs. 

Fat Boris: A term among Russians organized-crime members for a scammer who will pose as an attractive woman 

online, seducing his target into accepting delivery on jewelry or other luxury good and sending the item to Europe. This 

allows the thief to hide his involvement in buying expensive merchandise with a stolen credit card. 

Ghetto star: A top street drug dealer, usually in a housing project. Term likely started with Harlem drug lord Nicky 

Barnes. “Fifty Cent was also a ghetto star,” notes Savelli. 

Hotel: Used as a dismissive term for jail by the Israeli Mafia, whose ultra tough, heroin-dealing members have been 

locked up in many prisons across the globe. “It’s just a place where they’re going to stay for a while,” Savelli says. 

Inca: a top leader in the Latin Kings, who have about 3,000 members in New York, predominantly Puerto Ricans 

concentrated in Brooklyn and The Bronx. There are believed to be five Incas in the city. 

Jumped in: An initiation beating. Beatings have fallen out of favor with some gangs but are still used by Bloods, 

Crips and Mexican crews. “You can cover up but you can’t fight back,” Savelli says. Survive it and you’re in. 

Kite: A jailhouse letter in the shape of a miniature kite. “They actually can ‘fly’ from cell to cell,” explains Savelli. 

“They look like kites on strings. It’s amazing. And the note is written in such small letters that they can write volumes. It’s a 

way to place your order for drugs or to get someone shanked.” 

Lampin’: A term for hanging out under a street-light, usually where drugs are sold. “That’s what kids do — that’s 

their turf, their territory,” says Savelli. Dates back to the 1960s. 

Mug: An Albanian gangster. Originated with Jimmy Cagney films, which referred to prison photos as mug shots. 

Overseas gangsters get many terms from Hollywood. “Jamaicans call themselves posses because of the spaghetti 

westerns of the 1970s,” says Savelli. 

Nickel: Five years in prison, a badge of honor and commonly used among gangs. “Average drug dealers do six 

months to two years, so if you’re in for five, there’s a chance you did a murder or a major drug case,” says Savelli. 

On point: Getting ready to fight. It’s a generic term but used most commonly by Bloods and Crips. “They’ll say, ‘Be 

on point,’ Savelli notes. “It also means to get your gun ready.” 

Picasso: Both a noun and a verb, it refers to the slicing up of one’s face in prison. “You’ll hear people say, ‘He’s so 

good with a knife, he’ll do a Picasso on you,’ ” says Savelli. The mark of a serious slashing is also called a “buck fifty.” That 

means at least 150 stitches. 

Queen: a female member of the Latin Kings. 

Rack: To steal. “Rack up” means to shoplift. 

Stack: Refers to both gang hand signals and speaking only by using them. “Some of these gangs can do the whole 

alphabet in their own signs or using American sign language,” says Savelli. “They could have a whole conversation without 

saying a word.” 

Terror Dome: Attica prison. A gathering place for hard-core killers, 

murderers, rapists and major drug dealers. Name comes from its violence and 

history of riots in 1960s and ’70s. 

Uryt: To kill or bury in Russian. “It actually means to bury a body — 

‘Bury this guy,’ ” says Savelli. Russian gangsters, notoriously ruthless, do fewer 

murders today than in the past as they concentrate on ID theft and financial 

scams. 

Ventana: A lookout among Mexican and Latin King gangs. It’s the 

Spanish word for window. 

Wanksta: A wannabe gangster, a pretender. Word is a cross between wanker and gangster. 

Xap Sam: A type of poker favored by Chinese gangsters. Played in the back of crime-controlled nail salons and 

massage parlors in Chinatown and Sunset Park, centers for prostitution and illegal gambling. 




Page 22 of 25 

Yubitsume: Punishment in the Yakuza Japanese mob in which a pinkie is chopped off. The Yakuza in New York 

maintain a low profile but are actively engaged in extortion and prostitution. It’s one of the biggest gangs worldwide, with 

some 200,000 members. 

Zoomer: A street gang term for someone who sells fake drugs to unsuspecting druggies. Gang members don’t like 

zoomers because they are bad for business and bring unwanted heat from law-enforcement. 

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/gangs_of_new_york_from_to_OUO9fsgBi75VcDQkYY5SuO/1 

Drug Smuggling Methods 

October 30, 2012, CBP U. S. Border Patrol Agents Seize Over $1M Worth of 

Marijuana Concealed in Coax Cable. Agents working roving patrol duties in the Zapata County 

area noticed a suspicious white 2001 Ford F-250 truck pulling a 16 foot trailer loaded with 12 

spools of coax cable near San Ygnacio, Texas. The agents approached the trailer and noticed 

that it was swaying from the northbound lane to the shoulder and back. As they drove even 

closer, the driver appeared surprised when he saw the marked Border Patrol Unit and tapped on 

his brakes, jerking his steering wheel towards the shoulder of the road. Agents also noticed the 

tail gate of the truck had F-150 model decals and the side panels had F-250 decals. Border 

Patrol agents then conducted a vehicle stop on the truck in order to conduct an immigration 

inspection. Due to several discrepancies in this situation, a service canine was dispatched to 

perform a cursory inspection of the vehicle which resulted in an alert. 

The driver, identified as a 30-year old male U.S. Citizen from Laredo, Texas, was 

transported to the Zapata station for further questioning. The agents conducted an intensive 

inspection of the truck and trailer with the use of the x-ray which revealed anomalies within 

the spools of coax cables that were on the trailer. The substance inside the spools tested 

positive for marijuana. 

A total of 287 bundles of marijuana were extracted, with a total weight of 1,380.5 

pounds, with an estimated value of $1,104,400.00 USD. 

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/local/10302012_3.xml 

Comment/Analysis: Last month it was tire rims. The drugs were hidden inside metal collars which were attached 

to the rims of the tires of a vehicle that entered the port from Mexico. Two women from Albuquerque, New Mexico, were 

arrested. 

“Smugglers went to considerable length and expense to create these compartments,” said acting CBP Presidio Port 

Director Alex Leos. “These metal collars were cut and welded specifically to fit the rims of the vehicle being used in this 

failed smuggling attempt. This shows that smugglers are only limited by their imagination.” 


July 31, 2012, Advanced drug smuggling methods. A new technology makes it possible to make a product from 

cocaine for any department of a supermarket, including paper, clothes or plastic. The culprits have learned to process 

cocaine powder so that it cannot be detected and hide it in the most secret corners of a postal parcel and large 

consignments of food. http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_07_31/Advanced-drug-smuggling-methods/ 

January 29, 2011, Drug Smuggling Schemes Around The World. Earlier this month, Colombia 

police captured a carrier pigeon trying to fly into a jail with marijuana and cocaine paste strapped to its 

back, while last December, a German man reportedly disguised his marijuana plant with festive ornaments 

and twinkling lights. Dogs, snakes and even sharks are just a few of the animals also found to have acted 

as drug mules. Take a look at some wacky drug-smuggling methods around the world here: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/29/pot-catapult-creative-way_n_815069.html#s231312 

January 6, 2011, In pictures: Unusual drug smuggling methods. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12126390 




Page 23 of 25 

Could That Musca Domestica Be A Drone? 

November 25, 2012, Obama 'drone-warfare rulebook' condemned by human rights groups. New York Times reports 

administration attempting to set out circumstances in which targeted assassination is justified. 

President Barack Obama's administration is in the process of drawing up a formal rulebook that will set out the 

circumstances in which targeted assassination by unmanned drones is justified, according to reports. 

The New York Times, citing two unnamed sources, said explicit guidelines were being drawn up amid disagreement 

between the CIA and the departments of defense, justice and state over when lethal action is acceptable. 

Human-rights groups and peace groups opposed to the CIA-operated targeted-killing programme, which remains 

officially classified, said the administration had already rejected international law in pursuing its drone operations. 

"To say they are rewriting the rulebook implies that there is already a rulebook" said Jameel Jaffer, the director of 

the American Civil Liberties Union's Center for Democracy. "But what they are already doing is rejecting a rulebook – of 

international law – that has been in place since [the second world war]." 

He said the news was "frustrating", because it relied on "self-serving sources". The New York Times piece was 

written by one of the journalists who first exposed the existence of a White House "kill list", in May. 

ACLU is currently involved in a legal battle with the US government over the legal memo underlying the 

controversial targeted killing programme, the basis for drone strikes that have killed American citizens and the process by 

which individuals are placed on the kill list. 

Jaffer said it was impossible to make a judgement about whether the "rulebook" being discussed, according to the 

Times, was legal or illegal. 

"It is frustrating how we are reliant on self-serving leaks" said Jaffir. "We are left with interpreting shadows cast on 

the wall. The terms that are being used by these officials are undefined, malleable and without definition. It is impossible to 

know whether they are talking about something lawful or unlawful. 

"We are litigating for the release of legal memos. We don't think the public should have to reply on self-serving 

leaking by unnamed administrative officials." 

The New York Times said that, facing the possibility that the president might not be re-elected, work began in the 

weeks running up to the 6 November election to "develop explicit rules for the targeted killing of terrorists by unmanned 

drones, so that a new president would inherit clear standards and procedures, according to two administration officials". 

It went on to say that Obama and his advisers were still debating whether remote-controlled killing should be a 

measure of last resort against imminent threats to the US, or whether it should be more widely used, in order to "help allied 

governments attack their enemies or to prevent militants from controlling territories". 

Jaffer said he was sceptical about the significance of the debate outlined in the piece. He said: "The suggestion is 

that there is a significant debate going on within the administration about the scope of the government's authority to carry 

out targeted killings. I would question the significance of the debate. If imminent is defined as broadly as some say it is 

within the administration then the gap between the sides is narrow. 

"It matters how you define 'imminent'. The Bush administration was able to say it didn't condone torture because of 

the definition of torture. You might think that if someone says, 'I believe we should only use targeted killings only when 

there's an imminent threat,' you might think that sounds OK. But without terms like 'imminent' being defined it is impossible 

to evaluate the arguments." 

Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of Code Pink, an anti-war group, said the news that formal rules were being 

written for targeted killing was "disgusting". 

"That they are trying to write the rules for something that is illegal is disgusting" said Benjamin. "They are saying, 

'The levers might be in the wrong hands.' What about the way they are using them right now? There is nothing about taking 

drones out of the hands of the CIA – which is not a military organisation – or getting rid of signature strikes, where there is 

no evidence that people are involved in terrorist activities." 

In Pakistan and Yemen, the CIA and the military have carried out "signature strikes" against groups of suspected 

and unnamed militants, as well as strikes against named terrorists. 

Benjamin said she had just come back from Pakistan, where the "intensity of the backlash will take generations to 

overcome". 




Page 24 of 25 

The New York Times quotes an official who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was "concern that the 

levers might no longer be in our hands" after the election. 

In October, Obama referred to efforts to codify the controversial drone programme. In an interview with Jon Stewart 

on The Daily Show on 18 October, the president said: "One of the things we've got to do is put legal architecture in place 

and we need congressional help in order to do that, to make sure that not only am I reined in but any president is reined in, 

in terms of some of the decisions we're making". 

While Obama and administration officials have commented publicly on the legal basis for targeted killings, the 

program is officially secret. In court, government lawyers fighting lawsuits by ACLU continue to claim that no official has 

ever formally acknowledged the drones, and that there might not even be a drone programme. 

Two lawsuits – one by the ACLU and the other by the ACLU and the NYT – seeking information on the legal basis 

on targeted killing, are still pending. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/25/obama-drone-warfare-rulebook#start-ofcomments 

Comment/Analysis: See the November newsletter, Vol.2, Issue1, concerning the comment I made reference “The 

Law of Drone Warfare” rules. Not rocket scientist analysis, just plain common sense. 

Recommended Sites 

Open source information useful sites for researchers and analysts interested in global affairs. 

http://rieas.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=633&Itemid=41 

International Relations and Security Network (www.isn.ethz.ch) 

Based at the Center for Security Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), the ISN collects and 

manages resources from hundreds of different think-tanks, research institutes, international organizations, and government 

agencies in its digital library. It also publishes a daily news analysis service, Security Watch, and indexes the content of 

thousands of IR- and security-relevant websites. 

Newstin (www.newstin.com) 

An innovative news aggregation service that pulls content from thousands of different media sources from across the globe. 

Newstin’s language translation features also allow visitors to read information published by foreign news and information 

sources at the click of a button. 

Oxford Analytica (www.oxan.com) 

A premium rate strategic analysis and consulting service drawing on a network of university researchers and faculty 

members at Oxford and other major universities around the world. 

Online Research Tools http://whitepapers.virtualprivatelibrary.net/Online%20Research%20Tools.pdf 

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide - Completely Updated - July 2012 

http://www.llrx.com/features/ciguide.htm 




Page 25 of 25 

DEA SCAM ALERT -- EXTORTION SCHEME 

The Drug Enforcement Administration continues to warn the public about criminals posing as DEA special agents or 

other law enforcement personnel. This criminal activity continues to occur, despite significant public attention to the illicit 

scheme. DEA offices nationwide regularly receive telephone calls from concerned citizens who are the victims of this 

extortion effort. 

The criminals call the victims (who in most cases previously purchased drugs over the internet or by telephone) and 

identify themselves as DEA agents or law enforcement officials from other agencies. The impersonators inform their victims 

that purchasing drugs over the internet or by telephone is illegal, and that enforcement action will be taken against them 

unless they pay a fine. In most cases, the impersonators instruct their victims to pay the "fine" via wire transfer to a 

designated location, usually overseas. If victims refuse to send money, the impersonators often threaten to arrest them or 

search their property. Some victims who purchased their drugs using a credit card also reported fraudulent use of their 

credit cards. 

Impersonating a federal agent is a violation of federal law. The public should be aware that no DEA agent will ever 

contact members of the public by telephone to demand money or any other form of payment. 

The DEA reminds the public to use caution when purchasing controlled substance pharmaceuticals by telephone or 

through the internet. It is illegal to purchase controlled substance pharmaceuticals online or by telephone unless very 

stringent requirements are met. All pharmacies that dispense controlled substance pharmaceuticals by means of the 

internet must be registered with DEA. By ordering any pharmaceutical medications online or by telephone from unknown 

entities, members of the public risk receiving unsafe, counterfeit, and/or ineffective drugs from criminals who operate 

outside the law. In addition, personal and financial information could be compromised. 

Anyone receiving a telephone call from a person purporting to be a DEA special agent or other law enforcement 

official seeking money should refuse the demand and report the threat. 

Report Extortion Scam: 1-877-792-2873 

Fair Use Notice 

This newsletter contains copyrighted material which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The material is being made 

available for purposes of research, informational, and educational purposes for readers of the newsletter. This constitutes a "fair use" of such copyrighted 

material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. 

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material used in this newsletter is made available without profit to those readers who have 

expressed an interest in receiving the information for personal use, research and educational endeavors. Users of this newsletter who wish to use 

copyrighted material from these entries for purposes that go beyond fair use must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Additional guidance can be 

found at http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

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