Robert J. Bunker - Narcos Over the Border: Gangs, Cartels and Mercenaries

This book takes a hard hitting look at the drug wars taking place in Mexico between competing gangs, cartels, and mercenary factions; their insurgency against the Mexican state; the narco-violence and terrorism that is increasingly coming over the border into the United States; and its interrelationship with domestic prison and street gangs. Analysis and response strategies are provided by leading writers on 3GEN gang theory, counter-terrorism, transnational organized crime, and homeland security.

Narcos Over the Border is divided into three sections: narco-opposing force (NARCO OPFOR) organization and technology use, patterns of violence and corruption, and United States response strategies. The work also includes editors notes, foreword, strategic threat overview, and afterword. Specific topics covered include: narcotics trafficking and street taxation; cartel and gang evolution; Mexico futures; Los Zetas; street and prison gangs; social networking; corruption; firefights, raids, and assassinations; torture, beheadings, and narcocultos; and border violence.

This book was published as a special issue of Small Wars & Insurgencies.

Robert J. Bunker is CEO of the Counter-OPFOR Corporation, USA. He is an applied theorist focusing on non-state opposing force (OPFOR) research, analysis, and defeat strategies and Epochal Warfare studies. He was the 2006-2007 Futurist in Residence (FIR), FBI Academy, Quantico, VA and has counter-terrorism and red teaming experience. His publications include Non-State Threats and Future Wars; Networks, Terrorism and Global Insurgency; and Criminal-States and Criminal-Soldiers (all published by Routledge).

Gangs, Cartels and Mercenaries

Edited by Robert J. Bunker

First published 2011 by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2011 Taylor & Francis

This book is a reproduction of Small Wars & Insurgencies, vol.21, issue 1. The Publisher requests to those authors who may be citing this book to state, also, the bibliographical details of the special issue on which the book was based

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN13: 978-0-415-56072-6

Matt Begert has for the last eight years been the operations officer for the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center-West, a grant-funded field activity of the National Institute of Justice oriented to the efficient and effective use of technology in policing operations and tasks.* He is currently a supporting consultant to the Counter-OPFOR Corporation and the Terrorism Research Center as well as a project leader for a corporation in the aerospace industry, a member of the volunteer forces of the San Bernardino (CA) Sheriffs Department, and an executive board member of the National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue. He is a regular officer in the United States Marine Corps, not currently serving, with operational experience in infantry operations, special operations and tactical aviation and logistics as well as instructional experience in basic skills training, aviation weapons and tactics, and red team organization and operation. He has written and spoken on these subjects to law enforcement and public safety audiences throughout the US. He holds a BA in Anthropology and a BS in journalism/mass communications from the University of Kansas and is a graduate of the National Security and Strategic Studies curriculum of the Naval War College.

Pamela L. Bunker is a Senior Officer of the Counter-OPFOR Corporation. Her research specializations include extremists, radical environmental and fringe groups, pirates, ritual killings and religious cults. Her works have appeared in edited journals and books, encyclopedias, and subject bibliographies. She is currently working on a co-authored essay on pirates and narco gangs for The Routledge Companion to the Study of Insurgency and Counter Insurgency. She graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a BS in anthropology/geography and a BS in social science and from The Claremont Graduate University with an MA in public policy with additional post-graduate work completed there in comparative politics and government. Ms. Bunker also holds a Certificate in Terrorism Studies from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. She has presented to both national and international policing groups and past professional experience includes research and program coordination in university, non-governmental organization (NGO), and city government settings.

Robert J. Bunker is CEO of the Counter-OPFOR Corporation. He holds a PhD in political science from the Claremont Graduate University, five other university degrees, and has undertaken counter-terrorism related training He is a founding member of the Los Angeles Terrorism Early Warning Group (LA TEW) established in 1996 and has counter-terrorism operational planning experience. Professional experience includes university teaching at the graduate and undergraduate level, red teaming and field exercises, special research projects and consulting for numerous US law enforcement, military, and governmental organizations. He has given over 150 briefings and presentations throughout the US and overseas on terrorism and other non-state threat force related topics. He has over 200 essays and longer publications including the edited works Non-State Threats and Future Wars (Routledge, 2002); Networks, Terrorism, and Global Insurgency (Routledge, 2005); and Criminal-States and Criminal- Soldiers (Routledge, 2008). He has also co-authored, with Stephen Sloan, Simulating Terrorism II, forthcoming from Oklahoma University Press. He is currently working on a paper, based on earlier projections and LE/Gov presentations conducted from 2006-09, concerning the terrorist use of body cavity bombs against high-value targets.

Lisa J. Campbell is a Senior Intelligence Officer for the California Air National Guard. She is a graduate of the USAF Intelligence Officer Course at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas and holds a BS in geology from Cornell College, Iowa. She specializes in wartime air base operability, predictive threat analysis, and anti-terrorism and force protection. Ms. Campbell performs estimates on enemy conventional and asymmetric weapons systems that can be used against military airlift and provides recommendations to military commanders in situations including those taking place during overseas contingency operations. She has written articles and book chapters covering operational assessments of non-state groups, postmodern beheadings, and laser threats. Ms. Campbell is a member of the Los Angeles Terrorism Early Warning Group and has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.