Page 12 - AT

A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 29 augusT 2019
Mexico's Playa Bagdad mixes sun, sand and drug trafficking

By MARIA VERZA actively collaborating with
PLAYA BAGDAD, Mexico U.S. and Mexican federal
(AP) — At the very eastern authorities to combat car-
end of the U.S.-Mexico bor- tels, often by sharing infor-
der there's a long strip of mation.
sand where the Rio Grande These days though, the
meets the sea. It is called only law enforcement The
Playa Bagdad — or 'Bag- Associated Press saw were
dad Beach.' four state police officers
Unlike the Tijuana-Imperial who rode through quickly
Beach border on the west- on two ATVS and just as
ern end, here there are quickly left.
no steel pilings marching According to the DEA,
out to sea to stop migrants small fishing boats load
from swimming, wading or drugs in Playa Bagdad and
paddling across to the Unit- run it up the coast to Pa-
ed States. dre Island, in Texas. Other
In Playa Bagdad, which is boats are known to drop
spelled 'Playa Baghdad' off goods which are then
by the Drug Enforcement loaded onto vehicles and
Agency, it's apparently un- taken into the U.S. by high-
necessary: This is a beach way.
for drugs and crime, not mi- Some of the border cross-
grants. ings themselves are under
As attention focuses on the de facto cartel control on
migrant crisis along the bor- In this Aug. 2, 2019 photo, seagulls fly over food trucks in Playa Bagdad close to the mouth of the the Mexican side.
der that has drawn harsh Rio Grande, near the border city of Matamoros, Mexico. One man who was fishing
rhetoric and actions from Associated Press with friends at the mouth
President Donald Trump, of the Rio Grande, recalled
Playa Bagdad seems to grants away. one story which maintains business anymore because seeing a would-be border
have escaped notice. "They want to keep the that the U.S. Army might everything was controlled crosser who cartel gunmen
Here, there are no walls or heat off this spot," said Mar- have stationed some cam- by the mafia," Álvarez said. brought back from the river
border guards, just miles co Antonio Álvarez, a rail- els at Playa Bagdad during The city of Matamoros, between the two countries
of dunes and Gulf coast thin old man with a greying its experiments with those whose territory covers at gunpoint.
beaches marked only by beard and leather-like skin animals in the 19th century. Playa Bagdad, touts the "They pointed guns at him
simple wooden huts or aw- toughened by the sun. But contraband has always beach as a great tourist and brought him back," he
nings held up by sticks. Álvarez, who spent time in been here in one form or destination. said. "If you want to cross, it
The only highway ends U.S. jails for migrant smug- another. Centuries back, sil- But Álvarez said that drug is with them."
abruptly in a handful of gling, says he still gets paid ver was trafficked through. cartels completely control He was one of the few who
structures populated by $300 per month — he won't During Prohibition, alcohol it. were willing to talk, and
beachgoers looking for al- say by whom — to watch could be procured. And in "You have to pay them a even then, the conversa-
cohol and fishermen who the expanse of water and the 1980s and 1990s, it was quota and get their permis- tion died down every time
might catch sharks one two boats. marijuana and Colombian sion," he notes. a boat passed. "You never
day and unload cocaine "If people start crossing the cocaine that made its way For years, the violent state know who is listening," said
the next. river, you start seeing (CBP) across. of Tamaulipas, where Pla- the man, declining to give
On the U.S. side, there is patrol vehicles show up on DEA Special Agent Sammy ya Bagdad is located, has his name.
not much more besides a the other side," said Álva- Parks said Playa Bagdad been ruled by silence and There are more than 6,000
single Customs and Border rez, who usually sits shel- is now a center for load- fear, and the state govern- disappeared persons in
Protection checkpoint, a tered from the sun in the ing and unloading drugs ment itself is suspected of Tamaulipas alone.
gun store complete with shade of an old plywood bound for the U.S. market. having been infiltrated by "Mass graves have been
a shooting range, and a camper that once served "It is a short, easy route drug gangs, with two for- discovered in the Playa
SpaceX hangar where as a seafood stand. without much law enforce- mer governors currently on Baghdad area, and there's
some rockets that might Playa Bagdad appeared ment," added Vigil. trial on corruption charges. a local threat about being
reach Mars are being on maps in 1848, when the Of the 1,215 members of One of the key drug-cartels 'taken to the beach,' which
tested. The nearest city of border was drawn during the National Guard that operating in the area is the implies someone will disap-
Brownsville, Texas is 25 miles the Mexico-American War. Mexico has deployed to now-splintered Gulf Cartel. pear," said Parks, the DEA
(40 kilometers) away. Later, it became the sea- Tamaulipas, none are seen In 2000, the Gulf Cartel's agent.
Where the two countries port for cotton produced in in Playa Bagdad. They are armed enforcement wing, The only official presence
meet lies an expanse of Texas during the Civil War. mainly in the conflictive The Zetas, split and began is a sandbag guard post
water perhaps 25 yards (23 The origin of the settle- border cities further west an all-out offensive. The on the highway between
meters) wide, so shallow ment's name is lost to the along the Rio Grande Val- Zetas later split themselves Playa Bagdad and Mat-
that you could walk across annals of history. A ship ley. again, but still control the amoros, although locals
at low tide, but few people might have run aground Three decades ago, peo- westernmost part of the protested at the post this
do. and been looted there, a ple like Álvarez combined state, while the Gulf Car- month, saying it was only
The reason it's kept under scene that might have re- fishing with small-scale mi- tel has also splintered and used to demand bribes.
wraps is simple: Cartels tend minded some of the "Ali grant smuggling, guiding controls the east. For Álvarez, "the Guard"
to use these coastal plains Baba and the 40 Thieves." people across to Browns- The federal government doesn't mean President An-
for purposes like transport- Or the person who named ville for $20 per head. That did not respond to requests drés Manuel López Obra-
ing drugs — or as the DEA it might have been a fan of all ended in the 1980s and for comment, although the dor's National Guard either.
notes, dumping bodies "The 1,001 and Nights." 1990s. current state government Instead it means "former
clandestinely. And they put Mike Vigil, a former DEA op- "When they started to sell headed by an opposition- soldiers, marines and police
a premium at keeping mi- eration chief, remembered crack, you couldn't do party governor says it is who report to the gangs."q