Phoenix, hit men dressed in fake police tactical uniforms burst into a home, rattle it with gun fire and execute a man

Phoenix, hit men dressed in fake police tactical uniforms burst into a home, rattle it with gun fire and execute a man. Armed kidnappers snatch victims from cars for ransom, turning Phoenix into the "kidnap capital" of the U.S.Violence like this is common in Mexico where drug cartel abductions and executions are a daily occurrence of a raging drug war that claimed 6,000 lives last year. Beheadings are common in Mexico.Execution style murders, violent home invasions, and a spiraling kidnap rate in Phoenix -- where one abduction a day occurred last year linked to Mexican drug smuggling -- are not the only examples of the Mexican drug war coming to America.In southern California, police have investigated cases of Americans abducted by armed groups tied to the Tijuana drug trade. One involved a businesswoman and her teenage daughter kidnapped in San Diego last year and held for ransom in Mexico.
In south Texas, a live hand grenade traced back to a Mexican cartel stash was tossed onto the pool table of a bar frequented by off-duty police officers in January. The pin was left in it and the assailant fled.Mexican dug traffickers have always been violent, but the death toll has soared since Felipe Calderon became president in late 2006 and sent thousands of military troops to fight Mexico's powerful cocaine cartels.Soldiers have fought fierce battles with drug gangs in several Mexican towns and overwhelmed police officers have quit. In many cases, police officers have been paid off by the drug gangs or even joined them.Calderon last week ordered 5,000 more troops and federal police to Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.The cartels have killed 250 people in Ciudad Juarez in the past month, forced the police chief to resign, and shut down the airport with bomb threats.The struggle by outgunned Mexican authorities to contain the violence was highlighted for Arizona police in November,when Mexican police officers pinned down in a raging gun battle in Nogales, Sonora, reached out to them with an urgent request for more bullets.