Mexico's criminal insurgency hits Phoenix

CBS:

It's a phone call few Americans will ever hear: "He's going to lose his finger, don't let him lose his life."

That's the terrifying sound of a kidnapper demanding money in exchange for the life of a loved one. It's to believe but calls like these come in virtually every single day in Phoenix, Ariz., which last year set up a special task force to battle back, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports.

Lt. Lauri Burgett of the Phoenix Police Department's violent crimes bureau said: "the status of the problem is one that is going to explode across our country."

Just last weekend a mother and her 3-year-old daughter were kidnapped by Mexican meth dealers seeking money owed by the dad. She was eventually released unharmed.

So was another man, but only being tortured for three days by smugglers. His wife had to listen to his screams over the phone - as well as field a $100,000 demand for ransom.

"They tried to take out the eyes and the ears and the finger, also," she said.

In fact, law enforcement sources tell CBS News Phoenix has become ground zero for the explosion in the reported number of kidnappings and home invasions involving drug traffickers and criminals with connections to the Mexican drug cartels.

A CBS News investigation has discovered that as of last weekend, there have been 266 reported kidnappings and 300 home invasions this year alone. Sources say the real figures could run as much as three times higher because so many go unreported.

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Law-enforcement sources say the kidnappings signal the brutal expansion of the raging Mexican drug wars spilling across the border. And one map reveals just how widely Mexican drug organizations have spread across the country -- 195 cities in all.

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These guys come armed and equipped like a SWAT team. I have been expressing concern about the criminal insurgency in Mexico for years now and its influence appears to be spreading across the border in some areas. In Texas it has been more in the nature of corruption of border agents and local law enforcement along the border. Arizona is going to have to put more law enforcement on the streets to deal with this problem.