Mexican Soccer Teams, Hooligans: The New Threat in Frisco?

Beware attendees at the Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, soccer hooligans and Mexican soccer teams could pose a homeland security threat.What dastardly devious schemes might these terrorists be hatching? Exploding soccer balls? Poisonous cleats?  Gloria Trevi? According to the North Central Texas Fusion Center which provides homeland security intelligence to law enforcement in a 16-county area “foreign soccer teams from all over the world play at Pizza Hut Park. They can bring their local gang and political issues with them. Hooliganism associated with sporting events has occurred in Brazil and Italy.”This is just one gem from the North Central Texas Fusion System, a terrorism and crime-prevention intelligence center run by the Collin County Department of Homeland Security.The threat assessment is written by Bob Johnson, the chief architect and operator of the fusion system. Johnson is a former chief scientist for defense contractor Raytheon Co. Many refer to him as Dr. Bob. He’s also known as the “Son of Sam” that’s U.S Rep. Sam Johnson, the conservative Republican congressman who has represented Collin County since 1992. (For more on Dr. Bob check out Forrest Wilder’s article in the Observer.)The chief product that Dr. Bob turns out are “Threat Models” which assess security threats to critical infrastructure in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex and surrounding counties. The Observer filed an open records request to get a sample of some of Dr. Bob’s wares. Dr. Bob’s research style is decidedly cut and paste and heavily reliant on the “Internets.”His Pizza Hut Park threat model warns of drug cartels and Mexican soccer teams. “At least one of the soccer teams in Mexico is owned by drug cartels. With the great enthusiasm for soccer in Central and South American countries associations between teams and organized criminal groups and drug cartels may exist…Also drug and prostitution related activities may take place when such groups attend events.”

(Using some Dr. Bob-style research methodology, I found in a Google search mention that Wenceslao Álvarez, a reputed leader of “La Familia,” a drug gang based in Michoacán state owned the Racoons, a minor league soccer team. Alvarez was sent to prison in 2008.)

The threat model rockets from there into a 10-page rambling thesis on high level Mexican dignitaries that might possibly attend a soccer game at Pizza Hut Park therefore risking assassination, to threats from Asian gamblers. He also makes the assertion that soccer players from war-torn countries are more violent on the playing field. (There’s even science and a graph and stuff to prove it.) Our tax dollars hard at work folks. Since 2004, Dr. Bob and his wife Anita have received $1.1 million in no-bid contracts.You might remember Dr. Bob as the guy who alerted 2,000 cops, fire marshals, and public health officials in the Dallas-Fort Worth area last February that Middle Eastern terrorists and “their supporting organizations” had gained a stronghold in America. Remember, if you are anywhere near Pizza Hut Park in Frisco be on the lookout for Argentinean soccer hooligans and terrorist groups such as the FARC. Personally, I’m more afraid of Gloria Trevi.