You have to admit that a crime syndicate named the Knights Templar cartel has an awesome ring to it.
The Catholic origins of the name and all that it conjures of medieval soldiers who wrought the horror of the Crusades in their remorseless conquests displays a degree of historical perception and allegiance on the part of Mexican drug cartels that is striking.
In Mexico. cartels have transcended a level of cultural existence that even the United States DEA seems quite jocular when contrasted against.
A gratuitous dose of intelligence and cunning ruthlessness will destroy most in its path.
MEXICO CITY — Officials say 10 people have been found shot to death in a rural area in the Mexican state of Guerrero.
The state prosecutor’s office said the group of men and women were found slain Sunday afternoon by soldiers responding to reports of a shooting in San Pablo Oriente, a village near Guerrero’s border with Michoacan state.
The Knights Templar cartel, which controls much of Michoacan, has been fighting rivals along its borders with other states including Guerrero, where a variety of smaller cartels control drug-smuggling and other criminal activities.
Officials in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa said four municipal police offers and three civilians were found shot to death Monday morning in the southern town of El Rosario. Officials said the seven had been kidnapped on Sunday night.
Interesting.
Others have also borrowed the name, including a branch of Freemasonry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar_(Freemasonry)
Ah, the Freemasons. This is historic epoch I know very little about. I’d like to read up on it.
The funny thing is, Freemasons are mostly Protestants or deists; the Catholic Church forbids its members to join. So it’s weird how these particular Freemasons invoke a very Catholic organization in their name. And within the Freemason Knights Templar, is an order called the Order of Malta – not to be confused with the real Knights of Malta, or the St. John’s Ambulance people (i.e. the Venerable Order of St. John, Protestant), or the other Protestant organization, the Order of St. John.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_Malta_(disambiguation)
Will and SE, what you don’t realize is that the RC’s eventually turned on the Knights Templar. In fact, if one pursues the York Rite of Freemasonry, becoming a Knight Templar is the highest degree. But to confuse you more, really the third degree, that of Master Mason is the highest and everything else is just learning more about the Craft. York Rite is decidedly Christian while the Scottish Rite is more broad in that any Master Mason can pursure their degrees.
Ironic that Mexican nominally RC gangstas would choose such a name.
Hmm. Let’s start a conspiracy!
WTF is the “craft?”
Sounds hobgoblin-ish.
That’s another term for Freemasonry; if you ever watch the old movie ‘The Man Who Would Be King’, you’ll see Freemasonry referred to thus.
BTW, if you want conspiracy theories, that’s got a doozy of one in it. Plus young Sean Connery and Michael Caine – can’t go wrong!
That’s true, Mark; I did know, but had forgotten, how the R.C.C. had turned on the Knights Templar; I suppose analogous to how they came to oppose Freemasonry, too.