The short answer is that little highway running across the Nevada/Cali border.. and I was already interested in the cell in Weed. And Arizona, which was cut off from the east, theoretically, when a few trails were shut down.

Even the summary however was not enough for me to “get” the Weed - Ashland message. Maybe a little more please.

A long, long time ago, Trump declared some harassment of Venezuela and NK. This pretty much broke him with his isolationist promises, and geographically, suggests the spectre of extreme expansionism.

Apparently...

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-venezuela-trump-invasion-20180704-story.html

...he just hates brown people.

It wasn't exactly subtle. Moving through a known port of entry

https://venezuelanalysis.com/News/13656

...they kind of rang all the alarm bells for anyone who was looking.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-05/11/c_137170867.htm
http://theconversation.com/in-brazil-religious-gang-leaders-say-theyre-waging-a-holy-war-86097
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/22/brazil-lgbt-violence-deaths-all-time-high-new-research

...briefly pissed off anyone who has a right to be on this board...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/tomorrow/child-labor-in-bolivia-is-legally-permissable-a-1130131.html

...and after that failed, swung north...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/02/us-silent-as-honduras-protesters-killed-in-post-election-violence
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/22/journalist-among-25-killed-as-unrest-escalates-in-nicaragua

Gruesome and fairly random murder works great as an announcement that "we arrived, and are implementing the mission." It's anonymous if done right, and if extreme and brutal enough, gets reported. The Truckee murder fits the announce perfectly, and fits the timing, geographic location, and the like.

This... pretty well generates a geographic and chronological order of the advance of a criminal paramilitary, and in the course of doing so, establishes the route to the cell in Weed, establishes corruption in Az is not in fact run by a N. American overland route, and, well, extremely noteworthy corruption in LV, coupled with the announce being an act of violence just over the NV/CA border, pretty well establishes the route.

It's even more glaringly obvious when watching an army one is already tracking march in realtime.

Here's a charming little website...

http://www.soaw.org/border/

...even if it usually applies more to illegal interventions like this.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/05/world/el-salvador-police-intl/

:)

Their prior actions have established quite well that these folks are not our friends...