Breitbart – by ILDEFONSO ORTIZ
A Department of Public Safety (DPS) report states that Mexican drug cartels are among the “most significant” threats facing Texas. Mexican drug cartels continue to operate throughout Texas carrying out violent attacks throughout the state as well as controlling the flow of illegal aliens and drug trafficking, the report states.
Texas’ top law enforcement agency places the spread of Mexican drug cartel operations across the state as one of the top current security threats. The meteoric rise to power of Mexican cartels is attributed to a porous border as well as the unending demand for drugs, commercial sex and forced labor, the agency wrote.
The stern warning came in a leaked report from DPS to state lawmakers requesting additional funding for the current border surge where hundreds of state troopers patrol the Rio Grande Valley. The request comes in response to an unprecedented spike in human smuggling and drug trafficking activity along the border. The report was first published by the Houston Chronicle.
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, the report addresses the operational presence of cartels throughout the state. It also addresses the issue of illegal aliens with ties to terrorist organizations who have made their way into the country and are working to smuggle in other potential terrorists.
“There is ample and compelling evidence that the Texas-Mexico border is not secure, and this lack of security undermines public safety and homeland security in every region of the state,” the report states. “Mexican cartels constitute the greatest organized crime threat to Texas … Mexican cartels control virtually all illegal smuggling activities through the U.S.-Mexico border and continue to supply most of the illicit drugs in the U.S. market.”
Some of the many violent acts carried out by drug cartels include multiple kidnappings across the nation where the criminal organization targets the relatives of individuals believed to have either stolen or lost a drug load, the report revealed.
Other criminal acts by cartel members in Texas that raise red flags for law enforcement include:
- A May 2013 murder in Southlake where three cartel hitmen spent two years preparing the execution of a Mexican lawyer who represented members of the Gulf Cartel. To carry out the murder, the hitmen, two of whom were former Mexican, cops spent a long time tailing the individual and setting up a complex surveillance network of video cameras to track his movements. Breitbart Texas previously reported on the arrest of these cartel hitmen.
- In July 2014, two Edinburg police officers were injured in a fierce firefight with a member of the Texas Syndicate. These gang members were working for the Gulf Cartel in the border town of La Joya. The officers had been trying to arrest the man in connection with the execution of a 19-year-old in relation to a drug deal gone bad. The teen had been shot in the back of the head. In addition to the report,Breitbart Texas also reported on that shootout.
- In November 2013, members of the Gulf Cartel wearing vests with insignia from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office carried out a series of home invasions in Las Milpas. The cartel members passed themselves off as law enforcement as they burst in through the door holding residents at gunpoint and demanding cash and drugs. The gunmen made off with at least $100,000 in cash in one of those raids.
- In June 2013, La Joya police rescued five illegal immigrants who had been kidnapped by a man claiming to be a cartel member. The man had been holding them for ransom.
Mexican cartel members have also taken advantage of the recent increase of illegal aliens trying to get to America who have arrived in their territory. In addition to making a profit by getting them into the country, cartel members are using them to tie up law enforcement by sending them as bait while drug smugglers are able to move narcotics with little problem, the report revealed.
“There is ample and compelling evidence that the Texas-Mexico border is not secure,…”
Nor is it intended to be.
Cheap labor takes precedence.