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WATCH: Cartel Terror Erupts in Over One Third of Mexico as CJNG Exacts Revenge

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Cartel violence exploded across more than ten of Mexico’s 32 states on Sunday after the government of Mexico confirmed the death of Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, triggering roadblocks, gunfire, and burning vehicle attacks from the Pacific Coast to the Texas border.

The unrest forced airports to halt operations, highways to shut down, and U.S. officials to warn American citizens to shelter-in-place as CJNG gunmen launched coordinated retaliatory strikes nationwide.

As reported by Breitbart Texas, El Mencho’s death occurred during an enforcement operation conducted by special operations group soldiers with the Mexican Army. At 1:10 p.m. on Sunday, Mexico’s Secretary of National Defense confirmed El Mencho’s demise with the assistance of other military units, including the Mexican Air Force.

The violence erupted shortly after rumors of El Mencho’s death began to circulate early Sunday morning when cartel gunmen associated with the CJNG began constructing road blockades using semi-tractor trailers and civilian vehicles, some lit on fire, to impede traffic along major roadways in four key states controlled by the cartel.

The CJNG is one of several cartels in Mexico that have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration. Gunmen set multiple vehicles alight and set fire to commercial buildings, bringing traffic in several Mexican cities to a standstill in the border state of Tamaulipas. The violence soon spread to Guanajuato, Michoacán, and Jalisco. (Read more from “WATCH: Cartel Terror Erupts in Over One Third of Mexico as CJNG Exacts Revenge” HERE)

Drug Cartels Now Mexico’s 5th-Largest Employer

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Some 175,000 people now actively work for Mexico’s smuggling cartels, according to a shocking estimate that would make cartels the country’s fifth-largest private employer.

Rafael Prieto-Curiel, who led the research, said the cartels’ secret is their viciously efficient recruitment ability. He said the cartels hire more than 350 people weekly.

That helps them counter massive losses through arrests, killings and dropouts.

“Cartels, they need to have roughly 175,000 members. They cannot be much smaller because they would have collapsed. They cannot be much bigger because they would have grown so fast,” Mr. Prieto-Curiel said. “So they have to be roughly 175,000 members, which means roughly, just to put it into context, the fifth-largest employer in the country.”

He and his fellow researchers used computer models to peer into the country’s notoriously secretive cartels. They ran millions of permutations on the 150 cartels and evaluated their recruiting and losses to arrests, killings and dropouts. (Read more from “Drug Cartels Now Mexico’s 5th-Largest Employer” HERE)

Biden Admin Blasted Over Report of Suspected Cartel Gunmen Crossing Border, Eluding Capture

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A report about suspected cartel gunmen illegally crossing into the United States and eluding capture over the weekend sparked a fresh wave of condemnation against the Biden administration for its handling of the southern border.

Bill Melugin, a national correspondent for Fox News, broke the news on Tuesday in a post to X showing grainy, black-and-white images of men holding rifles running through a thicket. . .

The post quickly went viral, eliciting comments from Republican lawmakers and others who criticized the Biden administration for not doing more to secure the border.

“Joe Biden has empowered these vicious, deadly cartels giving them free rein over our border,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). “Our communities are forced to suffer the dangerous consequences of his refusal to follow the law.” (Read more from “Biden Admin Blasted Over Report of Suspected Cartel Gunmen Crossing Border, Eluding Capture” HERE)

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You’re Sorry? Gulf Cartel Apologizes, Turns Over 5 Members Tied to Americans’ Deadly Kidnapping

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A secretive faction of Mexico’s notorious Gulf Cartel apologized and turned in five members who they say are responsible for the broad-daylight kidnapping that killed two Americans last week.

The cartel’s Scorpions group said it “decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events” related to the March 3 abduction of four Americans in the border city of Matamoros, according to a letter leaked to the Associated Press by a Tamaulipas state law enforcement source.

The letter also claimed the five members “acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline” when they attacked victims Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams.

McGee and Williams were found injured but alive in a dingy shack on Tuesday after a four-day search. Woodard and Brown, however, had been shot dead.

The ambush, the letter states, went against the Gulf Cartel’s policy of “respecting the life and well-being of the innocent.” (Read more from “You’re Sorry? Gulf Cartel Apologizes, Turns Over 5 Members Tied to Americans’ Deadly Kidnapping” HERE)

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Cartel Hitman Who Decapitated Enemies Has Gone Missing From a US Prison

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A cartel leader and hitman fond of videotaping torture sessions and decapitating likely dozens of enemies has gone missing from a federal prison in Florida, where he was serving a 49-year sentence.

As of November, Edgar Valdez-Villareal, a Mexican American cartel leader, had been mysteriously removed from the federal Bureau of Prisons website. He is now listed as “not in BOP custody” even though his release date is not until July 27, 2056.

Valdez-Villareal, 49, is known by his underworld moniker “La Barbie,” and headed up the Los Negros, an enforcement group of the Beltran Leyva cartel — one of Mexico’s most ruthless underworld groups. At one point, he was a top lieutenant for the Sinaloa Cartel, run by convicted drug dealer Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman-Loera. . .

The question of why he is no longer in BOP custody was asked at the highest levels of the Mexican government last week.

“It’s very strange what is going on in the United States with Mr. Villareal, who is no longer registered among those in custody and we want to know where he is,” said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in a press conference. “There is no reason for him to leave prison because he was condemned to many years, unless there was some kind of an agreement.” (Read more from “Cartel Hitman Who Decapitated Enemies Has Gone Missing From a US Prison” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Do Not Forget the Sheriff’s Deputy Also Killed by Mexican Cartels – on U.S. Soil

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As Americans are finally realizing the danger of the Mexican cartels in light of the brutal murder of an American family 50 miles from our border, we should not forget that a California sheriff’s deputy was essentially killed by the cartels on our own soil. The murder of Brian Ishmael horribly shows that the cartels are not a Mexico problem, but a problem right here at home, caused by our failed border strategy, sanctuary cities, and the drug crisis. That few lawmakers have even heard of Brian Ishmael speaks volumes about the misplaced national security focus among the foreign policy elite.

El Dorado County is a beautiful, rural part of California in the heart of wine country. But thanks to a lack of border security, sanctuary state status, and recent pro-drug policies, this county is now a primary growing site for the Mexican cartels. Their contractors come in through our own border and are harbored by the pro-illegal alien policies of California.

“First I want to make something clear, and I ask that you, the media, please call this what this is … don’t soften it,” said El Dorado County Sheriff John D’Agostini at a press conference on Thursday. “This tragedy was due to an illegal alien, tending an illegal marijuana garden, who murdered my deputy. That’s what it is.”

The sheriff was referring to the October 23 murder of Deputy Brian Ishmael, who was allegedly ambushed by Juan Carlos Vasquez, who was guarding a marijuana growing site for traffickers back in Mexico. Four men were arrested in connection with the murder, and two of them are illegal aliens. One other suspect, Jorge Lamas, said he was being paid $150 a day by someone in Mexico to supervise the growing site.

Remember, we were told that legalizing marijuana would put the cartels out of business. Yet legalization, mixed with illegal immigration and sanctuary cities, is creating the worst outcome of all – not only are the cartels still in business, they are now growing their poison on our own soil and guarding it with armed men they easily get over the border and ensure are protected by California’s illegal policies.

Christopher Ross, Juan Carlos Vasquez, Ramiro Morales, and Jorge Lamas have all been indicted in connection with the marijuana growing site where Deputy Ishmael was murdered. Ross was the owner of the property, who originally called the police claiming someone was stealing from his “legal” growing site. What he didn’t say was that it was an illegal growing site being worked by Mexican nationals for the cartels. One of them, Juan Vazquez, allegedly opened fire on Ishmael when he arrived, fatally striking him in the chest.

“When Ross called into 911, he said he had a legal marijuana operation,” said U.S. attorney McGregor Scott at the press conference when announcing the indictments yesterday. “Well guess what, it wasn’t a legal marijuana operation. So, the fig leaf of legalization gives cover for those who operate in the black market to do their business.”

But how do cartels so successfully peddle their business here? It’s all through illegal immigration. “If you allow criminally minded illegal aliens to infiltrate our communities with more protections than our average citizens, they will take advantage of that and victimize our communities,” said Sheriff D’Agostini angrily.

The 22-year-old Ramiro Morales and 20-year-old Juan Carlos Vasquez are illegal aliens from Mexico. Vasquez was charged with murder, while Morales was charged with being an accessory after the fact to Ishmael’s murder. Morales reportedly entered the country illegally about six months ago, during the height of the Central American wave.

As the sheriff noted, thanks to the sanctuary policies, he couldn’t even get federal authorities into the jail to confirm their immigration status when he suspected they were illegal aliens. This is how so many murders get reported as domestic crimes when they are really tied to the Mexican cartels. If not for the fact that this occurred in a more conservative part of the state with a sheriff who opposes this policy, the immigration status might never have been publicized.

Morales came over the border just six months ago. The media would like you to see lovely “future Americans” for whom we should pay health care and education. Yet so many murders in this country are caused by illegal aliens but are never traced back to the border.

President Trump must demand that sanctuaries be punished in the budget bill and stake out the election on this issue. Sanctuaries are so toxic that even 71 percent of Tucson residents, who voted for Hillary Clinton by a 25-point margin, opposed efforts to thwart ICE deportations. Rather than avoid a fight with Democrats headed into the election, Trump should embrace it. After all, nobody wants to import and protect Mexico’s narco-culture in their communities. If Trump wants to win back suburban voters, this is the issue on which he should go for broke. (For more from the author of “Do Not Forget the Sheriff’s Deputy Also Killed by Mexican Cartels – on U.S. Soil” please click HERE)

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5 Actions Trump Can Take NOW to Reclaim Our Border from the Mexican Cartels

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Try to think of any other foreign entity – a country, terrorist group, or criminal group – that devastates our country as much as the Mexican cartels. They control our border – both sides of it – and have operatives in every state fueling the entire drug crisis, gangs, crime, and an endless flow of illegal immigrants who cause a massive fiscal drain and cultural transformation of our communities. Why have we gone to war with everyone but them? Will that change in light of the murder of Americans by the cartels?

It’s good that there is finally some media and policy focus on the Mexican cartels. Sadly, it came at the cost of an American family living in a Mormon community in Mexico. Three mothers of the LeBaron family were driving in three separate SUVs in two locations eight miles from each other in the Sonora province, just 50 miles from the international border with New Mexico, on Monday. Cartel gunmen opened fire on the three vehicles and then torched them, killing and burning the three mothers, as well as six children, including twin babies. Six other children were wounded, and there are reports some of them were initially kidnapped but managed to escape.

The president called for action against the cartels and implied he’d be willing to help Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) militarily against the cartels, a gesture that was rebuffed by the leftist president of Mexico. However, Trump can focus the fight on the cartels closer to home – at the border itself and in the interior of our country, where the cartels and their contractors are operating with impunity.

Here’s the reality of the cartels at the border that nobody realizes: They have created an entire business model on the premise that our government will not treat them as a hostile enemy. Were that to change, as powerful as the cartels seem today, they’d be crushed quite easily. Thus, Trump’s strategy should not hinge upon cooperation of AMLO and the Mexican military. We must seize control of our own destiny and at least protect our own country from the cartels.

To that end, here are five ideas the Trump administration should pursue:

1) Reorient the mission of Border Patrol and the military: The 9/11 commission staff reporton terrorism and travel warned that “no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal” and that even in 2004, it was “not considered a cornerstone of national security policy.” Sadly, that is still true today. Whether it’s the potential threat of Islamic terror, cartel terrorism that plagues our cities with drugs, gangs, and violence, or the espionage threat from the increasing presence of Chinese migrants, our State Department, Defense Department, and Department of Homeland Security still do not view our border as relative to our national security. That must change.

At present, CBP treats the border like a domestic law enforcement issue. This is why cartels can cross our border with impunity. As I’ve reported before, Border Patrol agents will not grab armed smugglers who have crossed our border and are an inch across the border in a belligerent posture as agents appear on the scene. They do not retaliate when shot at with automatic fire. The military is even worse. It is hamstrung from doing anything, and the cartels, knowing this fact, cross right in front of our troops.

The time has come for the military to be used at our border the way we use it to defend other borders. Our Founders envisioned a military for our own border, not for Afghanistan. Not enforcing immigration law or dealing with detainees, but holding the line right at the perimeter and striking hostile actions, whether through smuggling, drone espionage, or armed conflict. There is no reason the cartels should be operating scouts in Arizona’s mountains as deep as 70 miles into our territory. If we can’t secure our own soil, we are on our way to becoming like Mexico.

2) Shut off all immigration requests between ports of entry: We can’t have a global babysitting service operating in the middle of a war zone, especially when the cartels monetize that service for their operation. While the Trump administration is moving in this direction, there are still many people seeking status at the border. Trump must announce that until the cartels are neutralized, he is using his power under 212(f) of the INA to suspend all forms of immigration requests outside ports of entry. This will clear the field to fully counter the cartels, while also stripping them of their strategic distractions, source of revenue and drug smuggling, and ability to bring in a steady flow of contract gang members under the guise of “asylum” and “unaccompanied alien children” programs.

3) Designate the cartels as terrorists: The cartels need to be treated like al Qaeda with regard to apprehension within America, travel restrictions, prosecutions, and intelligence. Anything associated with them must be treated as an enemy. Part of why the war on drugs failed is because a war on an object doesn’t work. It’s not the drugs that are the problem, it’s the people. We need to stop this ambivalent treatment of the cartels. Trump can enact this tomorrow.

4) Declare war on sanctuary cities: It’s one thing to get drugs into the country one time; it’s quite another to operate a lucrative network in perpetuity without detection. Organized crime like drug trafficking and illegal immigration, which are interdependent, cannot succeed without political protection. There is clearly political protection at many levels, but one of the biggest is sanctuary cities. The Senate has not voted on a single sanctuary bill this year, and Democrats don’t feel the heat, even though 71 percent of liberal Tucson voters rejected sanctuary policies.

The real issue with the cartels is their ability to get their drugs and aliens reliably into the United States, then to market and realize a huge return in profit for their products. If they can’t get it to market, they can’t sell it, and they make no money. Sure, it is their reliable infrastructure that gets it across the border, which can be deterred by a military mindset at the border. But it is the people embedded inside the U.S. they trust to get it to market (and the money back), and it is shutting down that infrastructure that will stop this quicker and cleaner than anything else. Forget the war on the drugs, declare war on their infrastructure and keep the drugs from getting to market. There will always be drugs and addiction, but there is no reason they should be this ubiquitous and cheap if we actually enforced our laws.

5) Document cartel crimes and incidents: The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report is woefully outdated. It doesn’t capture the reality of 21st-century crimes, as cartel expert Jaeson Jones warned on my podcast last month. Jones helped command operations against the cartels as a captain in the Texas Department of Public Safety. He observed, “Our experience in Texas showed that you need data to drive the politicians to act. The outdated crime reporting needs to be updated to quantify cartel-related crimes. You’d be shocked at how many crimes that are reported as some domestic act are really external problems driven by the cartels.”

Indeed, El Mencho, the head of the Cartel Jalisco New Generacion (CJNG), is the most wanted man in the city of Chicago. According to the DEA’s 2018 threat assessment, the gangs contracting with Sinaloa and CJNG “are also responsible for a substantial portion of the city’s violent crime.” If our data actually quantified how much of the violence is driven by the cartels, it would dictate a change in policies.

The Trump administration can begin the fight against the cartels from our own turf. We have nobody to call on to bail out our own homeland. We are our only defenders. (For more from the author of “5 Actions Trump Can Take Now to Reclaim Our Border from the Mexican Cartels” please click HERE)

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Mexican Cartel Massacre of American Women and Children Was Targeted

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According to law enforcement officials and a family relative, the massacre of three American mothers, Rhonita Maria LeBaron, Christina Langford Johnson and Dawna Langford, and their six children in Mexico this week was targeted. Initially, it was reported they got caught in the crossfire between two rival cartels while traveling north to the United States.

“Nothing about that [attack] says unintentional hit,” a law enforcement official close to the situation tells Townhall, adding one of the women got out of her vehicle with her hands up in surrender before she was shot.

The official stated the family had received threats and reported them. The family also made statements against increased cartel violence in the region. . .

As more details about the attack emerge, experts on the region and cartel violence are weighing in on what happened.

“These [Mormon] sect members were residing in the area basically as guests of the cartel. They were tolerated, but they were also an irritant to the cartel. There’s not a chance in the world that this was random or some crossfire situation,” former Assistant to the FBI Chris Swecker told America’s Newsroom Wednesday.

(Read more from “Mexican Cartel Massacre of American Women and Children Was Targeted” HERE)

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Reported Cartel Drone Found near Border. Are We Prepared for This Very Real National Security Threat?

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Not only are the cartels weaponizing mass migration to tie down our border agents so they can bring in dangerous people and contraband, they are apparently monitoring the migrant flow in real time with spy drones.

A border agent in the Rio Grande Valley sector informed me that Border Patrol recovered a cartel drone on Sunday that crashed in La Grulla, Texas, near the river. “In the afternoon on June 9, 2019, Border Patrol agents were ‘sign-cutting’ a group of illegals south of the town of La Grulla, TX, when they encountered a drone laying in the brush,” said the veteran Texas agent, who must remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the press. “The lights on the drone were blacked out with electrical tape, so as to not be seen at night. This area has recently seen an influx of illicit trafficking.”

DHS officials have publicly said for over a year that the cartels are using the mass influx of family units to get in dangerous people away from the agents, but the use of drones further accentuates the point that this is much more of a strategic invasion than just an immigration issue. “The cartel is investing in technology to guide groups to a stash house or to a ‘load driver’ waiting to pick them up,” said the agent, who feels that he and his colleagues are being outmaneuvered by the dangerous insurgent groups operating on both sides of the border.

“First, they started giving the illegals smart phones equipped with land navigation apps and map overlays, along with battery chargers and a compass. This cut out the need for a ‘guide.’ Now, with the use of drones, the cartel can see us for miles. They can direct the groups of illegals away from agents and have the load driver go to them or choose a different stash house. They were already at an advantage with the amount of U.S. citizen [smuggling scouts]. Now they can direct movement from above in a 360-degree view and pinpoint accuracy, even in the thick brush or dense sugar cane. There is nowhere an agent can approach the group without being seen.”

The cartels now have a perfect system of technology and the weaponization of family units to ensure that our apprehension rate of the real bad guys is quite low. Just the previous Sunday, the agent said there were 347 “got aways” in this Texas County.

I reached out to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for confirmation of this incident and comment on the general use of spy drones by the cartels in the process of migration flows, but have not received a response. However, CBP did put out a press release on April 17 revealing that agents observed a “a small airborne object” traveling back and forth across the border several times one night in the El Paso sector. It said that approximately two minutes later, “a group of 10 subjects made an illegal entry into the U.S. in the same area in which the object had been traveling.” According to CBP, this was “the first known time in recent history that a drone has been utilized as a ‘look-out’ in order to aid in illegal entries in the El Paso Sector.”

I asked the agent if Border Patrol would ever shoot down these drones, and he said we would never do it in Mexican airspace nor target the individuals responsible. “The only policy we have regarding drones is if we catch the pilot we can arrest him if he doesn’t have an FAA license.”

However, the pilots all remain on Mexico’s soil, and most of the drones wind up staying in Mexican airspace after briefly breaching our airspace. In other words, the cartels can literally spy on our Border Patrol, National Guard, and military bases with impunity and direct an invasion using the real-time intelligence from spy drones, yet we will continue to respect “Mexican sovereignty,” when they are violating our sovereignty and their government has no control over the cartels anyway.

I spoke with Col. Dan Steiner, a retired Air Force veteran who coordinated military operations at our border for the Texas government alongside NORTHCOM, and he was very disturbed by the national security implications of this growing trend. “The drone sitting there and collecting information will only get smarter … and they will move on to the next level, if we stick our heads in the sands and only view this as ‘Mexico being Mexico’ and not a prime national security threat,” said the colonel on my podcast Tuesday.

“Our lack of response does nothing but embolden the cartels, which are terrorist groups. Given that we already know they work with Hezbollah, it’s likely they are helping them with technology in return. If we have terrorists flying drones on our border in order to circumvent our sovereignty on our border, what in the hell are we doing?”

Michael Braun, former chief of operations with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, previously warned in an interview with CR that “Hezbollah’s growing involvement in the global cocaine trade over the past decade has resulted in the formation of alliances with Colombian and Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”

Steiner explained on my podcast how it’s a no-brainer for the cartels to fly a drone near Juarez that can see into Fort Bliss, for espionage purposes. “When you give them the impression that they can gather any intelligence at our border, it’s a slippery slope and we would have no way of knowing if they are using it for other espionage while pretending to use it for migrants and drugs, which evidently our government doesn’t care about. They are in bed with terrorist organizations, and it’s time we treat them that way.”

It’s truly shocking how our government allows cartels to weaponize migration with strategic tools of espionage and warfare, yet we continue to believe asylum law somehow demands that we tolerate a strategic invasion. Trump can designate the cartels as terrorists tomorrow, direct operations against their assets, and refuse to allow in all migrants and asylum requests, not just with his immigration powers, but with his national defense powers. He needs to begin viewing this as the orchestrated invasion it is, not an immigration or asylum issue.

“The best invasions are the ones you never realize are taking place until it’s too late,” warns Col. Steiner. “Just ask the Romans.” (For more from the author of “Reported Cartel Drone Found near Border. Are We Prepared for This Very Real National Security Threat?” please click HERE)

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Our Open Border Has Turned Every American City Into a Border Town

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Transnational cartels and gangs are fueling violence, death, and drugs not only at our border, but in every community across America. That is the thrust of a new Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) drug threat assessment report: an indictment of open borders, sanctuary cities, and the so-called “criminal justice reform” jailbreak movement.

These cartels and illegal immigration now pose the gravest threats to our public safety. At the same time, because such violence is fueled by foreign nationals and cross-border organizations, it is our most fixable public policy issue if we merely followed our laws on immigration and criminal justice. Today’s drug traffickers are not only killing tens of thousands with the deadliest drugs, they are fueling much of the increased violence in a number of metro areas. Because most of them are foreign nationals, they can and should be deported immediately and deterred from coming back with a border wall and robust interior enforcement. But thanks to the amalgamation of court-driven magnets canceling our immigration laws, sanctuary state policies, and the growing jailbreak movement, the political elites view both drug trafficking and illegal immigration as “low-level” crimes. Consequently, we are needlessly failing to eliminate these grave threats.

It’s no secret that almost all the illicit drugs killing Americans and all of the violence associated with them are coming from the Mexican cartels pouring their poison and personnel over our southern border. However, a more recent trend over the past decade is that the cartels are using transnational gangs operating in our cities as the distributors and enforcers of their criminal activity and are fueling much of the violence all across the country. For a full hour briefing on this issue, listen to my interview with former Texas border official Jaeson Jones.

Here is a summation of the facts from the new DEA threat assessment report:

Mexican TCOs [transnational criminal organizations] continue to control lucrative smuggling corridors, primarily across the SWB [southwest border], and maintain the greatest drug trafficking influence in the United States, with continued signs of growth. They continue to expand their criminal influence by engaging in business alliances with other TCOs, including independent TCOs, and work in conjunction with Transnational Gangs, US based street gangs, prison gangs, and Asian money laundering organizations.

The six cartels identified in the report as the predominant threats are Sinaloa Cartel, Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generation, Juarez Cartel, Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas Cartel, and Beltran-Leyva Organization (BLO).

The distributors for the cartels in our major cities are either cartel associates themselves or Mexican transnational gangs such as MS-13, Nine Trey Gangsters, Mexican Mafia, Norteños, Sureños, and Latin Kings, or, in the Northeast, the Dominican gangs. These networks, according to the DEA, are “overseen by Mexican nationals or U.S. citizens of Mexican origin.” They “enter the United States legally and illegally and often seek to conceal themselves within densely-populated Mexican-American communities.” In the case of the Dominican traffickers, they “conceal their drug trafficking activities behind the cover of established ethnic Dominican communities in various parts of the Northeast,” most notably in communities within New York City and Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Given that so much of the drug trafficking and the associated activities are driven by foreign nationals, it would be easy to break up their networks. They should all be deported at the first sign of trouble. But they’re operating largely within sanctuary jurisdictions. This allows them to operate openly through the politics of the city and continue their “symbiotic, working relationship” to “remain the retail-level drug dealers for the Mexican cartels, often distributing drugs across the country,” according to the DEA.

Thanks to the lack of interior enforcement, the cartels will continue to suck us dry:

Mexican TCOs will continue to grow in the United States through expansion of distribution networks and interaction with local criminal groups and gangs. This relationship will insulate Mexican TCOs from direct ties to street-level drug and money seizures and drug-related arrests made by U.S. law enforcement.

And what about the other violence? It’s not just the 70,000-plus people dying from the drugs of the cartels. They are fueling so much of the increased general crime in our cities and even more rural areas.

Gang members serve multiple roles, including acting as hit men, providing protection, or trafficking illicit drugs back into the United States for sale and distribution. Besides drug trafficking, street gangs near the Southwest Border engage in a multitude of crimes, including weapons trafficking, alien smuggling, human trafficking, prostitution, extortion, robbery, auto theft, assault, murder, racketeering, and money laundering.

And what about the violence we hear about so much in Chicago? The reason there is more violence than usual over the past few years is because of the border, not just the domestic criminals:

The Mexican cartels provide a steady stream of drugs to the Chicago area. Though the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG are the city’s most notable sources of supply, other Mexican cartels that deliver drugs to the area include BLO, the Gulf Cartel, La Familia Michoacán (LFM), and Los Guerreros Unidos (LGU). Chicago is home to several street gangs that are heavily involved in drug distribution, and collectively these gangs serve as the primary mid-level and retail-level drug distributors for the cartels. These gangs are also responsible for a substantial portion of the city’s violent crime.

This immigration-driven cartel violence and drug trafficking, along with human smuggling, is not only taking place in large cities. Charlotte Cuthbertson of The Epoch Times did a superb expose this week on how several small counties around Greensboro, North Carolina, have become major hubs for “drug trafficking, overdoses, gang and cartel violence, and human trafficking.” What is the cause? All rival gangs working on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel, all coming from the border. As the Phoenix ICE office reported, 95 percent of those caught in Arizona (which is Sinaloa territory) go to the East Coast.

Some take solace in the fact that this is “merely” cartel-on-cartel violence. But do we really want American to become like Mexico? And do you really think it doesn’t affect the rest of us when this is going on in our communities? Derek Maltz, former head of the DEA’s Special Operations Division, told me that cartel violence on our soil is some of “the most extreme violence” he’s ever seen in our neighborhoods. “To see a photo of a human being wrapped in duct tape and burned to a crisp on the streets of Detroit was an eye-opening experience in understanding the level of violence the cartels use,” said Maltz. He also pointed out that they often get the wrong address of a stash house of rival gangs and wind up torturing completely innocent people to death in a home invasion.

This all stems straight from the border, drug trafficking, and the cartels. As the DEA report observes: “In many of the southernmost states, street gangs, especially the transnational

Hispanic gangs, exploit the Southwest Border, predominantly in California and Texas, traversing into Mexico to work with cartels.”

But it’s not just at the border. The cartel violence is everywhere:

According to the NGR, nearly 40 percent of law enforcement respondents surveyed reported that gangs in their jurisdictions partnered with drug trafficking organizations; generally, the gangs distributed drugs on behalf of the DTOs. The Sureños, Norteños, and Bloods ranked highest as the most active gangs with DTO alliances, while the Sinaloa Cartel had the strongest relationship with gangs throughout the United States.

Which brings us back to jailbreak. After reading this report, you can better appreciate the sophomoric nature of the arguments that we are arresting “low-level drug offenders” who need not be incarcerated and locking them up for years. In fact, anyone peddling this lie is ignorant of the changing dynamics of the drug crisis over the past decade. Look at the websites of almost every U.S. attorney in major cities, and you will see that the people they are arresting on drug charges are all vicious transnational gang members working for the cartels, not just to poison our people, but committing unspeakable violence in our communities, including human and sex trafficking right on our soil. Often, they are picked up on murder charges but are ultimately convicted on drug trafficking, wire fraud, and RICO. Yet under the “Frist Step Act,” which was just signed into law with hardly any debate, all of these people are eligible for early release and front-end sentencing reductions.

Right before Christmas, the U.S. attorney from eastern Virginia, a hot spot for criminal alien activity, announced charges against a Honduran illegal for transporting a 13-year-old for the purpose of sex abuse. Thanks to the immoral policies of the courts, Schumer, and Pelosi, he was incentivized to come here with the very girl he was abusing and used her to obtain the benefit of catch-and-release, whereby he continued to abuse her in Florida and Virginia. He will now be eligible for early release.

Where is any sense of morality in our political class – from the media and “humanitarian” groups to the politicians and religious institutions? Somehow, the very people who have caused and exacerbated the most evil crimes against Americans and helpless migrants are now the ones to dictate to us the non-solution. (For more from the author of “Our Open Border Has Turned Every American City Into a Border Town” please click HERE)

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