Tag: cartels

Gulf Cartel Operates Alternative Government in Mexican Border City

With almost complete impunity, the Gulf Cartel expanded its control in Tamaulipas to the point where it operates as an alternative government in the border city of Matamoros. Through this control, all businesses, including food vendors, flower shops, and even panhandlers, are required to pay a weekly protection fee to the Gulf Cartel. The cartel operates a massive database of the city’s commerce and even uses city officials to collect the funds.

This control is very convenient for local and state politicians who enjoy the narco-peace of sorts that comes from simply allowing the Gulf Cartel to operate undisturbed in exchange for keeping violence down and hiding its presence in the shadows. This control, while currently being overlooked by Mexico’s federal government since political allies control Tamaulipas, could spell trouble since the Trump Administration labelled the Gulf Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

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CIA To Unleash ‘Finely Tuned Machine’ To Destroy Mexican Cartels

It was only a matter of time until the CIA became involved in the Trump administration’s war on Mexican drug cartels. According, and is formulating a ‘finely tuned machine’ to help disrupt one of the deadliest criminal networks in the world. 

Specifically, the CIA is establishing the Americas Counternarcotics Mission Center, combining its counternarcotics and Western Hemisphere teams to enable faster, more effective collaboration, CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis (formerly Rumble general counsel) told Breitbart, adding that the mission is to become a “finely tuned machine” to dismantle cartels, labeled foreign terrorists by the Trump administration. According to Ellis, the agency will leverage its 25 years+ of expertise in targeting jihadist networks to disrupt the cartels’ international operations.

“The drug trafficker is a savvy, sophisticated adversary,” the CIA official told the conservative publication. “[We’re] looking further upstream to identify those networks beyond our borders and dismantle them.”

“It’s a whole of government effort,” he added, before underscoring that the agency’s operations may remain covert due to their sensitive nature.

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Trump administration weighs drone strikes on Mexican cartels

The Trump administration is considering launching drone strikes on drug cartels in Mexico as part of an ambitious effort to combat criminal gangs trafficking narcotics across the southern border, according to six current and former U.S. military, law enforcement and intelligence officials with knowledge of the matter.

Discussions among White House, Defense Department and intelligence officials, which are still at an early stage, have included possible drone strikes against cartel figures and their logistical networks in Mexico with the cooperation of Mexico’s government, the sources said.

Still, the administration has made no final decision and reached no definitive agreement about countering the cartels. And unilateral covert action, without Mexico’s consent, has not been ruled out and could be an option of last resort, the sources said. It is unclear whether American officials have floated the possibility of drone strikes to the Mexican government.

If Mexico and the United States proceed together with drone strikes or other action, it would not be the first time they have launched a joint effort to take on the cartels, nor would it be the first time that American military and intelligence worked in concert with Mexico’s law enforcement and army.

But what the Trump administration is contemplating could be unprecedented both in the number of U.S. personnel involved and in the use of American unmanned aircraft to bomb cartel personnel and assets.

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US strikes hard against the Sinaloa Cartel: Sanctions six individuals and seven entities, blocking its financial network.

The US Treasury Department delivered a devastating blow to the Sinaloa Cartel, sanctioning six individuals and seven entities involved in a money laundering network, as announced by Secretary Scott Bessent.

These sanctions, aimed at dismantling the cartel’s financial operations, target a network of front companies and shell corporations operating along the US-Mexico border, using currency exchange businesses and bulk cash transfers.

The Sinaloa Cartel, designated as a foreign terrorist organization under the Trump administration, is responsible for trafficking massive amounts of fentanyl into the US, a poison that has killed thousands of citizens and destroyed families.

Bessent stated that laundered money is the “lifeblood” of this “narco-terrorist enterprise,” vowing to use every available tool to punish those who support these criminals.

This move adds to Trump’s pressure on cartels, who weeks ago classified Sinaloa and seven other Hispanic America criminal groups as terrorist organizations, although analysts doubt this will enable direct military action in Mexico.

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CIA Flying Drones Over Mexico – Where Are The Spies?

Multiple news outlets are reporting that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is flying drones over Mexico to collect intelligence on drug cartels and fentanyl labs. Leaving aside for a moment the question of why the much bigger Department of Defense is not doing this, here are my questions. Where are our spies? Why are we reduced to taking pictures from the air to attempt to acquire intelligence on transnational terrorist organizations operating inside Mexico and, in fact, in our largest cities? Why don’t we have the cartels penetrated at every level by human sources?

It is the job of the CIA to crawl into the belly of the beast and obtain critical intelligence on the most serious threats facing this nation. It does not exist to produce lukewarm assessments saying that we have moderate confidence that North Korea remains to the north of South Korea. It exists to steal the crown jewels, to put on the desk of the President of the United States every day intelligence no one else on the planet has, and which gives the President a decisive advantage over our adversaries.

In its current incarnation, the CIA does not do that. It does not come close. It has superb personnel in most cases. Relative to its competitors it is awash in money and technical gear. It has however calcified over the years into a timid, risk-averse, bureaucracy run by people who rarely leave Northern Virginia and never met a PowerPoint presentation they didn’t like.

We were blindsided on 9/11 by a group that had been telling us about every five minutes for at least a decade they intended to attack us on our own soil. It took us ten years thereafter to track down Bin Laden principally because he had the good sense to stay off the internet and his cellphone, and we didn’t have any sources worthy of the name inside his organization.

In 2020 we were hit by a pandemic that almost certainly originated inside a Chinese bio lab that should have been at the very top of our list of collection requirements. We had no advance warning. Five years later we apparently still don’t have the intel we need to figure out what happened or if it is about to happen again.

Is DEI part of the problem? Yes, but the problem goes much deeper than that. We are attempting to conduct espionage using a bureaucracy that increasingly resembles the Social Security Administration.

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Former federal officer sentenced for smuggling aliens and receiving bribes from cartel

A former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer has been sentenced to federal prison in two separate cases for allowing aliens and cocaine across the border, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.

Emanuel Isac Celedon, 37, Laredo, pleaded guilty March 11, 2024, for his role in illegally smuggling illegal aliens into the United States through the Lincoln Juarez Port of Entry (POE) in Laredo. He also admitted to bribery and attempted importation of cocaine for accepting money to allow what he thought was cocaine to cross into the United States from Mexico. 

U.S. District Judge Diana Saldana has now imposed a total of 117 months in prison for both cases to be immediately followed by four years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a money judgment of $17,980. At the hearing, the court noted Celedon’s job was to protect the United States from introduction of controlled substances and people not authorized to be in the country, and that he had failed in both regards. Judge Saldana added that Celedon was deeply involved in the organization and appeared to want to go even deeper.

“Anybody who aids or works for the cartel is going to find themselves on the wrong end of a federal indictment,” said Ganjei. “This case was especially troubling given the position of trust the defendant held. His criminal conduct stands in stark contrast to the heroic work the men and women of CBP are doing every day to keep our border and ports secure.”

While employed as a CBP Officer in Laredo in 2023, Celedon sought contacts within the Mexican criminal organization known as the Cartel del Noreste in order to smuggle drugs and aliens through his inspection lane in exchange for monetary payment.

During an undercover operation, Celedon expressed his interest in smuggling cocaine for payment, provided his duty schedule and gave instructions directing a loaded vehicle to his inspection lane at the port of entry. He then allowed the vehicle to safely cross into the United States. 

Using his position as a CBP officer, Celedon allowed several kilograms of what he believed to be cocaine into the United States on two separate occasions in October 2023. In exchange, he received $6,000.

Further investigation revealed Celedon also conspired with at least three others to bring illegal aliens into the United States without inspection. Celedon provided his daily lane assignment to Mexican national Homero Romero-Hernandez, 32, who passed the information to Jose Osvaldo Zapata-Vasquez, 25, another Mexican national with ties to the cartel. Zapata-Vasquez hired Cotulla resident Beatris Guadalupe Martinez, 22, to act as the driver.

Zapata-Vasquez relayed instructions to Martinez based on information Celadon provided regarding when to pick up the aliens in Mexico and which lane to approach when making entry to the United States.

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Canadian Banks Linked To Chinese Fentanyl Laundering Risk US Treasury Sanctions After Cartel Terror Designation

In an explosive interview with The Bureau’s Sam Cooper, David Asher – a former senior U.S. State Department official with close ties to the Trump administration’s financial and national security apparatus—issued a stark warning: Canadian banks could soon face a “new universe” of regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. Treasury. This follows the formal designation of Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa group, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). According to Asher, the command-and-control structure for laundering proceeds from synthetic narcotics—produced using Chinese precursor chemicals—is largely orchestrated by Chinese triads operating out of Canada.

Asher warned that these transnational crime gang nexus seriously threatens both U.S. national security and the stability of the North American financial system. 

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Under Trump CIA Escalates Role In Failed Mexican Drug War

Donald Trump has found a new mission for the CIA—ramping up secret drone flights over Mexico to track and hunt down leaders of Mexico’s drug cartels.

The New York Times reported in mid-February that the CIA’s covert drone program over Mexico, first initiated by the Biden administration, has proved useful in helping the Mexican government to locate fentanyl labs, which emit chemicals that make them easy to find from the air.

During the 2024 election, Trump called for the death penalty for drug dealers. Then on January 20, he signed an executive order calling for a major crackdown on Mexico’s cartels, which have been designated as a foreign terrorist organization—a label that sets the groundwork for potential U.S. military operations directed against them.[1]

On February 28, the Trump administration secured the extradition of 30 prominent Mexican cartel leaders, including Rafael Cara Quintero, a founding member of the Sinaloa drug cartel who was convicted in Mexico of masterminding the 1985 assassination of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.[2]

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Radars Deployed To Mexico Border To Detect Cartel Drones

The U.S. Army is contributing ground-based radars to help spot and track drones as part of the continued build-up of U.S. military support along the U.S.-Mexican border. Drug cartels in Mexico have been steadily increasing their use of weaponized uncrewed aerial systems, as well as unarmed types for surveillance and smuggling. There are also growing concerns about the threats drones pose to the U.S. homeland, especially military bases and other critical infrastructure.

The Department of Defense released pictures earlier today showing members of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum in New York State, training with the AN/TPQ-53 and AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radars in Arizona. The 10th Mountain is one of a number of units from across the U.S. military that has sent personnel and material to support the enhanced border security mission that kicked off after President Donald Trump took office in January.

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Shocking Discovery of a CJNG Extermination Camp in Jalisco—Not a Single Mention from Mexico’s Cartel-Allied Government

In a chilling discovery that has shaken Mexico, the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco collective uncovered an extermination camp this week in the municipality of Teuchitlán, Jalisco.

The site, known as Rancho Izaguirre and allegedly operated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), contained three clandestine ovens, charred human remains, and hundreds of personal belongings, including approximately 400 pairs of shoes, clothing, backpacks, and a farewell letter.

Authorities estimate that at least 200 people may have been victims in this gross setting, a stark reflection of the rampant violence plaguing the country.

The discovery took place on March 5, following an anonymous call alerting the collective to the presence of human remains at the ranch, located in the town of La Estanzuela.

Accompanied by members of the National Guard, the searchers found a warehouse filled with scattered personal belongings. After hours of searching, they uncovered underground ovens and a brick slab designed to make detecting the crimes more difficult. Among the most heartbreaking findings was a letter signed by Eduardo Lerma Nito, a 20-year-old who had been missing since February 2024 in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco—giving faces and names to the victims of this tragedy.

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