Tag: cartels

RC-135 Rivet Joint Surveillance Jet Just Flew Unprecedented Mission Off Mexico

AU.S. Air Force RC-135V Rivet Joint conducted a highly unusual flight in the Gulf of California between Mexico’s Baja Peninsula and the rest of that country yesterday, according to online flight tracking data. The strategic intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) plane looks to have done the same today.

The Rivet Joint is one of America’s most capable intelligence-gathering assets and the appearance of one off the Mexican coast is a significant development. This comes amid a major increase in U.S. military support to operations along the border with Mexico under President Donald Trump and talk of unprecedented direct action by American forces against drug cartels, which you can read more about in this separate TWZ feature.

Flight tracking software shows RC-135V serial number 64-14845 flew southwest from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to the skies over southern California on February 3. Offutt is home to the 55th Wing, which oversees the bulk of the Air Force’s Rivet Joint fleet along with an array of other ISR and highly specialized command and control aircraft. The jet then hooked south along the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula before flying up into the Gulf of California. The aircraft subsequently returned to Offutt following the same route, but in reverse.

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US Launches Reconnaissance Aerial Monitoring Aircraft Over Mexican Border in Run-up to Potential Cartel Strike

This ought to scare the hell out of the cartel drug lords on the ground.
The US is allegedly flying reconnaissance planes inside Mexico.

On his second day in office President Trump officially designated drug cartels on the southern border as terrorist organizations.

Last week Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that “all options are on the table” regarding the Mexican cartels.

President Trump is not fooling around with the Mexican cartels.

Aviacionline reported Monday (in Spanish) that US authorities are using high-tech aircraft over the border to strengthen surveillance over possible illicit activities.

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Mexican drug cartels plan attacks on Border Patrol agents with kamikaze drones and other explosives to fight US crackdown

Mexican drug cartels are ordering their members to attack US Border Patrol agents with kamikaze drones and other explosives in a desperate bid to thwart the crackdown at the border, according to an internal memo obtained by The Post.

The alert, which cites social media posts and other sources, cautions federal agents “to remain cognizant of their surroundings at all times” in the face of the new threat.

“On February 1, 2025, the El Paso Sector Intelligence and Operations Center (EPT-IOC) received information advising that Mexican cartel leaders have authorized the deployment of drones equipped with explosives to be used against US Border Patrol agents and US military personal currently working along the border with Mexico,” the internal memo titled “Officer Safety Alert” said.

“It is recommended that all US Border Patrol agents and DoD personnel working along the border report any sighting of drones to their respective leadership staff and the EPT-IOC.”

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CBP Memo Reveals Cartel Members Are Deploying Weaponized Drones for Potential Use Against CBP Officers

Cartels at the southern border are reportedly escalating violent threats against U.S. border and law enforcement officers, with social media posts encouraging violence and the authorization of weaponized drones for use against border officers.  

Copies of recent memos sent to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers detail the threats on social media, NewsNation reports.

Additionally, officers are warned that the cartels are expected to use drones armed with explosives.

This news comes as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently said, “All options are on the table,” when he was asked if the U.S. will use military force against the cartels in Mexico.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, President Trump also sent a message to “all who would attack Americans” on Saturday, stating, “WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!” after announcing precision air strikes against ISIS in Somalia.

“This action further degrades ISIS’s ability to plot and conduct terrorist attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians and sends a clear signal that the United States always stands ready to find and eliminate terrorists who threaten the United States and our allies, even as we conduct robust border-protection and many other operations under President Trump’s leadership,” Hegseth said following the execution of the airstrikes indicating strikes on the cartels could be considered.

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New York Times Complains Labeling Mexican Cartels Terrorist Organizations Will ‘Hurt The U.S. Economy’

As Donald Trump gets to work on his agenda, left-wing media organizations like The New York Times are already making fools of themselves.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order designating Mexican drug cartels as foreign terror organizations.

His order stated:

The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.

The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States.

In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society.

The Cartels’ activities threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.

Their activities, proximity to, and incursions into the physical territory of the United States pose an unacceptable national security risk to the United States.

However, The New York Times is now arguing that this move will damage the U.S. economy because of the risk of businesses in both countries violating sanctions against terrorist groups.

Their article states.

The foreign terrorist designation could lead to severe penalties — including substantial fines, asset seizures and criminal charges — on companies and individuals found to be paying ransom or extortion payments.

U.S. companies could also be ensnared by standard payments made to Mexican companies that a cartel controls without the American companies’ knowledge.

As a result, companies in the risk-averse American financial sector may simply refuse to wire money to a Mexican factory, for example, to facilitate cross-border production and trade, or to wire money between personal accounts.

…

If money transfer companies like Western Union also stop transactions to Mexico over worries about properly vetting Mexican clients, it could affect the remittances the country relies on.

That would be devastating for the Mexican economy, which received $63.3 billion in remittances in 2023, nearly 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

The Mexican peso has suffered as a result of the designation, as well as the looming threat of tariffs and trade barriers.

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Biden admin working to effectively ban cigarettes in 11th hour proposal a ‘gift’ to cartels, expert says

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving forward with a regulatory rule in the final days of the Biden administration that would effectively ban cigarettes currently on the market in favor of products with lower nicotine levels, which could end up boosting business for cartels operating on the black market, an expert tells Fox News Digital.

“Biden’s ban is a gift with a bow and balloons to organized crime cartels with it, whether it’s cartels, Chinese organized crime, or Russian mafia. It’s going to keep America smoking, and it’s going to make the streets more violent,” Rich Marianos, former assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the current chair of the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, told Fox News Digital of the proposal. 

The FDA confirmed to Fox Digital on Monday that as of Jan. 3, the Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products had completed a regulatory review, but that the proposed rule has not yet been finalized. 

“The proposed rule, ‘Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products,’ is displaying in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) ROCIS system as having completed regulatory review on January 3,” an FDA spokesman told Fox Digital. “As the FDA has previously said, a proposed product standard to establish a maximum nicotine level to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products, when finalized, is estimated to be among the most impactful population-level actions in the history of U.S. tobacco product regulation. At this time, the FDA cannot provide any further comment until it is published.”

Fox New Digital reached out to the White House regarding concerns over the proposal if it were to take effect but did not receive a response. 

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Second Border Patrol Agent Blows the Whistle on Border Crisis – “Cartels Are Running the Border”

A second Border Patrol Agent blew the whistle on the border crisis: ‘My Conscience Will Be Clean, That’s Way More Important Than My Pension’

James O’Keefe last Tuesday evening announced his new film on the migrant industrial complex dubbed “Line in the Sand” premieres October 10th on the Tucker Carlson Network.

“Undercover journalist James O’Keefe goes to the front lines of the migrant industrial complex using hidden cameras and raw testimonials. O’Keefe reveals the shocking reality of the U.S. border crisis like never before: Mexican freight trains, cartel tunnels, and U.S. funded child detention camps. Watch this gripping exposé of a corrupted system that demands change,” O’Keefe Media Group said.

A second Border Patrol agent told James O’Keefe that the cartels are running the border in Arizona.

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US Border Agents Find RPGs & IEDs Near Southern Border Amid “Internal Alert” Of “Drastic Escalation” In Weaponry Used By Cartels

An alarming battle between rival factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel has unfolded in northwestern Mexico, near the Biden-Harris administration’s open southern border. The risk of spillover continues to increase as US Border Patrol agents recently discovered a weapons cache of shoulder-fired rocket launchers and improvised explosive devices just across from the Arizona border. 

“4 RPGs and 8 IEDs along with a large amount of ammo discovered in a scout site in Mexico just across the Arizona border which butts up against the Ajo area of operation within the Tucson Sector,” NewsNation’s border correspondent Ali Bradley wrote on X on Monday afternoon. 

Bradley said, “Border Patrol agents are being warned of the “drastic escalation” in weaponry being used on the south side of the border—According to an internal alert obtained through sources.” 

“The fighting within the Sinaloa cartel, spilling over the border with multiple instances of armed men showing up to the southern border in the same area fleeing into the US for safety,” she added.

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Two Border Patrol Agents Arrested, Accused Of Working With Unnamed Drug Cartel

Two officers with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations have been working with an unnamed drug cartel for a number of years, federal prosecutors have alleged.

According to court documents, the officers allegedly allowed the organization to move large amounts of fentanyl, methamphetamines, cocaine, and heroin through their inspection lanes on the southern border.

Jesse Clark Garcia and Diego Bonillo have been named as the two CBP officers referenced in an indictment filed by the U.S. Southern District of California. The two agents are accused of drug trafficking and drug trafficking conspiracy, and both men have been in custody since May.

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Mexican cartels sending young men in military uniforms across U.S. border via remote parts of Arizona

Residents of remote areas in Arizona are reporting floods of “fighting-age males” equipped with military uniforms making their way from Mexico into the U.S. in areas that aren’t manned by Border Patrol agents.

Judicial Watch recently published a report on the problem, which is being largely ignored by the mainstream media, with photos, diagrams and firsthand accounts of how the residents of rural Arizona towns are being terrorized by the influx and the many dangers it presents.

They explain how Pima and Santa Cruz counties have been hit with incredible amounts of crime and violence as Mexican cartels cross there and carry out their human and drug smuggling activities. Several cattle farmers there running farms that have been in their families for generations have captured thousands of illegal immigrants making their way through their property on private security cameras.

One law enforcement official told the organization: “Violent activity has drastically increased over the past three years since the border is now perceived to be wide open.”

Arivaca has been particularly hard hit. Situated 11 miles away from Nogales, Mexico, this cattle ranching town is seeing many longtime residents leaving out of fear. Although there is a Border Patrol checkpoint east of the town, the Department of Homeland Security does not plan to send any agents there, despite reports by residents and other law enforcement agents of masses of young men entering the country there in what is clearly an organized operation on the part of Mexican cartels.

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