Cartels Get 90
Percent of Drugs Past Border Patrol in Rio Grande City
BY
April 3, 2019 Updated:
April 4, 2019
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ROMA,
Texas—It’s not uncommon to hear gun battles and grenades exploding across the
Rio Grande in the Mexican city of Miguel Alemán.
The city is
where two cartels—Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas—converge, frequently battling for
territory.
Looking across
the river from the bluffs at Roma, it’s easy to spot cartel lookouts, where
scouts constantly watch Border Patrol and law enforcement for any gap.
And there are
plenty of gaps. No border barriers exist in this area, and there is plenty of
unpopulated ranchland to hide in to evade capture.
The Rio Grande
City Border Patrol station takes care of this 68-mile strip of international
border in southeast Texas. It sits within the Rio Grande Valley Sector and is
the busiest of the nation’s 135 stations for drug seizures and the second
busiest for illegal alien apprehensions.
Despite the
station seizing 42,000 pounds of narcotics so far this fiscal year, “we’re not
even probably catching about 10 percent of it,” said Raul Ortiz, deputy chief
Border Patrol agent for the Rio Grande Valley sector.
That would
mean 378,000 pounds of drugs have made it across into the Rio Grande City area
between the ports of entry.
“The cartels
are starting to push alien traffic out here [where] there’s nothing [but] a
little, bitty village,” Ortiz said. “And why are they doing that? Not because
it’s a close proximity to a community. No, because the cartels are using that
as a diversion so they can tie up our hands so our agents can’t get to the
narcotics or to smuggled alien traffic.”
So far this fiscal year,
Ortiz said 25,000 illegal aliens have evaded Border Patrol in the Rio Grande
Valley Sector. “Those are the ones that are winding up in your jails, those are
the ones that are winding up in these communities north of us,” he said.
Ortiz said
Border Patrol’s strategy is to try to apprehend aliens and interdict drugs as
close to the river as possible, before the local ranchers and communities are
affected.
But it’s
difficult in this area, where there is no infrastructure or patrol roads
running along the border line. If Border Patrol agents are chasing drug
smugglers on a rancher’s land near the border, and those smugglers cross to the
next ranch, agents may have to drive 10 miles back out of the first ranch and
10 miles into the second in pursuit.
Ortiz said
Border Patrol has submitted proposals for building border fencing and
accompanying patrol roads in the area, but there is pushback from some Congress
members. He said if they can’t get the fencing they need, “let’s make sure we
have enough technology and enough manpower.”
Getting a Real Picture
Only five
years ago, Border Patrol had no idea how much cross-border traffic was coming
through. That changed when seven aerostat balloons started recording real-time
incursions in south Texas.
One of the
bigger aerostats, nicknamed “Big Bertha,” is situated six miles from the border
on La Anacua Ranch and started surveilling on July 31, 2014. It has two cameras
that can see up to 20 miles in any direction on a clear day. Camera operators
have tracked a car from nearby Sullivan City to a Chase bank in McAllen around
20 miles away, said field service representative Robert Robinson.
But winds of
20 to 25 knots will force the balloon down, and the cartels are ready to pounce
as soon as they see it retracting. March 22 was one such day, and local Border
Patrol agents said illegal activity picked up immediately after the balloon was
brought back down to its trailer.
On average,
the balloon picks up 500 to 600 illegal alien incursions per week.
The aerostat’s live camera
feeds transmit to the Rio Grande City and Zapata Border Patrol stations and the
information helps Border Patrol allocate resources and respond to priority
situations. The cameras, which are designed for low-flying aircraft, have night
and day vision.
“As things are
developing over there [Mexico]—gun battles between rival cartels, the
government of Mexico, and the cartel—we already have that awareness, we’re able
to see it as it’s occurring over there,” said Albert Olivares, Border Patrol
agent and special operations supervisor.
Ortiz said
Border Patrol has a direct line of communication with the Mexican military
across the border and they work together frequently.
“If we, our
aerostat, sees something on the Mexican side, we’re not afraid to call the
Mexican military to vector them into a [drug] seizure,” Ortiz said. “I don’t
care who makes the seizure as long as somebody makes it and it’s not the bad
guys.”
In fiscal
2017, almost 72,000 Americans died of a drug overdose, with most drugs coming
across the border from Mexico.
On March 28, Rio Grande
City agents saw several illegal aliens carrying bundles of marijuana across the
border. As the agents responded, the smugglers abandoned the bundles and fled
to Mexico. Agents found five bundles of marijuana weighing nearly 280 pounds
and worth an estimated $223,000.
On the same
day, another 175 pounds worth $140,000 were found by agents in an abandoned
residence nearby.
Border Patrol
drug seizures between ports of entry in fiscal 2018 totaled almost 500,000
pounds along the whole southwest border—461,030 pounds of marijuana, 11,314
pounds of methamphetamine, 6,550 pounds of cocaine, 568 pounds of heroin, and
388 pounds of fentanyl (enough fentanyl to kill all Americans four times over,
according to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen).
The amount of
fentanyl was more than triple that seized in fiscal 2016 and methamphetamine
seizures netted almost twice as much as in fiscal 2015. The amount of marijuana
has halved, most likely due to the legalization of the drug in some U.S.
states.
Closed Border
Meanwhile,
President Donald Trump has threatened to close the southwest border if Mexico
and Congress both don’t take steps to control the situation. In March, it is
estimated around 100,000 illegal immigrants, mostly from Central America,
crossed into the United States.
The
administration has been ringing the alarm bells about the humanitarian and
border security crisis for some time, but Trump said on April 2 that his
threats to close the border are “the only way we’re getting a response.”
If Congress
doesn’t make amendments to allow for the detention of illegal immigrants until
their asylum court case is adjudicated, the massive flow from Central America
will continue unabated. Currently, children and family units can only be held
for a maximum of 20 days, but asylum cases take six to eight weeks.
“The only way
to truly fix this border emergency is with emergency legislation,” Nielsen
wrote on Twitter on April 1. “Misguided court decisions and outdated laws have
created loopholes that are the main cause of today’s crisis.”
Nielsen has
appointed former Border Patrol Chief of the Rio Grande Sector Manuel Padilla to
lead a crisis response effort.
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