NARCOMEX ON AMERICA'S BORDER - We’re Seeing Fentanyl Smuggled

“We’re seeing a 50% increase in deadly overdoses this year,” Tarrant County Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn told President Trump. “In fact, in the first quarter of 21, it was three times the amount it was last year with fentanyl overdoses.”

El Paso Border Chief: We’re Seeing Fentanyl Smuggled Between Ports of Entry ‘For the First Time’

IAN HANCHETT

29 Jun 202149

0:56

During a portion of an interview with NBC aired on Tuesday’s “NBC Nightly News,” El Paso, Texas Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez stated that “For the first time” “fentanyl is being smuggled” into the United States “between the ports of entry.” And that cartels pressure migrants to transport fentanyl into the country.

Chavez said that drug cartels “find ways to intimidate migrants and find ways to illegally have them transport that narcotic” into the U.S.

NBC News Correspondent Gabe Gutierrez reported that sources within the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) say “Mexican cartels are increasingly producing the drug themselves with raw and unregulated materials from China.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Fmr. Mexican Border State Governor Sent to U.S. Prison for Money Laundering

Breitbart Border / Cartel Chronicles

ILDEFONSO ORTIZ and BRANDON DARBY

30 Jun 20212

2:19

A former border state governor was sent to prison for three years for laundering millions in bribes and embezzled public funds.

This month, Jorge Juan Torres Lopez, a former governor of Coahuila, went before U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos who sentenced him to 36 months behind bars with deportation to follow. Torres Lopez pleaded guilty to a count of money laundering on June 16, 2020.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Torres Lopez worked for the Coahuila government in various capacities from 1994 to 2011–including cabinet-level positions and as interim governor. During his time in office, Torres Lopez collected multi-million dollar bribes from government contractors and construction companies. The politician then moved the money to the U.S. for laundering.

Torres Lopez and other former Coahuila officials were linked to a massive embezzlement operation that funneled state funds into political campaigns, known as the Estafa Maestra or Master Scam. Torres Lopez did not plead guilty to any charges connected to that scheme, however, it remains unclear if he could face further charges in Mexico.

Torres Lopez’s boss and former Coahuila Governor Humberto Moreira were named in a money laundering investigation in the U.S., which led to his arrest in Spain. It remains unclear if Moreira will face charges in the U.S. During Moreira’s term and the time that Torres Lopez served from 2005 to 2011, Los Zetas Cartel enjoyed complete impunity and carried out mass killings without consequences.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.     

Porous Border Causes 50 Percent Spike in Fentanyl Overdoses, Texas Sheriff Tells Trump

File Photo: U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Nogales Port of Entry

BOB PRICE and RANDY CLARK

30 Jun 20213

3:48

A North Texas sheriff told former President Donal Trump his county is seeing a 50 percent increase in the number of deaths related to fentanyl being smuggled from Mexico. His comments came during President Trump’s tour of the Rio Grande Valley with Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

“We’re seeing a 50% increase in deadly overdoses this year,” Tarrant County Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn told President Trump. “In fact, in the first quarter of 21, it was three times the amount it was last year with fentanyl overdoses.”

“We know that the cartel, the Mexican drug cartel is responsible for where it’s going and it’s going all over the country,” Waybourn continued. “I’m in Fort Worth, but it’s happening, and I’d be remiss to say, it’s on every sheriff and every chief and every Director of Public Safety’s radar, this business of fentanyl and the deadliness and the thread it is to us as it continues to grow.”

President Trump asked the sheriff if the fentanyl is coming from China. The sheriff responded that the drugs come from China through Mexico and across the porous borders.

The sheriff said the smuggling suspects they have arrested said they are bringing the drugs directly across the Mexican border into the U.S.

“I certainly believe, and I believe the law enforcement in the room, is that the drug cartels in Mexico should be the number one enemy of American law enforcement, plain and simple. And we need to draw a line and protect our children.”

Sheriff Waybourn told a story about a 15-year-0ld who died from a fentanyl overdose last month. He said the cartels package the drugs in pill form to make them appear safe.

“They got a hold of something they thought was safe,” the sheriff told President Trump. “They had no idea what it was. It was pressed in some cartel lab, far away.”

He explained that the increase in fentanyl smuggling across the porous border caused the price of these deadly pills from $50 a gram in January to about $15-$20 a gram now.

“And what we’re experiencing Tarrant County, way beyond the border,” Waybourn stated. “We’re a hub, we know that we’re a hub where we have cartel agents embedded up there that we’re trying to locate and arrest and prosecute, and we’re doing a pretty good job of that in some cases.”

“But we know that as it comes into the county it does have an effect,” he concluded. “And, you know, to that end, the group of people that it’s hitting is the 16 to 24-year-old group because, again, it appears to be a safe drug, they think it’s a pharmaceutical drug because of these pill presses that they’re using.”

Waybourn’s comments came during a briefing to former President Trump in Weslaco, Texas, on Wednesday afternoon. The briefing, attended by Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, DPS Director Steve McCraw, and several members of the Texas congressional and legislative delegations, brought the former president to the Rio Grande Valley Sector — the epicenter of the human and drug smuggling border crisis.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol.  Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.

CNN: One Million Migrants Since October 2020

AP Photo/Eric Gay

NEIL MUNRO

30 Jun 20213

3:44

One million migrants have crossed the border since October, according to a June 29 report by CNN.

CNN reported:

More than 1 million migrants have been arrested after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border since last October, according to two US Department of Homeland Security [DHS] officials, surpassing the 2019 border crisis tally with three months still left in the fiscal year.

The June 2021 numbers have not been finalized, CNN reported. But the numbers are likely to reach almost 190,000, despite the rising temperature, according to CNN’s report:

In June, more than 6,300 people on average have been encountered crossing the border every day, according to one official, citing the 21-day average.

The southern numbers do not include the annual steady of roughly 1 million legal immigrants, the roughly 800,000 temporary visa workers, and the people who overstay their legal visas.

The one million number also does not include the 250,000 migrants who have sneaked across the border, according to agency reports provided to Breitbart.

In May, 180,000 migrants were caught crossing the southern border. Most were sent back to Mexico to rest before their next attempt as Biden’s deputies allowed 68,000 migrants into the United States.

An additional 50,000 migrants successfully sneaked through the border to reach jobs inside the United States, according to unpublished official estimates provided to Breitbart.

Overall, in May, roughly 230,000 migrants crossed the border, and 120,000 got through the border, including roughly 100,000 job seekers.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is trying to expand migration across the border by widening many side-doors in the nation’s migration law. He is also expanding opportunities for illegal and legal for migrants to get green cards from Americans.

Overall migration — legal and illegal, temporary and permanent — may hit 2.5 million in Biden’s first year in office. The huge inflow will intensify competition for the jobs and housing that are needed by the roughly four million young Americans who are entering the labor force in 2021.

Migration damages ordinary Americans’ career opportunities, cuts their wages, raises their rents, curbs their productivity, shrinks their political clout, and wrecks their open-minded, equality-promoting civic culture.

For many years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration and the inflow of temporary contract workers into jobs sought by young U.S. graduates. This opposition is multiracial,  cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, bipartisan, rational, persistent, and recognizes the solidarity Americans owe to each other.

So far, Republican leaders have dodged much of the immigration debate, likely because GOP donors want more imported consumers, renters, and workers.

Instead, GOP leaders have merely characterized Biden’s migration as a chaotic border crisis, as cruel to migrants, and helpful to the drug cartels. This border-focused message downplays the inflow numbers, hides the economic damage done to Americans, and will likely help the Democrats win non-ideological and comfortable swing voters in 2022 with a soft-focus strategy of promising humane, orderly, and safe migration.