Some Texans running cartel operations in Mexico

McAllen Monitor:

The ongoing debate regarding immigration reform has once again brought the topic of border security to the forefront.

In South Texas, the area that has seen a sharp increase in drug trafficking runs from treacherous waters of the Rio Grande to the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints in Falfurrias and Sarita, the last law enforcement waypoint along the roads leading from the Texas-Mexico border to inland metropolitan areas.

In those areas, drug smugglers tied to Mexican drug cartels work ingenious ways of moving their drugs to their destinations without detection by law enforcement.

That activity has drawn the attention of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which has classified gangs working with Mexican drug cartels as the greatest threat to Texas.

Talks of violent executions and large-scale firefights in Mexico between cartel gunmen are some of the talking points brought up during those discussions. But what rarely gets brought up is the fact that various members of Mexican drug cartels are not Mexican but in fact are U.S.-born Texans.

Mexican drug cartels have been active in the U.S. for decades. As such, they have developed deep roots with many members being second or third generation smugglers, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño.

“They have been here for a long time but they try to keep a low profile; what has brought them to the forefront is what’s going on in Mexico,” Treviño said referring to the crackdown on cartels by former presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon.

Keeping a low profile or trying to minimize their role is what some of the drug cartel members who have been caught on U.S soil have done.

When police officers and deputy U.S. Marshals caught Benicio “Comandante Veneno” Lopez this month, he claimed that he didn’t have a leadership figure in the Gulf Cartel, saying he was a mid- or low-level smuggler, said San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez.

“No low-key cartel guy has bodyguards, has four or five stash houses, carries bulk cash and knows about ton quantities of narcotics,” Gonzalez said. “He was trying to downplay his role to try to keep a low profile.”
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There is much more.

This corruption of society is largely Hispanics with a criminal history who belong to prison gangs.  They get into the cartels through their work with the distribution chain in the US.   It is a growing problem that has drawn the attention of the DEA and other law enforcement.   BTW, I think Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño is a big Obama backer who supports the Gang of Eight plan.