Shocking video shows a group of men dressed in black and armed with rifles – suspected Mexican drug cartel agents – patrolling a Texas island just across the US-Mexico border.
At least 10 people were seen lurking in the forest on Fronton Island on Saturday. according to drone images published by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The grainy images showed a man wearing a backwards cap and a backpack carrying a gun, while a man behind him was wearing full tactical gear.
The incident comes two weeks after another video showed agents from rival cartels throwing explosives at each other across the border.
Locally, the island is known as an extremely dangerous place, as warring cartels use it to hide contraband.
“It’s an island of death,” Jaeson Jones, a retired captain in the Intelligence Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told the Daily Mail.
“It’s dangerous, man.”
Frontón Island, located in the Rio Grande and claimed as US territory, has been used by both the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel to smuggle drugs, weapons and migrants destined for human trafficking into the country.
Rival cartels often fight over loot they hide in the brush and bushes.
At least 10 dark-clad members of a drug cartel were seen making their way through Fronton Island on Saturday. Texas DPS Just weeks earlier, the Texas Department of Public Safety released video of cartel members setting off explosives. Texas DPS Some members of the cartel Members carried rifles as they walked across the island of Texas. Texas DPS
Every night, according to Jones, hundreds of immigrants cross the island to enter the United States, which the drug cartels take advantage of and send their undercover foot soldiers to mix with the crowd.
In an effort to secure the border and prevent further violence, Texas officials declared the island a state territory in September.
It was technically already within the Texas state line, but Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said her office found it necessary to declare it state property to allow law enforcement to operate in the area.
He added that the request for Texas to take over the land has been in place for almost a decade.
Frontón Island, located in the Rio Grande, has been used in recent years by rival drug cartels, the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel, to smuggle drugs, weapons and cross immigrants into the United States. Grainy Texas DPS footage showed a man wearing a backwards cap and a backpack carrying a gun, while a man behind him was dressed in full tactical gear. Texas DPS
“This is Texas land, it’s been Texas land,” Buckingham told News 4 San Antonio. “But now that it has been officially claimed, authorities can gain access to that property.”
The regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Víctor Escalón, explained that the state was forced to act because the federal government “cannot cover all of these areas and provide security to landowners.
“There are people here who say, ‘Hey, I’m outside feeding my cows and I see three men coming up with backpacks and they’re armed. Why do I have to live like this?’”
Since the territory of the island state was declared, Department of Public Safety personnel have moved into the area and cleared much of the vegetation so they can better monitor cartel activity in the area.
Texas officials declared the territory the island state in September to allow law enforcement to move into the area. Texas Military Department.
However, until now the department continues to periodically confront members of the cartels on the island.
“We have encountered armed men, members of cartels who have crossed Frontón, we have found ammunition,” said Lieutenant Chris Olivarez.
Some local officials are even beginning to doubt whether efforts to take over the island will really make a difference in the fight against the cartels.
“[The cartels] We will still be able to move any merchandise north or south,” said Mike Salinas, a recently retired Border Patrol agent who served for 30 years.
“It’s going to be an obstacle for them. They have the resources, the money and the time” to get ahead.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn