As President Donald Trump and his administration work to secure the nation’s southern border, Mexican cartels are preparing a violent escalation war. According to a memo obtained by NewsNation, drug cartels in Mexico are ordering drone strikes and the use of explosives against U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and military servicemembers defending the border. The memo reports that cartels intend to equip drones with explosives and send them on kamikaze missions targeting U.S. law enforcement and military along the border.
Another memo cites numerous cartel-linked threats made against U.S. law enforcement on social media. Several posts encourage assassinating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, while others encourage illegal immigrants in the U.S. to spit or urinate on ICE agents’ food. Trump’s border czar, former ICE chief Tom Homan, has previously stressed the importance of preventing leaks and keeping ICE’s raid plans a secret in order to protect agents. Last month, Homan’s raid on Chicago had to be postponed after plans were leaked to the media and published by The Wall Street Journal. “It’s unfortunate because anyone leaking law enforcement operations puts officers at greater risk,” Homan said at the time. The border czar led the Chicago raid himself just days later.
The cartel attack plans come as Trump has bolstered security at the southern border, making it harder for the cartels to traffic either drugs or people into the U.S. Immediately upon returning to office last month, Trump issued an executive order designating the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, adding that he “might” send Special Forces into the country to target the cartels. He has also mobilized thousands of U.S. military units to defend the border and ordered the U.S. Coast Guard to patrol American shores. On Saturday, Trump also threatened hefty tariffs against Mexico and Canada for their “failure to act” against the cartels. Shortly afterward, both countries agreed to assist the U.S. in securing its borders and tackling the cartels.
Just moments after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to assist Trump, Mexican Secretary of Security and Civilian Protection Omar Garcia Harfuch announced the arrest of a top cartel official. According to Garcia Harfuch, his forces captured Ricardo “Mando R” Gonzalez Sauceda, a leader of the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas, one of the largest and most violent of the Mexican cartels. Gonzalez Sauceda has been “linked to extortion and multiple attacks on police officers” in the Nuevo León area, which borders Texas near Corpus Christi, and has several “arrest warrants for homicide and illegal deprivation of liberty.” The arrested cartel member is believed to be the right-hand man to Juan “Juanito” Cisneros Trevino, acting boss of the CDN-Los Zetas, and is said to have operated a team of cartel enforcers nicknamed “Los Chukis” after the horror movie character Chucky.
Part of Mexico’s deal with Trump includes the U.S. halting the trafficking of weapons into Mexico, which Sheinbaum claims has directly resulted in the arming of the cartels. According to Sheinbaum, the U.S. has “committed to working to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico.” Prior to announcing the deal with Trump, Mexico’s president responded to the White House’s assertion that the Mexican government has tacitly allied with the cartels. “We categorically reject the White House’s slander against the Mexican government of having alliances with criminal organizations, as well as any intention of intervention in our territory,” Sheinbaum declared. She continued, “If such an alliance exists anywhere, it is in the United States armories that sell high-powered weapons to these criminal groups.”
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.