Mexico’s Gulf Cartel Continues Sending Gunmen to Steal Trucks In Texas

The Gulf Cartel continues to send teams of gunmen into Texas to steal four-door vehicles and smuggle them into Mexico to resupply their paramilitary wing. The ongoing crime wave leads to regular high-speed chases and, at times, vehicle carjackings at gunpoint. The Gulf Cartel is one of six cartels labelled as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump Administration.

The most recent documented case occurred Thursday afternoon in Brownsville, Texas, where authorities were tracking a Jeep Gladiator that had been previously reported stolen. According to information provided to Breitbart Texas by Brownsville Police, authorities tried to stop the vehicle. Still, the group sped away, leading authorities on a high-speed chase that ended a few blocks away when authorities managed to box them in. The driver tried to run away, but authorities captured him and another man soon after.

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The incident happened just days after Texas State Troopers arrested a 19-year-old gunman who the Gulf Cartel allegedly sent from Mexico to steal vehicles in Texas and move them to Matamoros, Tamaulipas. A sworn affidavit filed by an FBI agent in the federal case against Angel David Salas Herrera revealed that he worked for the Gulf Cartel and was part of a group that used extra key fobs and sophisticated tools to bypass the security measures used for some modern trucks like Jeep Gladiators, GMC pickups and other vehicles with similar security characteristics. Salas is a Mexican national who was in the country illegally and at the time of his arrest had a Glock handgun that he claimed he obtained while stealing another vehicle. As part of the investigation that followed, authorities recovered two other vehicles.

As Breitbart Texas reported last year, Brownsville and other cities in South Texas have been hit by car theft gangs working for the Gulf Cartel. This demand for vehicles is closely tied to a series of turf wars that the criminal organization has been waging throughout the border state of Tamaulipas with rival factions of the same cartel and with rival cartels. The Gulf Cartel has been requesting four-door vehicles with powerful engines and high clearance that they can use to move gunmen through dirt roads for their clashes.