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.
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.
In recent months, cartel-connected car theft gangs have favored Jeep Gladiators, as well as Chevrolet and GMC pickups. The preference has been significant enough that even law enforcement has been forced to issue warnings to locals about the trend and ask the public to use additional physical anti-theft devices.
Breitbart News Foundation has been investigating the ongoing crime wave, which goes much deeper than just small car-theft gangs. Due to the high demand for stolen vehicles and the amount of money involved in the smuggling of stolen vehicles into Mexico, members of Mexico’s National Guard have been criminally charged in the United States for their role in helping move vehicles. In March, Luis Enrique Guzman Pablo, a Mexican National Guardsman, pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to having taken various bribes to help a Gulf Cartel group smuggle stolen trucks into Mexico. Guzman would receive messages of the vehicles headed south, and he would use his position at a port of entry to move those vehicles past inspections and into Mexico.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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