The No. 1 Threat to Texas — and It Has Nothing to Do With Politics or Economics

Mar. 28, 2013 2:19pmJason Howerton

In this Sept. 4, 2012, photo, the sun casts a shadow on the U.S.-Mexico border fence that passes through the Nature Conservancy’s southernmost preserve in Brownsville, Texas. Since 2008, hundreds of landowners on the border have sought fair prices for property that was condemned to make way for the fence, but many of them received initial offers that were far below market value. Credit: AP

The Department of Homeland Security and the other federal agencies can continue downplaying the threat that an unsecure border represents to the United States of America — but that won’t keep Mexican drug cartels from operating freely in states like Texas.

Contradicting Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s claim that “our borders have, in fact, never been stronger,” a new report released by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reveals Mexican drug cartels are operating in the Lone Star State and are the No. 1 threat to Texas.

“The threat to Texas is significant due to the prevalence of lucrative trafficking routes and smuggling networks throughout the state, as well as the state’s proximity to cities and towns steeped in cartel violence and influence just across the border in Mexico,” the report reads.

While Texas faces a full spectrum of “unique challenges to public safety and homeland security,” drug cartels are at the top of the list.

The Gulf Cartel, Los Zetas, La Familia Michoacana, Beltran Leyva and even the Sinaloa Cartel are all operating out of Texas, including Cameron, Hidalgo and Zapata Counties.

“These powerful and ruthless criminal organizations use military and terrorist tactics to battle each other and the government of Mexico for control over the lucrative U.S. drug and human smuggling markets,” according to the report. “The violence associated with this conflict has increased significantly since 2006. Some 60,000 lives have been lost, and cartel tactics in Mexico have escalated with the continued use of torture and beheading, improvised explosive devices, military-grade weapons such as grenades, and attacks against U.S. officials and diplomatic facilities.”

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And with thousands of Texans and Mexicans crossing the border daily to visit family or conduct business, the drug war has hit close to home for many residents on both sides of the Rio Grande.

“I just hope that the legislators know that until things settle down in Mexico we don’t know how things are going to go,” Brownsville Police Chief Orlando C. Rodriguez said. “We’re just going to have to wait and see, but one thing that is important to me is the continued support we have with federal agencies and how we are sharing information.”

The reality of cartel violence in Brownsville became publicly apparent as early as September 2010 in what had been dubbed the “FM 511 murders.” Two men were found shot to death inside a gray Dodge Ram pickup that was riddled with bullets. The truck was found on FM 511, a few miles away from the Cameron County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Border Patrol Station.

Police linked the killings to Mexican drug cartels. The suspects accused in the murders are still at large.

Rodriguez said it’s not new or a surprise that cartels were named the No. 1 threat to Texas.

The report argues the threat from Mexican cartels is extremely high due to the “wide range of criminal activity in which they are engaged, both in Mexico and in Texas.”

“Cartel members and associates are involved in the cross-border trafficking of people, weapons, drugs, and currency. This involvement is either direct through the use of cartel members, or indirect through other affiliated criminal organizations paying fees to transit cartel territory,” the report adds.

In this Sept. 4, 2012, photo, a man retrieves his mail near the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Brownsville, Texas. Since 2008, hundreds of landowners on the border have sought fair prices for property that was condemned to make way for the fence, but many of them received initial offers that were far below market value. Credit: AP

Among other increasing threats, cartels are using explosives and narco-blockades on the U.S. side of the border.

And as the Obama administration continues to impose more restrictions of U.S. Border Agents and other law enforcement officials, the DPS report found that “smugglers and others associated with Mexican cartels have shown an increase in aggression toward U.S. law enforcement officers, including shootings, vehicle assaults and other threats to officer safety.”

TheBlaze reported on Thursday that the U.S. border will soon be “25 percent more vulnerable” as ICE agents have their hours slashed, which the Obama administration claims is a consequence of the sequester.

Additional significant threats include:

• Statewide prison gangs pose the second most significant organized crime threat in Texas. Many gangs now work directly with the Mexican cartels, gaining substantial profits from drug and human trafficking. Prison gangs operate within and outside the prison system, and are responsible for a disproportionate amount of violent crime.

• Criminal aliens, who may not be affiliated with cartels and gangs, also pose a threat. From October 2008 to December 2012, Texas identified a total of 141,982 unique criminal alien defendants booked into Texas county jails. These individuals are responsible for at least 447,844 individual criminal charges, including 2,032 homicides and 5,048 sexual assaults.

• Criminal organizations and individuals are engaging in the exploitation and trafficking of children for financial gain. These heinous crimes subject children to violence, extortion, forced labor, sexual assault and prostitution. Some children are more vulnerable to exploitation, including unaccompanied alien children, as well as those who are lost, missing or abducted. There are currently 76,272 sex offenders registered in Texas, and at least 60,871 of these offenders had a child victim.

• Most recently, terrorism has become disaggregated with individual and would-be terrorists acting alone engaged in jihad. Nidal Hasan is the most prominent example of this type of terrorist, killing 13 U.S. servicemen at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. Over the past five years in Texas, there have been four other Islamic extremist plots and two anti-government terrorist plots. In addition, there have been documented incidents of foreign nationals with links to terrorism entering the United States from Mexico using existing human trafficking and human smuggling networks operated by the cartels, though not in an active conspiracy with the cartels.

To read the entire Texas DPS threat overview report, click here.