The FBI is warning that one of Mexico´s most brutal drug cartels is attempting to violently regain control of drug trafficking routes in the United States and has been ordered to engage law enforcement officers to protect their operations, according to an intelligence report obtained by The Washington Times. Los Zetas, the enforcer of Mexico´s infamous Gulf Cartel, is reinforcing its ranks and stockpiling weapons in safe houses in the U.S. in response to recent crackdowns in the U.S. and Mexico against drug traffickers, said the FBI San Antonio Field Office’s Joint Assessment Bulletin. The bulletin was dated Oct. 17 and was sent to law enforcement officials in the Texas region.
The bulletin said the cartel’s regional leader, Jaime Gonzalez, has ordered the reinforcements to a tactical operational territory, or “plaza,” in the area around the southern Texas towns of McAllen and Mission, about 235 miles south of San Antonio and less than five miles from the border with Mexico. “In direct response to recent United States law enforcement activities against Los Zetas members of the McAllen-Mission, Texas Plaza, Jaime Gonzalez, AKA ‘HUMMER,’ has ordered additional personnel to the Plaza to regain control and engage law enforcement officers if confronted,” states the bulletin, which was produced by the FBI’s McAllen Intelligence Center. “These replacements are believed to be armed with assault rifles, bullet proof vests, and grenades, and are occupying safe houses throughout the McAllen Texas area,” the bulletin states. Richard Kolko, a spokesman for the FBI in Washington, confirmed the authenticity of the report.
Mr. Gonzalez, who operates out of Reynosa, Mexico, about 10 miles south of McAllen and Mission, instructed his cells to “engage law enforcement with a full tactical response should law enforcement attempt to intervene in their operations” and also is “believed to have established loose relationships with street and prison gangs to facilitate their movement and operations within the United States,” according to the bulletin. An FBI search warrant on a rural location in Mission resulted in the seizure of multiple weapons including assault rifles, tactical vests, and an assortment of paintball weapons, which the Zetas have used for “regular paint ball training for tactical raids and car stops,” the bulletin states. The FBI McAllen Resident Agency, a division of the bureau’s San Antonio Field Office, recently received the information that the Zetas have segregated the Rio Grande Valley area into tactical operational territories, or plazas, and “currently have standing orders to confront U.S. law enforcement agencies to zealously protect their criminal interests,” the bulletin states.
“These particular types of activities by the cartels show their increased strength and the serious threat they pose to the national security in the U.S.,” the official said. “It’s not getting better but worse along the border. Unfortunately, the drug wars we’ve seen in Mexico are now spilling significantly into the United States.”
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