(RightWing.org) – The Pentagon recently announced that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III approved a request from the Department of Homeland Security to temporarily increase the number of servicemembers assisting US Customs and Border Protection agents at the nation’s southern border. Nevertheless, many say the increase is too limited in scope and too little, too late in light of recent narco-terrorist activity in Mexican border states.
On Sunday, April 30, Breitbart News published an article discussing a recent shootout between the “fearsome narco-terrorist” group, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación or CJNG), and rival drug gangs in the border state of Tamaulipas.
The violent incident occurred the previous Friday near Jiménez, roughly three hours south of McAllen, Texas. Media outlets reported that CJNG sicarios (hired killers) and other cartel members clashed with rival drug gangs. Gunmen fired at each other using as many as 30 armored SUVs in a “rolling shootout” along a highway connecting the nearby cities of San Fernando and Ciudad Victoria.
Several vehicles seized during a day of shootouts revealed that the fearsome narco-terrorist Cartel Jalisco New Generation appears to be operating in the border state of Tamaulipas. https://t.co/WuyRJvHYAD
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 1, 2023
The Tamaulipas State Police found several crashed SUVs and three dead cartel members once the fighting concluded. Some of the vehicles had the letters CJNG, the cartel’s trademark, painted on their exteriors.
The CJNG started making incursions into southern Tamaulipas and clashing with members of the rival Gulf Cartel in August 2022. Still, this shootout was the first attack attributed to the CJNG since then. The CJNG is known for its extreme violence, including allegations it trains recruits in cannibalism.
The increase in drug cartel activity in border states, coupled with their use of sophisticated equipment like drones, rocket-propelled grenades, and improvised explosive devices, has led to considerable concerns among Republican lawmakers.
For instance, on March 8, Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) reintroduced a measure to provide federal law enforcement officials with more tools by formally designating four Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Likewise, John Kennedy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced a similar bill on March 29 that would give the designation to nine Mexican drug cartels. The CJNG is named in both proposals along with the Sinaloa Cartel, the Cártel del Noreste faction of the Los Zetas, and the Gulf Cartel’s Los Metros/Reynosa factions.
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