In a press conference held in Midland, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced an executive order which would treat “Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.”
The executive order comes in light of the border invasion of nearly four million illegal aliens, caused by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border. The order lists several reasons for the order’s issuance such as the 1,600 Texan deaths from fentanyl, a 680 percent increase since 2018.
The executive order cites the cartels’ violent nature, noting that trafficking victims are subjected “to sexual assault, human trafficking, assault, extortion, and other dehumanizing, violent, and heinous acts”. The order acknowledges that “deadly violence is associated with the Mexican drug cartels, who are fighting for the territory needed to expand their influence.”
An example of the violence was exemplified in a recent story where a resident of Kinney County, a county on the border, was hit by multiple rounds of gunfire coming in from oncoming traffic by a cartel operative attempting to smuggle humans into the state. Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe characterized the situation as “something you would see in a third-world country.”
The executive order also cites state law enforcement efforts to secure the border has led to the seizure of over 336 million lethal doses of fentanyl, which is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages between 18 and 45, according to Families Against Fentanyl.
Abbott’s action gives seven direct orders to the DPS.
The first requires the creation of “a Mexican Cartel Division within the Texas Fusion Center to collect and analyze intelligence that will enable further apprehension, prosecution, and disruption of these foreign terrorist organizations.”
The second orders law enforcement to “identify, arrest, and impede the gangs in Texas that support the drug and human smuggling operations of these foreign terrorist organizations.”
The third orders law enforcement to “conduct multi-jurisdictional investigations of foreign terrorist organizations operating in Texas to support criminal prosecutions here and in other States.”
The fourth orders law enforcement to “conduct multi-jurisdictional investigations of transnational and Texas based gangs that support the smuggling operations of foreign terrorist organizations.”
The fifth orders law enforcement to “target, seize, and dismantle the infrastructure, assets, vehicles, and buildings used by foreign terrorist organizations to smuggle drugs and people into and throughout Texas.”
The sixth order seeks to “enhance southbound criminal interdiction operations resulting in the seizure of bulk cash and other assets being smuggled into Mexico.”
The seventh order on the list orders law enforcement to “intensify efforts under Operation Lone Star focused on detecting and interdicting transnational criminal activity between the ports of entry.”
