Austin, Texas – The Mexican drug cartels, a transnational criminal organization (TCO), have an extensive history of drug smuggling and other illicit activities from Mexico into the States. TCOs are known for their ruthless nature, callous tactics in the field, and continuous involvement in the illegal drug trade. The argument was addressed last week between the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Austin, and Texas Congressman Luttrell that TCOs, regardless of the vernacular, fall under the same umbrella as other terrorist groups that have and continue to threaten the national security of the United States. Austin asserted that the cartels are defined as TCOs while Luttrell rebutted by questioning the difference between the two, if any at all. 

 

In recent months, Border Consultants like Jaeson Jones, a retired Captain with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Division, documented groups of the Mexican Cartel setting up multiple bases along the Texas southern border with Mexico sporting concerning personal artillery of 240 Gulf machine guns, hand grenades, and other weaponry. Jones has also noted the back-to-back gun battles taking place along the border where the cartel has been shown using 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation combat vehicles and 50 Caliber Belt fed machine guns to bolster their fight. 

 

Jones indicated in a recent NewsMax report that the distinction between a TCO and a terrorist group is a vital one because if the U.S. were able to respond to threats like those of the cartel as they would the various other terrorist groups, using the full spectrum of the national power it would grant, the border struggle could be better contained or even snuffed out. 

 

In previous weeks, just outside of El Paso, Texas, caught by a law enforcement camera, three (of five total) fully armored Mexican soldiers from the Mexican government were spotted on the United States side of the border carrying long guns at the ready. Luckily, U.S. law enforcement responded quickly and was able to push them back across the border, but Jones wagered that this lapse in the distinction between what the U.S. Secretary of Defense names a TCO and what Jones and Luttrell would call a terrorist organization will continue to leave space for concerning incursions like this one to take place.

 

With this most recent incursion, Jones notes that the guns carried by the Mexican soldiers are held at “low-ready”, a position taught to all military and law enforcement officials that keeps the gun in a ready-to-use state with an optimal field of vision. And although incidents like this are, unfortunately, not new to the southwest border area, Jones asserts that the Mexican government has taken no responsibility for the incursions, leaving the opportunity for continued encounters wide open with the short-manned border patrol and lack of definitive action from Secretary Austin.

 

Jaeson Jones is available for speaking engagements to discuss complex issues such as border security, human/drug trafficking, and other real-life stories that affect communities across the country.

 

For more information about Jaeson Jones, and how to book him, please visit his website at https://www.jaesonjones.com/ or contact him at (866) 983-6664.

 

Contact:

(866) 983-6664