A team of gunmen from the Los Zetas cartel — a syndicate once dubbed by CNN as “Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartel”^[1] — was able to elude Mexican authorities by crossing the Texas border waters of the Rio Grande. Once in Texas, the gunmen managed to effectively disappear into the United States without any intervention from US law enforcement agencies.

This disappearance follows a lengthy chase which began in the state of Coahuila on Mexican Federal Highway 2, which runs along the U.S.–Mexico border. After learning that the said area was being used by the cartel for its smuggling activities, authorities from Coahuila decided to investigate. It was during this time that authorities spotted an SUV with several Los Zetas gunmen inside. After the authorities turned on their lights and sirens, the gunmen took off and made a series of turns into various makeshift roads, leading them to the banks of the Rio Grande. They then abandoned their truck and weapons and began crossing the river into the U.S.^[2]

While Mexican authorities were not able to continue the pursuit, they did manage to seize the SUV used and the weapons the gunmen have been carrying. The weapons were turned over to the ballistics department of Coahuila’s Attorney General’s Office (PGJE).

While Coahuila’s Investigative Police, in cooperation with other PGJE teams, continue to actively hunt down cartels such as Los Zetas, the fact that the gunmen were able to escape to Texas shows the lack of coordination between Mexican authorities and U.S. Border Patrol.

How many more of these cartel members are we going to allow into our country?

Source:

[1] CNN.com

[2] Breitbart.com