U.S. Border Agents Warned of ‘Open Warfare’ with ‘Grenades’ in Mexico at Texas Border

by Brandon Darby & Ildefonso Ortiz22 Jun 2017 602

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV) of South Texas are being warned about risks posed to them on the border by “open warfare” including grenade attacks occurring on the Mexican side. The warning echoes Breitbart Texas’s Cartel Chronicles reports on the bloody war occurring at the border between a faction of the Mexican Gulf  Cartel and Mexican authorities.

The warning was issued by the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) to agents in the RGV Sector. It reads:

WARNING ADVISORY TO BORDER PATROL AGENTS IN RGV SECTOR

Recent events in Tamaulipas, Mexico, specifically in and around the city of Reynosa, pose a special risk to U.S. Border Patrol agents working in the region.

The Reynosa faction of the Mexican Gulf Cartel recently lost its leader and the group is engaging in open warfare with Mexican authorities and possibly with rival factions or other transnational criminal groups. Open source reports indicate gunbattles and use of grenades and other explosives in the fighting.

Border Patrol agents working the line in any station’s area of operations immediately across the largely open border from Reynosa, Mexico, are advised to employ extra caution in the performance of their duties. Stray rounds from firearms have previously injured U.S. law enforcement personnel on the border.

The majority, if not nearly all of U.S. media outlets have ignored and refused to report on the violence that has broken out along the U.S.-Mexico border immediately south of the RGV Sector. The Reynosa faction of the Gulf Cartel lost its boss, Comandante Toro or Juan Manuel Loaiza Salinas aka Julian Loiza Salinas. The death sparked violent infighting and clashes with Mexican authorities. Residents in the area were forced to live under complete control of Toro, with even the news outlets having to answer to him.

Border Patrol agents and other U.S. law enforcement working on the border are indeed at risk when clashes occur between the paramilitary transnational criminal organizations in Mexico and Mexican authorities. As recently as November of 2016, one U.S. Border Patrol agent and one Texas State Trooper were shot while patrolling the border in the same sector.

Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

(Disclosure: Breitbart Texas sponsored the Green Line podcast for the NBPC in an effort to provide a platform for agents to inform the public about the realities on the border and what Border Patrol agents face. Director Brandon Darby received an award from the Laredo chapter of the NBPC for his work in helping to defend and bring a voice to Border Patrol agents. Breitbart News assisted in covering funeral costs for a slain Border Patrol agent previously.)