Violence is growing along the Rio Grande Valley, where Mexican drug cartels are threatening to use drones to drop bombs on U.S. Border Patrol agents, according to a U.S. Border Patrol memo obtained by Newsmax.
"This is a major increase in threat to the United States, and it's specifically in the southern region where we've been talking about recently, where we've had a lot of gun battles between the U.S. Border Patrol and with Cartel del Noreste near Fronton, Texas," Newsmax's Jaeson Jones reported.
The memo from the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector, dated Thursday, urges personnel to take all precautions and states that the cartels have "authorized" the use of "weaponized drones (explosives) being used against the Border Patrol and U.S. law enforcement officers."
The memo comes as the U.S. State Department issued a level four warning for all government personnel and U.S. citizens to not travel to the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which is separated from Texas by the Rio Grande, Jones noted.
The travel warning was listed on the website for the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico on Monday, the day the gunfire was reported in Fronton. It lists only Tamaulipas with a Do Not Travel To" distinction.
The order states that Tamaulipas issued a warning that people must avoid moving or touching IEDs, which have been found along roads in the areas of Reynosa, Rio Bravo, Valle Hermoso, and San Fernando.
"As a precaution, U.S. government employees have been ordered to avoid all travel in and around Reynosa and Rio Bravo outside of daylight hours and to avoid dirt roads throughout Tamaulipas," the warning states.
"Here's what's happening," Jones said. "Cartel del Golfo and Cartel del Noreste, two of the major factions down there that have been fighting for a very long period of time have been setting up improvised explosive devices in the ground on these little back roads where most of these cartel operations happen, where they battle one another."
The cartels usually use Tovex, a readily available mining explosive, for its IEDs, said Jones.
"They've been using this kind of explosive going back to 2010," he added. "The reason is because you can get it all over. They use it to make roads. They use it to [for] mining."
Jones referred to the situation as involving "major changes," and said that President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to designate the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations "couldn't have come at a better time."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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