Multiple media reports have confirmed that Antonio Céspedes Saldierna, 74, an American citizen and Texas rancher who worked on both sides of the border, was driving near his ranch in Tamaulipas, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, when he was killed by an
Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
Also killed was Horacio Lopez Peña. Ninfa Griselda Ortega, Lopez's wife, was hospitalized with injuries, KRGV-TV reported.
The Tamaulipas [Mexico] government recently warned of explosive devices on rural roads near the border between Reynosa and Río Bravo, extending south to the limits of San Fernando and Valle Hermoso, KRGV reported. Organized crime groups plant the devices to deter rival factions from entering their territory, Tamaulipas state police told the news organization.
While the Mexican government referred to “organized crime groups” as those responsible for the crime, the Austin-American Statesman reported a local citizen’s Facebook post that suggested a more frightening source for the IED:
Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. Back in 2008 Michael Braun, then assistant administrator and chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), told a Policy Forum at The Washington Institute, noted connections between the Mexican drug cartels and al Qaeda, "There are many similarities between a terrorist organization and a global drug cartel. Both oppose nation-state sovereignty, function best in ungoverned spaces, depend on mutual shadow facilitators, have no regard for human rights, rely on the hallmarks of organized crime such as corruption, intimidation, and violence, and are highly sophisticated organizations that operate with the latest technology."
As the Drug Intelligence Bulletin explained, “The Sinaloa Cartel, known for its extensive drug trafficking operations, allegedly found a partner in Hamas, which is often seen as an extremist organization due to its violent campaigns against Israel.” The alliance, as brought to light by a former Israeli military officer, Dany Tirza, who painted a picture of “a new frontier in the global underworld where knowledge, expertise, and illicit goods are exchanged across continents to further each party's nefarious objectives.”
The alleged alliance between Hamas, a Palestinian extremist organization, and the Sinaloa Cartel, a major player in Mexico's drug war, makes perfect economic sense with each having knowledge, such as tunneling expertise and drug trafficking networks, of use to the other.
Emanuele Ottolenghi, writing for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, observed that Hezbollah’s involvement in the drug trade is well-documented. American law enforcement discovered Hezbollah’s direct involvement by coincidence in 2007, when Colombian wiretaps monitoring a Medellin-based cartel picked up Arabic conversations. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) brought in a translator, who quickly realized that Hezbollah was arranging multi-ton shipments of cocaine to the Middle East.
In the ensuing investigation, codenamed Operation Titan, the DEA realized it had opened a Pandora’s box, leading to Project Cassandra, a decade-long U.S. operation that sought to stop Hezbollah from trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe. Hezbollah’s conduct was not a small sideshow by loosely affiliated individuals but a multibillion-dollar worldwide operation orchestrated by top officials within Hezbollah’s inner circle that involved close cooperation between the terrorist group and the cartels.
The DEA revealed the full extent of Hezbollah’s terror-crime nexus and its centrality to Hezbollah’s organizational structure in 2016, when Operation Cedar, a DEA joint effort with European law enforcement agencies across seven countries, came to fruition in January 2016. The operation targeted a large Hezbollah money-laundering network that included Hassan Mohsen Mansour, a Lebanese-Canadian charcoal merchant operating out of Colombia. French court documents reveal that Mansour used his trade as a cover to move dope and launder cash back to Colombian cartels. Mansour was also implicated in a drug-trafficking and money laundering investigation by Canadian authorities, and he was indicted in Florida. Inexplicably, French authorities released him and he remains at large.
Hezbollah continues to be a key partner to cartels in Latin America. When it comes to such business connections, Hezbollah is “the Gambinos on steroids,” as a former DEA official described the organization. One law enforcement operation, no matter how disruptive, will not deter Hezbollah’s ongoing dealings with criminal cartels.
In 2022 the New York Post reported the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known by its Spanish-language acronym, CJNG, was using landmines and explosives-laden drones to kill other gang members, cops and soldiers in a savage campaign of murder. The gang is also working with Middle Eastern jihadi “technical advisers,” according to Mexican law enforcement and security sources.
The Mexican army defused 12 handmade landmines in Tepalcatepec, in Michoacan state, where the CJNG is dominant, according to Milenio, a national newspaper based in Monterrey. One powerful explosive damaged an armored vehicle and injured 10 soldiers, the paper said.
“Jalisco Nueva Generacion was the first to use drones with explosives attached to them, so it doesn’t surprise me that they are now using landmines and taking a page from al Qaeda,” Robert Almonte, a Texas-based security consultant and expert on Mexican cartels told The Post.
“The mines are something new for them,” he said. “They appear to be similar to the ones used against US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The IED attack that took the lives of Antonio Céspedes Saldierna and Horacio Lopez Peña was an act of terror with all the hallmarks of the attacks that killed thousands of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, and while it occurred on the Mexican side, it was right on our border.
The Mexican drug cartels and their Middle East terrorist allies Hamas and Hezbollah have every incentive to move the next attack to the U.S. side of the border. We urge Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to get their heads together and immediately reinforce the border before the next IED kills Americans on the American side.
2024 Election
Illegal immigration
Terrorism
IED
Antonio Céspedes Saldierna
Improvised Explosive Device (IED)
Horacio Lopez Peña
Ninfa Griselda Ortega
Mexican cartels
Al Qaeda
Hamas
Sinaloa cartel
Hezbollah
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
Hassan Mohsen Mansour
Jalisco New Generation Cartel
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem