By MG Paul E Vallely US Army (Ret)

It’s time for America and its leaders to act, including the Governors!

 You can no longer call these cartels drug organizations. They are well-organized armies that control vast swaths of territory across Mexico and conduct massive cross-border operations into the heart of America. The Mexican Government and Military are powerless to stop them as the Cartels own them -all bought off!

The weapons used in the war in Ukraine are now allegedly showing up right on the other side of our southern border. Our elected leaders at the state legislature and county board of supervisors/commissioners had better do something about this quickly. If these cartels decide to unite and cross over the southern borderline, our local sheriffs and border patrol would be dusted and rolled over in a heartbeat. They cannot stand up to this kind of firepower. Legislatures and county officials must start allocating resources to local sheriffs and police departments so they can immediately add manpower and equipment to fight this possible eventuality. I have zero faith that the federal government would act quickly enough to stop an organized military engagement on our southern border. Alleged armed members of a Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel are found and arrested on the Texas side of the Southern Border, but many have entered our cities and are known as “getaways”.

They carry heavy 50 caliber sniper rifles, RPG-7, or rocket-propelled grenades, and PKM or Polemist Kalashnikov Full Auto Machine Guns. Both are Russian-made and capable of incredible destructive firepower. Both are heavily used in the war in Ukraine.

According to the assessment, the weapons were smuggled from Ukraine to Mexico into the hands of the cartel, whose stronghold is in the city of Tamaulipas, on the

US border, from where the cartel also smuggles drugs into the US towns and cities. The weapons given to the Ukrainians by the US have been detected and used against US Border Patrol and soldiers at the border with Mexico.”¹

The Mexican Army claims that it has seized hundreds of fully automatic machine guns, dozens of grenade launchers, and a dozen rocket launchers from drug cartels since 2018. Now, Mexico’s top diplomats are demanding the U.S. investigate to find out how these military-grade weapons are being smuggled into the country.

According to The Associated Press, Alicia Bárcena, Foreign Relations Secretary, called for immediate attention.

“The (Mexican) Defense Department has warned the United States about weapons entering Mexico that are for the exclusive use of the U.S. Army. An investigation into this must be carried out,” Bárcena said.

Ken Salazar, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, confirmed that the issue had been addressed in recent meetings and pledged that the U.S. would work closely with Mexico’s Defense Department to resolve it.

“We are going to look into it, we are committed to working with Sedena to see what’s going on,” Salazar said.

The weapons were not identified as sourced directly from the U.S. military. Other potential sources for the guns may come from black-market trading or previous conflicts in the region. Mexican laws permit only low-caliber weapons to be owned by civilians, and the sale or trade of these weapons is strictly regulated. Previously, Mexico has filed lawsuits against American gun manufacturers, stating that they were aware that their weapons were being resold on the black market.

While the lawsuit was dismissed in 2022, an appeals court in Boston revived the suit earlier this week. The appeal was granted because the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which protects gun manufacturers from misuse of their products by individuals, does not extend protection beyond the U.S. border.

In the complaint, Mexico claims that over 2% of the weapons made by the named companies, which include Beretta USA, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Colt’s Manufacturing Company, and Glock, are smuggled across the border, amounting to over 500,000 weapons annually. The manufacturers cited as defendants in the suit deny any wrongdoing or knowledge of any activities alleged in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit revival and plea for U.S. investigation come just one month after Reuters detailed a potential gun-smuggling ring in Racine, Wisconsin. U.S. federal arms-trafficking investigators allege that eight people facilitated illegal gun trade to the Mexican cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion.

All defendants have pleaded not guilty, and a jury trial was set for May 2024. Regarding the indictments, Alejandro Celoria, legal advisor to Mexico’s foreign ministry, said the U.S. firearms business should be more careful to ‘prevent their products from falling into the wrong hands.”  [1]

Some of Mexico’s most feared criminal groups, including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, use military vehicles in pitched gun battles with the police. Organizations like the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel use armored trucks to fight each other. Mexican security forces call these vehicles monstrous (monsters), but they are also known as rhinoceroses (rhinos) and narcotanques (narco-tanks). Cartels emblazon the exteriors with their initials or the latest camouflage patterns, sometimes making them hard to distinguish from official military vehicles.

Our southern border continues to be breached by illegal border crossers and the cartel’s movement of drugs to inner America. We must remain vigilant and aggressive and forge ahead with a more offensive-oriented border strategy. You cannot win and defeat this national threat by being on defense. Now is the time for offensive action.

If I were the Commander-in-Chief, I would have my national security staff and military commanders planning and executing a strategy to secure the southern border and allow the US rule of law to prevail. The Department of Defense has been negligent in defending the United States and its citizens against an invasion of our country against external enemies. Destroying the Cartels requires offensive and defensive military operations.

It is time to enforce the rule of law along our southern borders truly. No more excuses…no more delays…no more politics., no more kowtowing to special interest groups or claims by open-border believers and La Raza. The citizens of the USA are in danger daily. They are being killed or families harmed because the border states of Mexico are controlled by thugs and terrorists copying Jihad tactics of mayhem and murder. Once again, the entire area is adorned with upheaval, violence, and lawlessness, as in 1846. The northern states of Mexico, Baja California Norte,  Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas are under rogue control, and the Mexican Police and Army cannot control them. Therefore, it is in the national interest of the United States to restore order on the border and across our borders. Positive action must be taken because of this clear and present danger to US Citizens and our economy.

With the National Security Council, Department of Defense, Homeland Security, Intelligence agencies, and State assets, the US Government can plan and execute an operational plan to secure our southern borders. However, let me provide an executable program of operations for the US Government to undertake with resolve and commitment to protect and ensure the American people for now and in the future.

The problems on and across our southern borders of California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas are in the news daily. You would have to live in a perpetual cave not to know the situation. We have a war of gigantic proportions…illegal invasions, treacherous drug cartels, gangs, human trafficking, drugs (is there not a war on drugs???), smuggling, kidnappings, and corruption of officials on both sides of the borders. The Cartels fully control all levels of the Mexican Border and work with their international partner, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The plan is essential and advanced unconventional/conventional war planning. This combines the best use of our Forces that will encompass intelligence, targeting, and structural organization of our forces to conduct the mission, base operations, and offensive and defensive operations. First, organize three (3) Border Task Force Groups (BTFGs) and position them in three operational bases: Texas, Arizona, and Southern California. We have existing bases in those states that can be used, such as Ft. Bliss, Texas; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and Camp Pendleton, California. There is no requirement to create any new operational bases. I will not name these existing bases because of operational security, but the Department of Defense can quickly figure this out! The BTFGs will be organized based on special operations, army, air force, and navy joint task forces. Selected units and personnel will be relocated and moved to these designated bases. I would also declare, with Mexico, a 20-mile “No Go Zone” on the Mexican side of the border. Any group or persons occupying this zone engaging in criminal or illegal activities against Mexico or the United States will be involved on-site.

The mission of the Command will be to target and conduct offensive and defensive operations on the Mexican side of the border. National Guard, Border Patrol, DEA, and local sheriff’s units will conduct border security operations on the United States side of the wall. This initiative does not violate any existing Posse Comitatus laws.

The National Guard is and will be an asset of the state governors to be used as needed to augment the Active Force BTFGs’ operations on the US border. Coordinate with the current Homeland Security Department until HS assets is transferred to the Pentagon.

Maximum use must be made of our Special Operators, Delta Force, Special Forces, Seals, AF Special Ops, Rangers, Marine Recon, and Special Ops Air Assets and augmented by Active Force regular Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force.

The concerns and anxiety of Americans, particularly in the Border States, have grown significantly in the past year. Changes in law enforcement operations have forced cartel mules trafficking drugs and illegal border crossers into ever more isolated areas, increasing the number of deaths and violence to a point where even the most hardened enforcement officials are overwhelmed.

The political ferment over illegals has never been more significant. Seventy-eight percent of Americans think and know that the government is not doing enough to control our borders; talk shows bristle with demands for action. Additionally, Global jihad and jihadis are a significant threat as they eye the southern border as a path of least resistance to strike inside the United States.

Racine, Wisconsin, is best known for factories, farming, and an extravagant televised prom celebration. But in 2018, Racine’s suburban sprawl on the edge of Lake Michigan became a source of high-caliber weapons for one of Mexico’s top fentanyl trafficking gangs, the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG). The cartel exploited permissive federal and state-level gun control rules to buy some of the most potent weapons available to American civilians, according to two former agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and two other sources, all with knowledge of the investigation.

Members of a local family, working with a cousin in Mexico, enlisted friends and relatives who bought guns on their behalf in Racine and transported them to California and south across the border, according to an indictment from Wisconsin’s Eastern District Court unsealed in February. Their clients included a hit squad reporting to CJNG leader Nemesio Oseguera, better known as ‘El Mencho,’ according to Chris Demlein, one of the former ATF agents. The Racine case unlocked ‘the most prolific CJNG firearms trafficking network ever discovered,’ said Demlein, who, until 2021, served as a senior special agent with ATF and oversaw a multi-agency arms trafficking project that coordinated dozens of investigations.

The Plan: Implementation of The Lily Pad Strategy

 For the Lily Pad implementation to be effective in either an offensive action, a reactive response, or a criminal law enforcement action, a trusted resource should be used to effectively communicate updated intelligence data and incidence response information from the dynamic, ever-changing operating environment of critical event management and planning. We should look to history to find and use an effective “hopper”. In World War II, the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard were successfully used to protect our homeland as the rest of our military went overseas. The combined effort of these joint forces successfully achieved our nation’s goals for homeland defense by effectively communicating intelligence data and incident reports to the military, law enforcement, and to international intelligence directorates. Based on the gaps in coordination and communication both in the working operational environment and technological environment, let us implement a similar method and combine Conventional and Special Operations forces.

 Our Department of Defense must plan and execute offensive operations against the Mexican Cartels and bring our national borders under control. We can no longer wait to secure our nation!

Mayorkas must be removed immediately and tried for Treason by aiding and abetting the Sinaloa Cartels….. avowed enemies of the United States.

This is a military force action to protect the borders of America.

Contact for interviews: suaus1961@gmail.com.  Released and Distributed by the Stand Up America US Foundation www.standupamericaus.org

[1] American Military New, Mexican Demands Investigation 1.24.2024