Mexican cartels are still recruiting U.S. soldiers as smugglers for their human trafficking operations along the Texas border. Since April, law enforcement agents in a single Texas border county have detained three US Army soldiers for attempting to smuggle migrants deeper into the state.
US Attorneys charged three soldiers from Fort Cavazos in Killeen, Texas, with involvement in a people smuggling operation in the most recent charges revealed this month. Police captured two individuals when they pursued a car carrying three migrants near the West Texas border late last month. Investigators captured the third soldier at Fort Hood after discovering he had recruited the others.
These arrests follow another soldier’s arrest for human smuggling in Southwest Texas on August 21, 2024.
Kinney County deputies detained a 19-year-old Army National Guardsman from San Antonio while attempting to transport a migrant across the county.
Days before, Kinney County deputies detained another Texas Military Forces member for attempting to smuggle yet another migrant through the county. Unlike the two others who drove there from Central Texas, that soldier was part of the Texas “Operation Lone Star” border security assignment.
That arrest stung Texas Governor Greg Abbott – who (through a spokesman) said “If the allegations are true, the accused is a traitor and criminal:”
Mexican cartels are using TikTok to entice these soldiers (and other Texans) with promises of simple money in exchange for smuggling migrants into the state.
Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe states that while he “doesn’t sympathize with these criminals—the guard’s low pay and the cartel’s easy (social media) access (play) a role in this dangerous game.”