The new world of Narcosurveillance.
The different cartels operating in Mexican border cities are setting up their own "intelligence centers" equipped with cameras, communications and a rudimentary dispatch office from where they send information gathered by their cameras, lookouts or sources to their operators.
Criminal organizations like the Sinaloa cartel or the Jalisco New Generation cartel are setting up proper "intelligence bunkers" from where they keep a tight watch on authorities, citizens and "enemies" along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Mexican officials and cartel members speaking with Fox News Digital.
In July, the local authorities of the Mexican border city of Tecate, Baja California, found over a dozen "illegal security cameras" around the city allegedly owned by the Sinaloa cartel.
"After an investigation we found these cameras didn't belong to any of the city or state security forces and decided to remove them in an attempt to combat the criminal organizations operating here," Tecate's chief of police, Leopoldo Tizoc Durán, said in a press release.
In Tijuana, the cartel pays a monthly rent to home or business owners to install security cameras on their properties, according to a Sinaloa cartel operative speaking with Fox News Digital anonymously.
"We pay from 500 pesos to 1,000 ($25 to $50) for installing a couple of cameras around their property," the operative said. "Those images go straight to a safe house where we have people sending out reports."
The cartel receives screenshots or clips via WhatsApp on private groups of cartel operatives regarding rival cartels or members of a police force entering a city or a neighborhood.
"This is also how we find people easily around a city. When someone owes us money or a rival is hiding, it doesn't take too long for his face or vehicle to pop up on one of these cameras," the operative said.
Authorities in border states like Baja California and Sonora are seizing illegally installed security cameras mostly at border cities' main highways, but according to a Tijuana state police official who asked to remain anonymous, the cameras installed on private property are still operating.
The security cameras draw power from electric lines over the city's streets and are connected to the internet, according to officials.
"We can't remove those cameras that easily, we need an order from a judge to enter the property and uninstall those cameras that we know are owned by the cartels," the official told Fox News Digital.
The cartel's intelligence centers also gather information from the hundreds of lookouts settled at the entrance of various cities or on the top of the mountains around.
The lookouts, known as "halcones" (hawks in Spanish) send information regarding vehicles, plate numbers and or untypical visitors like non-Mexican nationals or flashy cars, according to the cartel operative.
"On the border we also use drones to watch over the gringos (Americans). We write down the shifts of the Border Patrol or if they catch some of the migrants we were smuggling," the operative in Tijuana said.
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In cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, the local cartels also have a makeshift "dispatch center" from where an operator can send for back up in case of a fire fight or place a hit against a rival or police.
A cartel member in Tijuana detailed how they have mapped the city by different sectors and settled hitmen on each sector to be ready to attack a target.
"Tijuana now has a lot of policemen around the city, so if a sicario moves far from where the hit is made, the probabilities of him being arrested are high, but if we call one of the hitmen at a certain sector and he goes and do the work and then gets back to his hideout on by only a couple of blocks away, it is very hard that he would get caught," the cartel member told Fox News Digital.
If you think that what the Mexican cartels are doing in Mexico is bad, wait until you see what the Mexican cartels are doing in America:
George Soros. Of course. (This post is now antisemitic, according to the Soros-funded Soros Propaganda Gang ADL.)
"It's got an enormous footprint. In the three years since I last saw it, it looks like it�s pretty much doubled in size,� @RepBrianBabin, who recently flew over CR, told The Daily Wire.
"There is word that the cartels are playing a role in this area."
The @CIS_org's @BensmanTodd told The Daily Wire that "When people buy here, they're buying peace of mind from law enforcement."
"The Mexican cartels are very active in that they run safe houses, they run drugs, they do marijuana grows, they commit crimes."
More in the full article at the Daily Wire.
Inside Colony Ridge: The 'Fastest Growing Development' In The U.S. Is A Magnet For Illegal Immigrants
Experts say growing community of illegal immigrants in Texas development invites cartel activity, is a national security issue
By Spencer Lindquist
PLUM GROVE, Texas -- A Texas land developer has established a sprawling settlement north of Houston where thousands of illegal immigrants are believed to have settled, raising concerns among experts and elected officials that the development 400 miles in the interior of the United States could become a strategic asset for cartels.
Located in Liberty County, Texas near the small town of Plum Grove, the Colony Ridge development is a sprawling community that, based on an analysis of publicly available information, is now over 60 square miles and nearly the size of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Its population is estimated to be anywhere between 50,000 to 75,000, and it is growing rapidly thanks to a marketing plan targeted at Texas' hispanic population.
The Daily Wire surveyed the development by helicopter to assess the true extent of its growth. The flight began in the wealthy Woodlands neighborhood, but it was only minutes before the designer homes and pools gave way to half-built homes, dilapidated trailers, and heaps of trash.
Houses on the ground fly the flags of foreign countries and many homes display their addresses on spray painted pieces of plywood. Many structures, some of which are not hooked up to running water, were under construction, while others were unfinished but didn't appear to be actively getting worked on. At least one plot of land didn't have any structures at all, just a tent in the corner, nestled between shrubs. Stray dogs without collars could be seen trotting along the side of the underdeveloped streets.
But despite what appears to be poor living conditions throughout much of the development, Colony Ridge is exploding. The view from the sky revealed a sprawling labyrinth of roundabouts and endless rows of sidewalkless streets, with empty plots waiting to be developed. The edges of the property are dotted with construction vehicles, each one tasked with cutting and clearing the surrounding forest to make way for yet more growth.
A calculation performed based on acreage and lot data provided on the Colony Ridge website for each of their six subdivisions found that it was already more than 60 square miles, which is bigger than major southern cities such as Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Asheville, North Carolina.
Colony Ridge, owned and operated by developer William "Trey" Harris, is rapidly expanding, at least in part due to a financing arrangement that makes it possible for illegal aliens to buy land deep in the heart of Texas. While traditional financing methods require credit ratings and proof of income, Todd Bensman, a National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Wire that buyers at Colony Ridge are able to circumvent the usual requirements, even dodging the need to provide a social security number.
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Likely due to the massive influx of migrants into Texas since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, Bensman told The Daily Wire that Colony Ridge "is in the midst of maybe its greatest boom ever."
Michael Yon, an independent journalist who has repeatedly flown over and driven through Colony Ridge to document its expansion, projects that the development will soon house hundreds of thousands.
"I don't know how many live there now, but this is going to be big enough for 200,000 people," Yon told The Daily Wire. "They're actually building a city."