The war between Mexico’s drug cartels has reached new heights as older major cartels have fragmented, increasing competition between the splinter groups and leading to more grisly acts of violence, even against Americans.

The most recent example of the brutality by Mexican drug cartels against U.S. citizens is that of the four kidnapped Americans in the border city of Matamoros by the Gulf Cartel in March. Two Americans were killed and two others—a brother and sister—survived and have recently talked about their experience.

“They tried to make us have sex with each other,” Eric Williams, who was shot in both legs, but survived the incident told CNN. “But we told them that we were brother and sister and that she was pregnant.”

Williams goes on to say that he and his sister Washington McGee were taken to several locations over several days, blindfolded with guns pointed at their heads.

The two eventually were turned over to Mexican authorities by members of the Gulf Cartel who left an “apology” note, the cartel also turned over several of their members allegedly involved in the kidnapping and murders to Mexican law enforcement.

That type of violence is very common in Mexico as multiple cartels are in a brutal war for supremacy across the country.

“In regards to the violence, in my entire life, and I’ve been working in the DEA for 28 years and I’ve been involved in law enforcement since I retired. So over 30 years of studying and watching the evolution of the cartels. They are probably the most violent organization that I’ve ever seen,” former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Special Operations Division (SOD) Derek Maltz told The Epoch Times.

“They do everything that major terrorists are doing. And it’s the way they do the killing, cutting off heads, throwing heads on dance floors, posting heads on fence posts with notes, cutting off limbs and sticking them in the mouth of the deceased with intimidating notes.”

As the head of SOD Maltz’s leadership played a vital role in the capture of Sinaloa Cartel Kingpin El Chapo Guzman. He says the cartels have “no regard for human life,” and only care about “maximizing profits.”

“They run their business like a Fortune 500 company in the sense of reducing their risk as they grow their business,” he said. “They’re working currently with the Chinese criminal networks, they’re flooding America with deadly fentanyl they’re also inundating the U.S. with methamphetamine … they’re in probably 40 or 50 countries between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel Jalisco New Generation. They have built up incredible capabilities in regards to weapons and state-of-the-art technology.”

The largest and most vicious drug cartel in Mexico is the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generation (CNJG) based out of the state of Jalisco and working all across the country, according to a risk assessment by the security firm Global Guardian.

CNJG trafficks drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamines into the United States and has also recently delved into the billion-dollar avocado business.

The Sinaloa Cartel (CDS), which was once the dominant drug cartel in Mexico, is now a second in power to the CNJG after years of infighting and splintering off into separate groups.

Three other major drug cartels like the Los Zetas, Gulf Cartel, and Juarez Cartel, also contribute to high levels of violence in Mexico.

All five cartels are constantly battling for dominance and territory, with Mexican citizens oftentimes getting caught in the middle.

“They are threatening Mexican citizens as well. They’re torturing people like we’ve never seen, they’re throwing people in acid pits, they decapitate people, dismember people, they have military grade weapons, they have surface to air rockets,” said Maltz.

The Mexican drug cartel’s presence isn’t just limited to Mexico, but their grasp extends throughout Central and South America where they’ve allied themselves with other transnational criminal organizations like MS-13 in El Salvador.

“I was on my way to High School [in San Salvador] and suddenly three men came out of the bushes with guns and forced me to go into an alley,” Angel Mamani told The Epoch Times. “They took my bag and my notebooks and forced me to take off my shirt to see if I had any tattoos.”

Mamani says the men were members of MS-13 and were checking him for tattoos to determine if he was part of a rival gang, “they told me if I tried to run they would kill me.”

He says the gang members eventually left once they took all that he had on him, giving him the ultimatum “plata o plomo” translated in English as “silver or lead.”

“It means give up everything you have or die,” he said.

The potentially deadly encounter is one that locals like Mamani experience regularly and migrants or those who wish to travel illegally across several land borders into the United States deal with in an even harsher way.

“It’s amazing to me just the treatment of the migrants [by the cartels] how all these young girls are taking birth control medicine before they start the journey because they know they’re going to get raped,” says Maltz. “Because these cartels and migrant smugglers are operating like savages in many ways the way they treat women and young kids, they’re very abusive [and there are many] sexual assaults.”

Maltz goes on to say that the abuse doesn’t end for the migrants who are being illegally brought into the United States, oftentimes to deliver deadly drugs like fentanyl. If they finally make it across the U.S.–Mexico border, the danger can be even worse.

“Once they get into the country [the cartels] are putting them in stash houses and its very inhumane conditions, depending on how much money you pay you could be in a house with 100 degrees with no air conditioning with people piled on top of each other.”

In January, former President Donald Trump said that if he’s reelected as president, he will order the U.S. military to crush Mexican drug cartels and show them “no mercy.”

Trump made the announcement in a video statement and had previously suggested using U.S. military force against drug cartels operating south of the border, including by reportedly launching missiles into Mexico to destroy drug labs.

Several Republican lawmakers in Congress have called for the United States to send a military force into Mexico to take out the drug cartels.

“The cartels are at war with us—poisoning more than 80,000 Americans with fentanyl every year, creating a crisis at our border, and turning Mexico into a failed narco-state,” said Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) in January. “It’s time we directly target them.”

There is even a push by lawmakers to label some Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.