A massive victory took place in the ongoing battle against cartel violence; authorities arrested a notorious commander of the Gulf Cartel named Fabian Silva Aguirre, also known as “Comandante Pony,” who had illegally entered the United States and was secretly operating in the border city of Brownsville, Texas. The operation’s success is an example of the Trump Administration’s strengthened efforts to secure America’s southern border and crack down on cartel influence.
For context, Aguirre was one of the top commanders of the Gulf Cartel and had heavy involvement in both narcotics and illegal alien smuggling; his severe punishment was made worse due to holding previous convictions from illegally re-entering the country after a prior deportation from a federal district court decision.
Aguirre was apprehended on April 2 by the Cameron County Constables Precinct 2 in collaboration with the U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley anti-smuggling unit. The operation highlights increasing cooperation between local and federal law enforcement agencies determined to dismantle dangerous cartel networks embedded in American communities.
In a press release posted to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, Gloria Chavez, Chief of the Rio Grande Valley Sector commented on the gravity of the arrest. She said, “This arrest demonstrates our commitment to dismantling criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel. By apprehending this individual, we are not only safeguarding our borders but sending a clear message that we will relentlessly pursue those who seek to exploit our nation’s security.”
Addressing the growing threat posed by criminal groups like the Gulf Cartel, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January officially designating the cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). This classification empowers U.S. law enforcement to deploy additional resources and stricter measures against cartel members and their operations within American borders.
Making an official statement in a White House press release, the Trump administration provided context, saying, “International cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime… From designated foreign-terror organizations to antagonistic foreign governments, complex adaptive systems, characteristic of entities engaged in insurgency and asymmetric warfare; and infiltration into foreign governments across the Western Hemisphere.”
The statement from the press release continued clarifying the plans of the president, writing, “The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.”
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Concluding the press release, the Trump Administration said that it would ensure the annihilation of the FTOs, saying “It is the policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures, thereby protecting the American people and the territorial integrity of the United States.”
Watch President Trump address FTOs in the State of the Union address here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video