Violence by Mexico's drug cartels, such as the murders of a family, including a 17-year-old mother and her baby, in California over the weekend, will continue because of the Biden administration's lack of action on the U.S. border, Texas Highway Patrol staff Lt. Christopher Olivarez told Newsmax on Wednesday.
"When you have an open border, especially when you allow so many people to come across illegally, that's also going to provide opportunities to the Mexican drug cartels to expand their criminal network throughout the United States," Olivarez said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
"That's what they've been doing. They've been doing it for years, but now because they know there are no consequences, that nothing's going to happen to them."
Olivarez also said no pressure is being put on the Mexican government to go after the criminal organizations, allowing them to expand their networks and make billions of dollars a year on human and drug smuggling.
"You see the violence that's taking place in the United States," he said. "We have encountered similar instances where these Mexican drug cartels do operate as far as the United States, and they do carry out execution-style killings. That's been happening, and the fact that we're speaking now about what happened in California, where you see a family that should not have been killed."
Olivarez added: "We are going to see more of these situations, whether it be a family, whether it be criminals that are involved in organized crime."
That's because there are "no consequences, no leadership" when it comes to the border, he said.
"The Mexican drug cartels are very aware" of what is happening, and are "exploiting that," Olivarez added. "That's why they can expand their criminal network across the United States."
Olivarez noted that the cartels are using drones for surveillance on the Border Patrol in their efforts to bring immigrants into the U.S.
"It goes to show you the extent that these criminals are working as far as in terms of how they take advantage of our vulnerabilities along the border because there's no policy in place," said Olivarez.
Olivarez said Border Patrol is getting "great support" from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at a time when the lack of action from the federal government had before "demoralized" it.
"That's why we're out here every single morning working alongside them to show the work that they're doing, because they're not getting the credit they deserve from the upper leadership, and that's what they need right now," said Olivarez. "The fact that this is taking place, it's not their fault."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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