The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
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Texas DPS ‘Operation Flat Top’ thwarts cartel activity on Fronton Island

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(The Center Square) – The Texas Department of Public Safety launched Operation Flat Top earlier this month as part of Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star, to thwart heavily armed cartel activity occurring in Mexico from spilling over into Fronton, Texas, in Starr County.

Gunfire can often be heard in the border towns of Fronton and Roma, Texas, where warring Mexican cartels are fighting for control over smuggling routes leading through the Mexican border towns of Los Guerra (across from Fronton) and Miguel Aleman (across from Roma) to eventually cross the Rio Grande River into Texas.

The cartels waging war for control of the area are CDG, the “Gulf Cartel,” and CDN, “Northeast Cartel.”

Texas DPS tactical units have been active along the border as part of OLS, including a Texas DPS Texas Rangers Special Operations unit, which has taken control of Fronton Island. On Oct. 2, the anniversary of the first skirmish of the Texas Revolution in 1835, the tactical unit was mobilized to address public safety and national security threats created by cartel operatives using Fronton Island as a staging site for smuggling activity.

Last month, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham declared the 170-acre Fronton Island as Texas land, as well as more than 45 acres of two islands south of Eagle Pass, in the Rio Grande River, and in April. Doing so enabled OLS operations on land at “the heart of the border crisis,” Buckingham said, to help Texas’ “robust push to control” an unprecedented border surge.

“While the federal government refuses to safeguard Texas communities, the General Land Office will step up and assist our state in its robust border security efforts,” she said when expanding Texas’ territory by 215 acres. “It is my commitment to Texans to do everything in my power to gain complete operational control of the southern border.”

TCS: Operation Lone Star drone footage of gun violence

 

Texas Department of Public Safety drone footage of cartel gunfire occurring in region of Mexico across from Fronton, Texas.

 

 

One cartel gun battle was captured on DPS drone footage Oct. 8. It lasted for nearly two hours between 2:45 am and 4:30 am.

On Oct. 12, while DPS officers were “conducting saturation patrol on Fronton Island,” they heard gunshots from Mexico, DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said. A DPS drone captured four heavily armed cartel operatives near the Rio Grande in Mexico directly across Fronton.

Another DPS drone image capture gunfire between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Oct. 14 in the same area.

Olivarez says, “This type of intimidation tactic is commonly used to disrupt law enforcement operations. DPS will maintain a proactive posture and deny illicit transnational criminal activity near the Texas-Mexico border.”

An Oct. 15 and 16, DPS drone footage shows cartel operatives holding what appear to be AR-15 rifles patrolling an area in Mexico across from Fronton.

Other drone footage taken at night shows muzzle flash from a gun battle “in the most violent region on the Texas-Mexico border between rival cartels in Los Guerra,” also across from Fronton, Olivarez explains.

By Oct. 22, National Guard engineers had cleared out debris, cane and brush on Fronton Island and constructed a concertina wire barrier along the Rio Grande River. A Texas flag has also been erected on the island and OLS officers are patrolling the area along the river and on Texas land.

“The State of Texas continues to take unprecedented action to secure the border by addressing threats to public safety,” Olivarez said while also posting a video of Operation Flat Top on social media.

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