Cartel Surveillance Center Found in Mexican Tourist Hotspot near Texas Border

Authorities in Mexico raided a hotel used as a front to hide a cartel surveillance center in a border city known as a “safe” tourist hotspot near the Texas border.

The raid occurred over the weekend in Nuevo Progreso, just south of Progreso, Texas, when agents from the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office and infantrymen from Mexico’s Navy raided a hotel. Authorities initially tracked a vehicle that knocked down government surveillance cameras in the region.

Investigators tracked the vehicle to a hotel in Nuevo Progreso, a city frequented by U.S. tourists seeking low-priced medicines and liquor.

Inside the hotel, investigators found several monitors hooked up to a complex surveillance network of cameras and communication devices. After the raid, authorities also seized weapons, body armor, marijuana, and hundreds of bottles of unregulated prescription drugs.

Each week, thousands of Texas residents and other visitors cross into Nuevo Progreso, where the small city hosts dozens of low-priced pharmacies, doctors’ offices, dental offices, restaurants, and bars. Historically, the town has been protected from violence since the Gulf Cartel profits from the illicit trade of counterfeit drugs and from charging protection money from local businesses.

The raid in Nuevo Progreso comes as two main factions of the Gulf Cartel, the Metros from Reynosa and the Escorpiones from Matamoros, have been waging a fierce turf war. The fighting has brought much violence to the northern part of Tamaulipas, where convoys of gunmen clash in rural areas. Despite the turf war, cartel gunmen have largely avoided clashing near Nuevo Progreso to avoid scaring off tourism.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.