A new video series offers true testimonies from Texas farmers, ranchers, and law enforcement agents who paint a grim picture of the violence flowing onto U.S. soil from Mexico via Texas.
Speaking in San Angelo at Angelo State University, Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Todd Staples announced the debut of a 16-part video series titled: "Texas Traffic—True Stories of Drug and Human Smuggling."
You can see the series online at www.ProtectYourTexasBorder.com.
VIDEO DEBUTS. Texas Ag Commissioner Todd Staples has launched a new video, "Texas Traffic—True Stories of Drug and Human Smuggling." It depicts the Mexican drug cartel crime in South Texas. Each week over the next four months, the Texas Department of Agriculture will release videotaped interviews.
"Federal officials in Washington can no longer deny violence in Mexico is flowing into the United States," Commissioner Staples said. "These brazen transnational criminal organizations are using terrorism to smuggle drugs and people through our Texas farms and ranches. The violence is not only taking place along the Rio Grande River, but also on property 50 or 60 miles north of the border."
Each week over the next four months, the Texas Department of Agriculture will release videotaped interviews with law enforcement agents, farmers, ranchers and other citizens on www.ProtectYourTexasBorder.com. These "Texas Traffic" stories offer firsthand accounts of drug running, human trafficking, international trespassing, and other criminal activities linked to dangerous Mexican drug cartels.
"Our citizens are finding human remains in their fields along with drugs and cut fences," Staples lamented. "There also have been incidents where fearful U.S. citizens have sold their property or had to hold intruders at gunpoint in order to protect their families. Clearly, this is a national security breach that demands sufficient federal resources to combat the cartels and restore safety and security to Texas soil."
The true "Texas Traffic" stories are a testament to the reality that violence initiated by Mexican drug cartels is flowing into the United States and extending northward into other areas of the nation.
In one interview, Dr. Mike Vickers, a veterinarian and longtime resident of Brooks County, compares the Texas border to a battleground and says the federal government clearly is downplaying the severity of the situation there.
"The border is not secure," Vickers says. "It's dangerous. We are in a war zone. There's absolutely no truth to what they (federal officials) are saying."
"The Mexican drug cartels are violent, they are relentless in accessing the American drug market, and they have chosen Texas as their primary access point," Staples said. "Unfortunately, President Obama and his staff continue to make jokes about the situation and suggest our border is safer than ever."