It really isn't that hard. The US works on a rigid schedule which the Mexican lookouts (halcones) keep a sharp eye on. In Tamaulipas, Scouts keep a sharp eye on American activity. These scouts are cartel paid taco vendors, taxi drivers, or just regular citizens. In Mexico cash talks, words pass as the saying goes where the cost of living is beyond most peoples' way.
In Mexico, most plaza bosses operate on their own and don't need superior bosses to help run their operations but rely on they're own resources. Plaza bosses watch US news and take in what the politicians and citizens are saying. They take that in and factor the policies and the sentiment into their operations. The cartels are not a stupid bunch of smugglers. They are smart and listen to everything our politicians are saying to see how they can use our laws against us or avoid prosecution.
In 2014, the cartels used human smuggling laws to inundate border patrol agents with apprehensions on wild goose chases of unaccompanied children to smuggle 20,000 lbs of narcotics by sending agents off the front lines to basically babysit aliens and kids.
The Zeta cartel was originally a military unit. The head of the Zeta Cartel was José María Guízar Valencia who was wanted in the US, that had later offered a $5 Million reward for his capture. Heriberto Lazcano was also a founder. He was a Mexican Special Forces soldier trained at the School of the Americas Warfare School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Where I went to jump school at.
Lozcano was killed at a soccer game on my shift.
Known as Z-43, he is a dual US-Mexican citizen and is thought to have run the Zeta's south-eastern operations.
Lazcano was trained by the US Army. He later used that same training against US Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection to build his drug smuggling business to amass millions of US Dollars and responsible for hundreds of deaths. His dead body was smuggled by his cartel members from the morgue and never found. No DNA was taken so his death was never confirmed by the Mexican government.
Aside from his knowledge of US intelligence techniques, he and other cartels such as the Gulf Cartel learned to used street people to give him real-time information about US activities. Even US tourists in Mexico were unknowingly giving the cartels useful information.
As Americans, we work on schedules just as border patrol and other law enforcement agencies do. Cartels know these schedules and rely on them to conduct their business, They know that they can pay a few Mexican locals a few bucks to cross the river and divert law enforcement so they can make a drug run up the river undetected while law enforcement is busy with the false aliens.
Another ploy is the suicide run. A car is scented with marijuana and run up through the checkpoint. While the scented car which is clean is being checked and taking up to three border patrol agent, the real load car is cleared and rushed through the checkpoint because the agents are held up checking the scented car.
Payoffs. Life along the border can be hard and pay is low. Getting payoffs by the cartels can be profitable and law enforcement members are not immune. Since I have lived here and on the mission, I have sen many officials get arrested for accepting bribes from the cartels. Everything from street cops to Sheriffs, to politicians. Money talks, bullshits walks.
Cartels members are not the primitive drug addicts people make them out to be. They are intelligent people with the goal of operating a profitable enterprise regardless of laws or life. Money is the ultimate gain. Don't think for one minute that they will spare you if they can make a buck. It will trickle down to the guy you buy your dope from on the street corner.
This is what we have created .
