Cartels a cause of Valley's street-gang effect, cops say

McALLEN — Local street and prison gangs are more dangerous than Mexican cartels to the people of Hidalgo County, Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.

The county’s top cop cites a disparity in local crime statistics as the basis for his argument.

“We’ve already had incidents in Hidalgo County perpetrated by our gang members that have been detrimental to the security of our community,” he said. “We haven’t had any outright cartel activity in Hidalgo County that has hurt us.”

Although brazen street battles among cartel gunmen and the Mexican military have not spilled over the border and into Valley streets, hundreds of locals have been killed, robbed or assaulted by members of the local organized crime community in recent years, Treviño said.

As of 2005, the sheriff’s gang unit, which he boasts is the largest in a six-county area, has identified more than 70 gangs and more than 11,000 gang members in Hidalgo County, he said.

Identification is made possible through the county jail, as every person arrested in any of the 20 municipalities within the county on charges of a Class B misdemeanor — such as criminal trespassing — or higher has to go through the jail before he or she can post bond.

Investigators have several ways to obtain identifying information from individuals upon their arrival, including self-admittance, prior admissions and by looking at their tattoos.

“Those markings and tattoos tell you their life history,” Treviño said.

Identifying cartel members is difficult because they don’t carry any tags or signs on their body, the sheriff said. Investigators must rely on intelligence-gathering to connect culprits to bigger organizations.

Since 2005, gangs have been responsible for 125 homicides, 325 robberies and have been involved in 1,780 narcotics arrests in Hidalgo County, according to data from the county jail.

No such county statistics exist for members of Mexican drug cartels, Treviño said.

“When you compare numbers on gang membership and number of gangs to cartel groups and cartel members, how is the scale going to tip?” Treviño asked.

It’s not a black-and-white answer, San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said.

“I do agree that gangs are a bigger threat to us,” he said. “But their purpose is being fueled and supported by criminal organizations on the other side (of the border).”

SUBCONTRACTING

It’s no secret cartels are using gangs to hide, transport and sell narcotics, but to what extent?

“I don’t know if anyone can answer that,” McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said. “When any of us talk like that, it’s basically loose talk. It’s an effort to simply grab a blanket and wrap everything in it and not be challenged.”

Treviño said there is a definite relationship between gangs and cartels in the Valley, but it’s not as pronounced as it is in El Paso, where the Barrio Aztecas work closely with the Juárez Cartel.

“We haven’t gotten to that point,” he said, “but that’s why I want to keep tabs and continue putting the pressure on these guys so that it doesn’t get to that point.”

There’s a particular local gang that worries the sheriff, the Partido Revolucionario Mexicano, he said. Members must be criminal, illegal aliens in order to join, which makes the threat of conglomeration more feasible as they have what the sheriff calls “the Mexican connection.”

Regardless of ethnicity, street gangs offer cartels another perk: home-field advantage.

“They were born here; they were raised here, and they train themselves as gang members here,” the sheriff said. “They know the back streets and the back roads and how everything operates in Hidalgo County.”

Most cartel members are foreigners. They were born and raised in another country and are not familiar with our way of life, he said.

That’s exactly what makes forming a relationship between both entities more enticing, Gonzalez said.

“If the cartels want to transport narcotics through Texas, they’re not going to ask the average citizen to do that,” the San Juan police chief said. “They’re going to ask people who have been involved in criminal activity and are somewhat organized, and the only people that do that are street and prison gangs.”

“They’ve already been involved in aggravated robberies, extortion, home invasions and violent crimes.”

It’s nothing new that a more sophisticated group will use another to be its muscle, FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said. However, he would not comment on the extent of the local association between gangs and cartels, saying those are aspects of ongoing investigations.

“The whole idea is to make money,” he said. “Everyone has the same motivation.”

Vasys also refused to give an opinion on which criminal group poses a greater danger to the people of Hidalgo County, but did say one of the biggest threats is street crime — which is mostly perpetrated by gangs, according to the sheriff.

“The major source of income (for gangs) is to deal street-level drugs,” Treviño said. “That really contributes to the overall crime rate because in order for these fellows to get money to buy a load, they’re going to steal a car, they’re going to have to burglarize a home and steal a TV or they’re going to have to go commit an armed robbery.”

But it’s not only gangs with ties to cartels that are committing these crimes, Vasys warned.

“Crime is about people,” Rodriguez said. “The more people we have, the more probability of crime.”

It’s difficult to gauge which organization causes the most problems for law enforcement because they are both closely related.

“How much responsibility falls on cartels for our local crime problem?” Treviño asked. “A vast majority because it all originates with them. But how many cartel members come over to this side to commit crimes? Very few.”

Treviño acknowledges that there has been cartel-related crime in the county, but said the general public has not been the target.

“It’s always been between the cartel people and members of their own organization or those that have harmed that particular organization,” he said. “The general public has not really been harmed by it other than by reputation.”

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Naxiely Lopez covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4434.