President Trump on Thursday said targeting of the Mexican drug cartels on land has been ongoing for months and that a “full blast” attack on the drug traffickers is now underway.
Trump delivered the remarks at a Rose Garden lunch with first responders this afternoon.
A White House official said the following organizations were in attendance: International Association of Fire Fighters, National Volunteer Fire Council, the National Sheriffs Association, the National Association of Police Organizations, National Volunteer Fire Council, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Fraternal Order of Police, National Sheriffs’ Association, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, National Border Patrol Council, and International Association of Chiefs of Police.
The comments about an escalation with the cartels on land come amid escalating hostilities between the cartels and US law enforcement. Earlier this month, US Coast Guard personnel reportedly exchanged gunfire with individuals across the border in Starr County, Texas. Also this month, a Mexican cartel threatened to kidnap federal agents at the Texas-Mexico border.
Hundreds of additional US troops have recently been deployed to Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.
“I will tell you the drugs coming in by sea, by ocean, by sea are down 97 percent, and we don’t understand why it’s not 100 percent,” Trump said on Thursday, highlighting the US military and Coast Guard’s war on drug trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean Sea.
He then said that a “full blast” targeting of the cartels on land is “starting.”
“We haven’t even started — we haven’t done the land full blast yet, but it’s starting. We have to work,” Trump said. “We’re working with Mexico, but unfortunately the cartels run Mexico.”
“I tell that to the president of Mexico. She’s not happy. She’s a great woman, wonderful woman, but the cartels run Mexico, but we’ve hit them hard, and it’s very, very — we wanted to do the sea and the water first because the water that’s harder to do, and people didn’t realize that a big percentage of the drugs come in by the sea, by the water,” Trump continued.
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Trump later said, “The land is really just starting. It started a few months ago. We’re hitting them very hard.”
“We know all the paths, we know where all the bad guys are, the cartels, we know where they live, and we’re hitting them hard, but it’s going to be harder as we go along. They know they have a certain period of time to essentially give up.”
“Mexico should be doing it, but honestly, they’re not capable of doing it,” he continued.
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