Brinkerhoff reports: "Texas' obsession with underground drilling for natural gas has created a giant gap in the federal government's border patrol defenses against drug smuggling."

The US-Mexico border in Texas. (photo: Unknown)

Drug Cartels Exploit Fracking on Texas-Mexico Border

By Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov

22 July 12

exas' obsession with underground drilling for natural gas has created a giant gap in the federal government's border patrol defenses against drug smuggling.

Across a large swath of remote land stretching from the border into east Texas, drilling companies performing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have opened up a network of new private roads - which smugglers are now using to ship illegal narcotics into the U.S.

Cartels also have stolen trucks belonging to energy companies, and bribed truck drivers and contractors working on the Eagle Ford Shale, which is 50 miles wide and 400 miles long.

Smugglers have even "cloned" Texas government vehicles to use for transporting drugs through the region.

Police seized about 18,000 pounds of marijuana in two trucks "on a private road leased to energy companies and carrying what looked like supplies used in oil field operations," according to the Houston Chronicle.

To Learn More:

Frack the Border: Cartels Using Oil Boom to Move Drugs (by Robert Beckhusen, Wired)

Gas Drilling a Boom for Drug Traffickers, Too (by Dane Schiller, Houston Chronicle)

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+7 # bingers 2012-07-22 08:43

Leave it to Texas to always get everything wrong!

+6 # Texas Aggie 2012-07-22 17:54

Your assumption is that somehow TX is against the cartels. Nothing could be further from the truth. TX benefits tremendously from the drug industry since most of the income from drug sales in the US that go back to Mexico go through TX and benefit TX financial institutions. HSBC wasn't a unique situation, you know. The Texas Miracle™ is built in part on cheap immigrant labor, expensive prices at the pump (thanx, suckers) and drug money.

+4 # jwb110 2012-07-22 09:14

Texas gets what it deserves.

+6 # carolsj 2012-07-22 12:44

Never underestimate the cleverness and opportunism of the cartels. Money is a big motivator, as we all know too well.

+5 # Bigfella 2012-07-22 19:30

Legalise dope and prositution end the problem!

+1 # Doubter 2012-07-23 18:10

It is not for nothing that prostitution is called "the world's oldest profession." - Seeking altered states of awareness has been going on since animals in the wild partook of fermented fruit.
These activities will continue unabated long after this particular civilization is reduced to a paragraph in the history books. (unless humans morph into angels!)

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