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Texas Seizes Cartel Island in the Rio Grande

OCTOBER 4, 2023 BY TODD BENSMAN

By force of arms, elite Texas Rangers occupy the largest cartel sanctuary island yet to deny its use for further marauding

NEAR FRONTON, Texas – As the orange rays of early dawn lit a local corn farm Monday morning, the Texas Rangers commander briefed a heavily armed assembly of elite state police and Texas military personnel, much like a World War II military commander pep-talking soldiers about to invade an enemy-held Pacific Island.

It so happened that the Texans also were about to do just that, albeit this one a 170-acre mile-long land mass in the middle of the Rio Grande. The declared enemy were ultra-violent Mexican cartels that occupied and used it for years with impunity to smuggle cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, weapons, and illegal immigrants while shooting at American cops, riddling Border Patrol boats, and intimidating Texas farmers, ranchers, and the 180 residents of the isolated riverfront village of Fronton.

But no more after Monday, Texas’ Governor Gregg Abbott recently decided in ordering his Texas Military Force and state police to retake “Fronton Island” by armed force and to hold it, come what may. With D-Day about to start, the Rangers officer dished advice and encouragement to his force:

We have medical evacuation plans and extra blood on hand “in case we do get engaged and someone is shot or something,” the Rangers officer told gathered men, some of whom shifted from one foot to another or repositioned their M-4 rifles.

And: “Let’s keep a close eye on those structures that are up there that have that height advantage on us,” the Rangers officer warned of the burned out, bullet-pocked structures up on a Mexican side bluff overlooking Fronton Island, often used as sniper’s perches and many marked with spray-painted cartel acronyms.

“We have not seen people in there this morning, but we know that that’s what they’re used for.”