Mexican Drug Cartel Reportedly Plotted to Blow Up Texas Dam
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mexican and U.S. authorities were “secretly scrambling” last month to thwart an alleged plot by a Mexican drug cartel to blow up a Texas dam and unleash billions of gallons of water along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Mexico's Zeta cartel planned the attack to get back at its rival, the Gulf cartel, which controls smuggling routes from the Falcon Dam to the Gulf of Mexico, Sigifredo Gonzalez, sheriff of Texas' Zapata County, told the Chronicle.
But though the Gulf Cartel was the target, about four million residents and massive amounts of agricultural land would have been caught in the resulting massive flood, the paper reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sources told the Chronicle that U.S. officials learned of the plot through "serious and reliable sources," the seizure of small amounts of dynamite near the dam, and the discovery of a an alert from the Zeta cartel warning Mexican residents to evacuate the area ahead of the blast.
The Mexican military then stepped up its presence in the area based in part on the U.S. intelligence, sources told the Chronicle.
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