Feds Charge Mexican National Arrested at Texas Border With Helping Terrorist Drug Cartel

A 21-year-old Mexican national arrested at the Texas border faces terrorism charges for allegedly working as a hitman for a Mexican cartel, U.S. Department of Justice officials announced Sept. 16.

Jose Flores-Flores, of Tamaulipas, Mexico, was charged with federal counts related to providing material support to the foreign terrorist organization the Cartel del Golfo, also known as the Gulf cartel.

He was also charged with illegal reentry into the United States, being in the United States after previously being deported, and giving false information to border agents, according to court documents.

He was arrested at the border on July 10 with two other illegal border crossers, according to authorities. Before the arrest, he was questioned by a Border Patrol agent who noticed inconsistencies with Flores-Flores’s age and discovered he was an adult and had been convicted in January 2025 for illegally entering the United States, according to authorities.

President Donald Trump assigned the terrorist designation to the Gulf Cartel last year, giving law enforcement more tools to prosecute criminals accused of crimes related to cartel activity.

“That designation matters,” Rio Grande Section Chief Patrol Agent Jared Ashby said at a press conference held in McAllen, Texas. “It recognizes the serious national security threat posed by these organizations and gives prosecutors additional tools to pursue charges when supported by the evidence.”

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Aaron Reitz said Flores-Flores has been an alleged active member of the cartel for more than a year.

Investigators reviewed Flores-Flores’s phone for evidence and discovered photos of “piles of chopped up body parts” and images of the defendant allegedly holding military-style radios and weapons.

They also allegedly found a video of the defendant dismembering a corpse, Reitz said.

Flores-Flores told investigators he was a “sakario,” which means a hitman or contract killer.

“What’s more, he admitted that it was, in fact, him seen in the gruesome images and videos on his phone,” Reitz said. “He described his job as a ranger and hitman for the Gulf Cartel, driving around looking for targets, monitoring Mexican authorities, and rival cartels’ communications,” Reitz said. “And when a body needed to be chopped up, Flores-Flores was the guy you called.”

According to prosecutors, the defendant allegedly worked nights for the Los Metros faction of the cartel, maintaining his assigned sector in Reynosa, Mexico, a border city across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas. He allegedly conducted counter-surveillance against the Mexican military and law enforcement.

Investigators allege Flores-Flores dismembered at least two people on the outskirts of Reynosa after they ran afoul of the cartel.

Evidence found by Border Patrol helped identify suspected human disposal locations in Mexico, revealing three sets of human remains in possible grave sites, according to Ashby.

Flores-Flores is the first illegal immigrant apprehended by the agency to face federal terrorism charges for his alleged role in supporting a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Rio Grande sector chief said.

Flores-Flores is scheduled to be arraigned before a magistrate judge on Sept. 24, according to prosecutors.

He faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.

Flores-Flores’s federal public defender in McAllen, Texas, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the charges.

Cartel Activity

Another member of the same cartel was arrested earlier this year in Texas.

The Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested a Gulf cartel member in Starr County on Feb. 24 as part of Operation Lone Star.

The trooper tried to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation in Rio Grande City when the driver refused to stop, resulting in a high-speed chase through rural neighborhoods.

Juan Gonzalez, 24, of Rio Grande City, Texas, was charged with three counts of human smuggling and evading arrest. The three illegal immigrants who fled from the vehicle during the chase were handed over to Border Patrol.

Investigators confirmed Gonzalez as a member of the Gulf cartel with ties to the group operating in Miguel Aleman, Mexico. He was taken into federal custody.