Border security

Estes: Border needs to be secured because of gangs

Estes, who chairs the Senate Committee Natural Resources & Economic Development, was in Midland last week to be honored by the Permian Basin Petroleum Association for his work on oil and gas legislation. His time as chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Rural Affairs & Homeland Security has left a lasting impact on him, and he continues to promote securing the more than 1,200 mile Texas-Mexico border.

The surveillance pictures he has seen have left an indelible impression.

“Most of the drug mules are Central Americans that have lived in a compound that’s a virtual slave camp,” he said. “There’s no rule of law other than the drug lords in some of these areas. The women are sex slaves; the kids play soccer in the dirt in the middle of the compounds. The men smuggle the drugs, and if they fail to smuggle the drugs, the drug lords cut the heads off their whole family.

“Every once in a while you read about a duffle bag found with 17 heads in Mexico. These (drug lords) are brutal. They make ISIS look nice. These are terrible people.”

More than $18 billion worth of drugs had been seized in the border region from June 2014 through May 2017, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s June border report. The value of drugs seized in April and May this year totaled more than $820 million.