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US Attorney Holds News Conference on Cartel Terrorism Case
Investigators say phone evidence linked the 21-year-old suspect to kidnappings and dismemberments, and he faces up to 20 years on each terrorism charge.
- On July 10, Border Patrol agents encountered Jose Flores-Flores near Mission, Texas, leading to his indictment on federal terrorism-related charges for providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
- Investigators searched Flores-Flores' phone and found images allegedly showing him dismembering a body, connecting him to the Gulf Cartel, which the United States designated a foreign terrorist organization in February 2025.
- Attorney Aaron Reitz said Flores-Flores admitted working as a "sicario" for about a year, monitoring Mexican military activity, kidnapping targets, and dismembering at least two people near Reynosa.
- Each of the two terrorism-related charges carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison; Reitz noted this is the first case in the Southern District involving the Gulf Cartel.
- Information uncovered during the investigation led Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol Chief Jared Ashby to a suspected site in Mexico containing three sets of human remains, though authorities do not know why Flores-Flores entered the United States.
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Feds Charge Mexican National Arrested at Texas Border With Helping Terrorist Drug Cartel
Rio Grande Section Chief Patrol Agent Jared Ashby announces that Jose Flores-Flores, 21, of Tamaulipas, Mexico, was charged with two federal counts providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the Cartel del Golfo, or Gulf cartel, on Sept. 16, 2026. (U.S. DOJ)
·New York, United States
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José Flores Flores admitted to having illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico, and declared to the agents that he was a hit man of the Gulf Cartel
·Los Angeles, United States
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Total News Sources20
Leaning Left2Leaning Right5Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution50% Right
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Right
50% Right
L 20%
C 30%
R 50%
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