Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Arizona, stated that Mexican drug cartels are "alive and active" in U.S. communities, generating billions of dollars from drug, human, and sex trafficking. Dannels made his statement in a documentary titled "What's Behind the Biden Border Crisis," shared on X by Steve Cortes on May 30.
"Cartels are alive and active here in the United States," said Mark Dannels, Sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona. "Not just here in Cochise County, but all over. They use drug trafficking, sex trafficking, human trafficking, you name it. All that is part of the cartels' operations. They are very active, doing what they do, making billions of dollars."
Steve Cortes, former commentator and advisor to President Trump, posted the documentary on X. In it, he interviewed Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Arizona, along with other individuals. The documentary focused on cartel operations at the southern border, including human smuggling and drug trafficking.
Steve Cortez' post on X
| https://x.com/CortesSteve/status
According to Dannels in the documentary with Cortes, Mexican drug cartels recruit U.S. citizens, usually teenagers, to smuggle migrants or drugs, mainly fentanyl. Cartels use social media platforms like Snapchat, WhatsApp, or Facebook Marketplace to lure young people into making money by picking up migrants from the border or purchasing over-the-counter medicine laced with fentanyl. Dannels said 52% of all fentanyl seizures occurred in Arizona last year, with 111 million pills seized. "This is the ugliest it’s ever been," Sheriff Dannels told Cortes in the documentary. "Whether it’s been deaths on the border; migrants dying on U.S. soil when they cross illegally; whether it’s fentanyl coming across the border in record numbers."
According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), cartels' drug trafficking and human smuggling operations generate approximately $1 billion per month. This money is used to expand operations across the southwest border into the United States.
The 2024 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) National Drug Threat Assessment names fentanyl as the deadliest drug in American history, taking the lives of 38,000 Americans in the first six months of 2023. The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels have enabled the presence of fentanyl in all 50 U.S. states by producing the drug in Mexico and smuggling it into the United States for profit.
Mark Dannels has been Sheriff of Cochise County since 2012, according to the Cochise County government website. He is a member of the Fraternal Order of Police, a past member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council, and a current member of the National Sheriffs Association where he serves as Border Security Chairman.
