Southern District of Texas prosecutors recently indicted Jose Flores-Flores, a 21-year-old Mexican national from Reynosa, for providing material support to the Gulf Cartel, a designated foreign terrorist organization. He remains in custody after agents found him near Mission, TX. Prosecutors say he had already been removed from the United States earlier this year.
Flores-Flores has been an active Gulf Cartel member for more than a year. He allegedly provided personnel, regional protection and enforcement, countersurveillance against Mexican military and law enforcement, and the disposal of human remains.
He allegedly received names or photographs of people marked for kidnapping, seized those people, and delivered them to higher-ranking cartel members. The charging document further alleges he dismembered at least two victims on the outskirts of Reynosa after they ran afoul of the cartel.
The violence described in the indictment occurred in Mexico, and the arrest happened on our side of the border. That is the reality of the Rio Grande Valley. Reynosa, MX and Mission, TX are only a few miles apart. When a cartel soldier who is alleged to kidnap, deliver captives, and dispose of bodies is found near Mission after a prior removal, the threat is not theoretical. It is in Hidalgo County.
The United States designated the Gulf Cartel, also known as Cártel del Golfo, as a foreign terrorist organization on February 20, 2025. The State Department describes a northeast Mexico-based organization involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, human smuggling, and other illicit activity. It uses violence—including assassinations of civilians and government officials—to intimidate the public and control territory.
“Material-support” laws exist because Congress understood that terrorism is not only the bomb or the gun. It is the lookout, the kidnapper, the man who works the night shift on a sector and makes the bodies disappear. If convicted, Flores-Flores faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Devin Walker and Avery Benitez are prosecuting.
U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz put the legal shift in plain language: “Thanks to President Trump designating certain cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, federal law enforcement now has a whole new arsenal of legal tools to dismantle their activities. Flores-Flores is just one defendant today. But under the leadership of President Trump and Attorney General Blanche, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas is on the very forefront of Making America Safe Again through the destruction and dismantling of these terrorist cartels.”
Cases like this are why Texans for Strong Borders prioritizes an overhaul of the Texas border mission—including a state Border Protection Unit and a Special Missions Unit built to break apart cartel operations inside Texas. They are also why interior enforcement has to match the threat: continue expanding 287(g) so local officers can help ICE, accelerate removals, and reject amnesty for people who have already beaten the system once.