US warships nearing Venezuela coast as Maduro deploys 15,000 troops to defend border

A shocking arrest at the southern border. An American citizen is under arrest, charged with four counts of human smuggling. Texas Department of Public Safety exclusively sharing this video with Mornings with Maria. Troopers in Val Verde County pull over a 29-year-old woman

identified as Shakira Dominique Jordan from Mississippi. She was pulled over for speeding, then detained. In the car, four illegal aliens were discovered. Cops say they're from Cuba and El Salvador, but one classified as a special-interest alien from Afghanistan. Investigators say Jordan was driving the four illegal aliens across the border from Mexico.

She's now facing four felony counts of human smuggling. The same day, DPS captured two special interest aliens from Pakistan after they tried to evade law enforcement on a private ranch. I want to bring in Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Christopher Oliveros. Lieutenant,

tell us more about this arrest. Well, good morning, Cheryl. Thanks for having me on, of course. And we always talked about, especially the last four years, about public safety and national security risks, especially gotaways. I think this investigation, this human smuggling investigation by one of our troopers, really underscores the importance of our troopers being out there stopping and interdicting these criminal smugglers.

This woman, a US citizen, as you mentioned, from Mississippi, came down to the border for the sole purpose to smuggle illegal immigrants. And one of those illegal immigrants was a special interest aiding from Afghanistan. And that in itself poses to be a public safety

and national security risk, especially we don't know who these individuals are that are being smuggled into the interior. So a great job by our troopers and really highlights the fact that Texas, we're still at the forefront of this border operation that we've been doing since 2021 when governor

had it first launched operation non-star and really prioritizes the enhancement of public safety and border security from our state troopers working in Texas. So again, great job by our trooper. And you got to also think too, and also for the viewers that if our trooper wasn't out there, you know, these, these are four potential guideways that would have made it into the interior and really not knowing exactly this special interest alien from Afghanistan, what his background is, what his intentions were, where was he going to end up? So I think that in itself really shows that we still have active activity on the border, especially when we talk about and include guideways and special interest aliens.

So again, great work by our trooper. And the fact that we're still out there, we're still carrying on our mission in Texas and committed to border security.

But obviously the question here though is, in my mind, who is paying her? Do we have any, was it a cartel? Is that the working theory? Can you give us any more idea? they're not going to be involved in the smuggling process. So what does that

tell? Is that that the working theory? Can you give us any more idea? You know, typically that's how it works. Cheryl this this particular woman, she told one of our troopers that

she was getting paid $500 per person that she smuggled, which you know, obviously, it's pretty low, especially for someone that's, smugglers from out of state, it's organized. I mean, they are, they're talking to a criminal smuggling organization.

They facilitate a rental car. This was a particular, this was a rental car in this particular video this woman was driving and they come down to the border. They know where to go. They use encrypted messaging, GPS coordinates to pick up people and then smuggle them from point A to point B, and that's where they receive payments. So it's still very organized. We're not seeing it to the level

that we saw the last four years, but nonetheless, the cartels are very discreet. They're very careful now in how they continue to carry out their smuggling operations. That's why it is vital to have our state troopers on these major highways, interdicting these smugglers

to prevent these guideaways and these potential public safety and national security risks from making it into the interior.

Well and you know the cartels are still dangerous operations and dangerous people and this is about fentanyl trafficking and about money and you know the car and under the Biden administration you know that we're talking about a billion dollar industry you know the cartels weren't just gonna walk away and put their put their know, guns down because President Trump was elected. That's not how this works and we know that unfortunately. I'm asking about

this, the Pentagon ordered an usually large naval buildup in Latin America. There's at least seven vessels down there, three guided missile destroyers off the waters of Venezuela. The White House is accusing President Maduro of heading up a drug cartel. Maduro's calling up millions of militia members. He's deploying like 15,000 troops

to the Columbia border to defend his country. What does this mean to all of you? Because I know one of the things that we've seen at the southern border over the last four years has been an inordinate amount of Venezuelans.

Well, exactly right. And this is, you know, if you kind of look back the last four years, I mean, Venezuela allowed hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans into our country that crossed through Texas to include now the designated foreign terrorist organization known as TDA. Though and we've seen what what these you know, these these terrorist organizations have caused in our country, how it's impacted U.S.

citizens lives. Some have committed heinous crimes, to include murder. But the fact is that now we're seeing more of an aggressive posture by the United States. And again, the cartels are going to exploit vulnerabilities, especially in countries like Venezuela, when there's instability. They're going to use those countries to smuggle large shipments of drugs, whether it be cocaine,

methamphetamine or fentanyl. So by having these U.S. naval ships, it's going to interdict those drugs before they actually make it to Central America or Mexico and then ultimately into our country. So again, this really shows how the administration, how the United States is really taking a more proactive posture and trying to interdict these large shipments of the cartels. They're going to adapt to the changes. We may not see the level that we saw the last four years because they have been impacted, as you mentioned also, by human smuggling.

That was a multi-billion dollar criminal network for the cartels. That has decreased significantly. So now what they're going to do is increase their shipments of cocaine, methamphetamine, other

illicit drugs by using the sea or the coastal water, especially in the Caribbean, to get their drugs across the United States. So again, really shows the proactiveness from this administration, how they are working to try to stop these large shipments of drugs, but also how we also on the ground in Texas, we are the last line of defense when it comes to these type of operations because we want to stop that flow of drugs making their way into our

state as well and also to the entire country. And that's why they put so much focus on the tunnels in Arizona and I've seen some reporting now that the cartels in Mexico are moving towards other countries trying to extend their reach into Colombia and under into other Central American countries to broaden out their enterprise because they've taken a financial hit

from the United States. I do want to ask you about President Trump. He's really gaining some political leverage in the fight against Latin American drug cartels that we're talking about. There was this guilty plea of Sinaloa cartel

co-founder El Mayo. El Mayo admitted to decades of coordination with Mexican officials to smuggle drugs to the U. S. Now, you know, likely going to be behind bars the rest of his life, Lieutenant. But your reaction, I think the fact that it's the cartel members and the government officials working together, it's like something that you think, you know, you believe. But he said that that

was happening.

Well, I mean, of course, you know, you know, at mile is probably one of the most influential, you know, cartel leaders in the single cartel. Actually in cartel history and the fact that now that he has, you know, pled guilty, it isn't really significant

impact to the organization, but nonetheless, you know, cartels operate like corporations. You know you have one leader falls. Someone else is going to step the same level of drug use. And so we're seeing that happening. We're seeing that happening in the city of Falls. Someone else is going to step in and fill that gap, and

that's what's been happening, especially if you look back with El Chapo. Got arrested. You know, part of the one of the leaders in the single lower cartel, the cartel continue to

move on. And of course, we saw the flow of fent and really going after not only the leaders but really stopping that supply chain of drugs and really going after their finances. Yeah. Trying to disrupt their finances. That's really going to impact the cartels. Well this is a time to really go after them especially where they're at

the weakest point to really go after these organizations. Sorry I interrupted you, but you know it seems that that's why the Trump administration is going so hard after Mexico's president. The terror fight because of this. It's all connected, unfortunately. Lieutenant Christopher Olivares, thank you so much for being with us on this Friday. Lieutenant Christopher Olivares, thank you so much for being with us on this Friday.

Really appreciate it.