A member of Mexico’s National Guard pleaded guilty to using his position to help a car theft ring that was supplying vehicles from Texas to the Gulf Cartel in Mexico.
On Friday morning, Luis Enrique Guzman Pablo went before U.S. Magistrate in the Southern District of Texas Judge Nadia Medrano, where he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. He is expected to be sentenced at a later date. Guzman had been in federal custody since his arrest in July 2024.
According to a criminal complaint based on an investigation by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, Guzman was assigned to conduct traveler inspections on the Mexican side of Veteran’s International Bridge in Brownsville, Texas. He would wave through stolen vehicles for his associates connected to the Gulf Cartel. Guzman would receive $150 per stolen vehicle that made it through his inspection area, and he told investigators he would see between five and six vehicles per day. The man told investigators that he had been coordinating the crossing of vehicles with two men who hired him, court documents revealed.
During the investigation, authorities found photographs of stolen vehicles on Guzman’s phone, which he would use to identify which vehicles to watch out for and allow to cross.
At the time of the conspiracy, the City of Brownsville and several other cities in the Rio Grande Valley experienced an exponential rise in vehicle thefts that were then crossed into Mexico at the request of the Gulf Cartel. As Breitbart Texas has reported, due to a series of ongoing turf wars, the Gulf Cartel has been using four-door trucks to move its gunmen for those firefights.
The rise in vehicle theft plagued Brownsville and other cities to the point that gunmen were taking vehicles at gunpoint. In the parking lots of popular restaurants and shopping centers, Breitbart Texas reported.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with the Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at
