Mexican drug cartels infiltrating Houston neighborhoods DEA special agent in the hot seat

HOUSTON (FOX 26) -  The most powerful,the most ruthless and in many ways the most sophisticated criminal organizations in the western hemisphere have set up major operations in Houston, Texas.To explain just how deeply Mexican drug cartels have infiltrated our community, DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Will  Glaspy talks one on one with What's Your Point host Greg Groogan.

The Mexican cartels are involved with marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, fentanyl. All of the drugs they're cultivating or manufacturing in Mexico, with the exception of cocaine. Cocaine they're getting from South America and buying it down there and bringing it up. They're responsible for the distribution here in the United States. One of the things they're coming in the Rio Grande valley, and coming up Highway 59, into the Houston area.

Some of those drugs will be broken down and distributed here locally. A lot by some of the street gangs. The street gangs,while not really members per se of the Mexican drug cartels, certainly are the foot soldiers that are responsible for distributing some of the drugs here in Houston.

Are we gaining in ground? We are. What you don't hear about every day is the successes on both sides.every day, whether it's in the United States or in Mexico, we're taking off large organizations. You have to remember that these -- as you said,these are some of the most sophisticated organizations. They're set up like Fortune 500 companies. They have distribution, organization. Billions of dollars back into Mexico. Each cell operates independent of one another. So if we take one of the cells down, it makes it hard for us to identify other cells within the organization. They don't know one another per se, so we're having great success every week as we deal with these cartels.