Cartel Collaboration

In Starr County Texas, a new wristband is being seen on illegal immigrants moving across the border into the United States. The new band has multiple symbols of the different Cartel associations, which leads authorities to suspect that the cartels such as the Cartel del Golfo (CDG) are trying to unite the different groups. The CDG is suffering from internal conflicts between its different factions and also other cartels such as the Cártel del Noreste (CDN) and may be trying to streamline the business of illegal immigration.
An example of the use of the armbands: A Honduran immigrant pays a smuggler or coyote money to smuggle them into the United States, and a portion of the money that the smuggler makes is paid to the cartel to use their corridors into the U.S. A smuggler will put a colored and numbered armband onto the immigrant which allows cartel members to easily identify and confirm that they have paid. Passage through that cartel’s territory, is considered paid for and the smuggler and Immigrant are granted safe passage through local gang infested areas that are associated with the cartel.  Most of the wristbands seen at the border have been found in different colors with simple words on them, this is the first time that authorities have found armbands with the different symbols of different factions of the cartels.