By Story by TIM SULLIVAN
Mexican cartels have their hands in a lot of illegal activities besides drug trafficking – including, as U.S. authorities have recently learned, illegal fishing. And the U.S. Treasury Department has now announced sanctions against top bosses of the Gulf Cartel which authorities say are behind the prohibited mass catches of red snapper in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
Treasury officials say the cartel launches fishing boats from Playa Bagdad, a beach south of South Padre Island. They then enter U.S. waters and spread illegally long nets to snare red snapper, a commercially viable but vulnerable fish. Officials say the vessels are also used to move migrants and drugs into the U.S.
