WASHINGTON — Mexican criminals have offered Chicago gangs up to $50,000 to murder top officials at both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday.
In an intelligence bulletin, DHS revealed a tiered system of bounties, starting at $2,000 for “gathering intelligence or doxxing agents” — including details about their families.
In two southwest Chicago neighborhoods, Pilsen and Little Village, local gangs have deployed armed spotters to rooftops to track law enforcement movements and relay the details via radio.
“This surveillance has enabled ambushes and disruptions during routine enforcement actions, including recent raids under Operation Midway Blitz,” said DHS, which added that non-lethal assaults on rank-and-file ICE and CBP officers could net gang members between $5,000 and $10,000.
“These criminal networks are not just resisting the rule of law, they are waging an organized campaign of terror against the brave men and women who protect our borders and communities,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.
“Our agents are facing ambushes, drone surveillance, and death threats, all because they dare to enforce the laws passed by Congress. We will not back down from these threats, and every criminal, terrorist, and illegal alien will face American justice.”
Noem warned earlier this month that international cartels had been offering bounties ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 against federal officers.
“They are making sure that they know which officers are out there and being extremely effective, and they want to take them down, because they want to try to stop the operations that … are keeping them from making money off their criminal networks,” Noem told “Fox & Friends Weekend” Oct. 5.
The DHS bulletin also stated that Antifa cells in both Chicago and Portland, Ore. “have provided logistical support such as pre-staged protest supplies, doxxing of agent identities, and on-the-ground interference to shield cartel-linked individuals from deportation.”
ICE offices in both Portland and suburban Broadview, Ill. have been flashpoints for violent demonstrations by leftist rioters for several weeks.
DHS urged the public to report suspicious activities — including rooftop surveillance — and vowed to “not be deterred by these threats.”
Recent weeks have been marked by a series of high-profile attacks and planned attacks targeting federal law enforcement officers.
Last week, authorities caught a suspected Latin Kings gangbanger who allegedly put a bounty on Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino via a Snapchat message to a contact that read: “10k if u take him down.”
On Sept. 24, a sniper opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas, killing one detainee and injuring two others, before killing himself. The shooting suspect had scrawled the words “Anti ICE” on his ammo, the FBI said.
That same month, California passed a law barring federal immigration officers from wearing masks that conceal their identities. Other states are mulling similar steps.
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