by
Austin BayOctober 8, 2025
On Oct. 6, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois charged Chicago resident Juan Espinoza Martinez with criminal murder for hire. Martinez offered $10,000 for the murder of Commander at Large of the U.S. Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino.
Martinez leads the Latin Kings, a gang infamous for trafficking drugs and committing violent crimes in Chicago and northern Illinois.
Is this the backstory for a film noir crime flick? No. It's grim urban American reality 2025, from Seattle to Portland to Chicago to Baltimore.
The Chicago truth gets grimmer. The Department of Homeland Security pegs Martinez as a Mexican national who illegally entered the U.S. at an "unknown date." Translation: This big-league gangster is an illegal alien. The Justice Department charge sheet includes two Snapchat quotes: "2k on information when you get him" and "10k if u take him down."
That's not bad Hollywood dialog. The confident tough hombre who doesn't take lip promises cash to wannabe snitches and killers -- $2,000 for targeting and $10,000 for murdering a federal police officer.
But this is real-world criminal solicitation that should appall responsible citizens. One federal attorney described Martinez' in-your-face plot as "an attack on the rule of law."
Yes. And more. I argue Martinez committed an act of insurrection. Armed insurrection. Federal law doesn't apply to him. He has millions in cash to hire gunmen (militiamen). Moreover, he's a member of a protected class in sanctuary city Chicago -- he's an undocumented resident, which is left-wing propaganda lingo for illegal alien.
In December 2006, brazen, unremitting violence by Mexican drug gangs wracked the western Mexican state of Michoacan. With civilian police forces either cowed, corrupted or overwhelmed, President Felipe Calderon ordered the Mexican Army to quell cartel-inspired violence. Cartel gunmen were ambushing and out-gunning municipal, state and federal police. Calderon believed the cartels were in the process of creating a "criminal mini-state" in the region. The well-armed and well-financed drug cartels certainly threatened Mexico's internal stability.
Calderon didn't defeat the cartels. Mexico is still fighting that internal war. Sadly, that internal war has been exported to the U.S. No, the USA's internal situation is not as desperate as Mexico's, where cartels control armed enclaves ("duchies" is another description). The cartels field well-armed gunmen, essentially a militia army.
But Chicago and other lawless blue city disasters do confront "hybrid war" conditions. The Border Patrol reported its agents driving through Chicago's South Side were attacked and "boxed in" by a convoy of 10 vehicles -- in others, a coordinated motorized attack. The attackers then tried to run over the Border Patrol officers.
Near homicide by auto. If not an insurrection, it's damn close to it.
How easy is it for an adversary state to harness cartel and gangster firepower?
All too easy. It's happened before, and if we open our eyes, we see definite signs it's happening again. Gangs backed by state actors have waged war in east and southeast Asia (Burma a prime example). Some of the "freedom fighter" groups in central and east Africa are really smuggling operations. Yes, they would love to become the government, then they would control the mining rights.
For a cut of the action Venezuela's socialist dictatorship gave drug cartels a safe haven and operational base. Over time that relationship has grown. Drugs kill Americans. The drug gangs are essentially hybrid warfare militias backed by state actors who are waging disintegrative warfare against the USA. DHS alleges that drug cartels have participated in attacks on ICE facilities in sanctuary cities.
Hence the Trump administration has decided to use American military assets to destroy drug-laden boats coming from Venezuela.
Cartels also connect to terrorists. In June 2017, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. During the hearing, Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas) quoted DHS Secretary John Kelly as saying, "... Cartels share ties with terror networks ... and they have the ability to sneak drugs and people, including potential terrorists and dirty bombs" into the country.
McCaul asked Tillerson if he agreed that these ties represent a real national security threat. Tillerson replied: "Yes, I do. ... We clearly see the connections, extending all the way back to ISIS and Al Qaeda."
The war in American streets, the drug war and the War on Terror overlap.