Drug cartels and human traffickers are reportedly evading law enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border by using temporary Texas paper tags registered to false names and addresses.
Federal agents say that the tags were obtained as a result of security weaknesses at the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). As reported by The Dallas Express, the security flaw has previously drawn criticism of the Texas DMV, and the executive director of the agency stepped down last month.
After the tags have been arranged with false names and addresses, they are allegedly used to disguise the ownership of smuggling vehicles so that authorities cannot effectively stop the flow of drugs and unlawful immigrants along the border.
Assistant special agent in charge at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Richard Sanchez, said that the use of fraudulent paper tags to undermine border security has been occurring for some time.
According to Sanchez, DEA agents who operated undercover in drug trafficking organizations have heard traffickers attest to the benefits of using paper tags when moving shipments. Undercover officers have also apparently been instructed by traffickers to affix the tags to vehicles.
The fraudulent paper tags are not only obtained in the U.S., however. FBI Special Agent Brannon Coker said that smugglers also make fraudulent tags on the Mexican side of the border.
“These tags, we know are being printed out in Mexico and put on vehicles as they’re being loaded with drugs or people in an effort to try to have some legitimacy as they cross into the United States,” Coker told NBC 5.
The Texas DMV has been working to shut down fraudulent car dealers and the flow of fraudulent tags. In a late January meeting, the DMV board requested a draft of plans for fingerprinting people who apply for car dealer licenses so their identities can be verified.
The board also approved a rule during the meeting that removes the previous lengthy administrative process involved in revoking the licenses of car dealers suspected of selling fraudulent tags. Now, the agency can cut off the license of such dealers immediately.