ISIS is apparently operating in Mexico just outside of the U.S. border and across from El Paso, Texas, according to a report.
Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, citing sources in the Mexican Army and Federal Police, reported there’s an ISIS, or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, camp “just a few miles from El Paso, Texas” in Ciudad Juarez. The camp, specifically, is located in an area called “Anapra,” located west of Juarez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
The report claims there is another ISIS cell west of Juarez in Puerto Palomas. The sources told the organization that the cell is targeting “the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States.”
“During the course of a joint operation last week, Mexican army and federal law enforcement officials discovered documents in Arabic and Urdu, as well as ‘plans’ of Fort Bliss—the sprawling military installation that houses the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division. Muslim prayer rugs were recovered with the documents during the operation,” it reads.
The area around Anapra is controlled by the powerful Juarez Cartel and the Barrio Azteca gang, making it very difficult for the federal police and Mexican army to operate.
Sources said that people involved in human smuggling have helped move ISIS terrorists through the desert and into Sunland Park, New Mexico, to east of El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. They’re also smuggling terrorists from Acala and Fort Hancock, Texas.
“ISIS is conducting reconnaissance of regional universities; the White Sands Missile Range; government facilities in Alamogordo, NM; Fort Bliss; and the electrical power facilities near Anapra and Chaparral, NM,” it adds.
In September 2014, Homeland Security officials hit back against claims that ISIS terrorists have traveled from Iraq and Syria to Mexico and are just miles from the United States.
“There is no credible intelligence to suggest that there is an active plot by ISIL to attempt to cross the southern border,” Homeland Security officials said at the time, according to the New York Times.
At the time, Rep. Jeff Duncan, a Republican from South Carolina, rebuked Homeland Security officials.
“Wake up, America,” Duncan said. “With a porous southern border, we have no idea who’s in our country.”
