Mexican Border Drug Smugglers Pose Security Threat to US - Top General

US Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno claims that Mexican and South American drug traffickers can smuggle not just narcotics in the United States, but anything they like.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Mexican and South American drug traffickers can smuggle not just narcotics in the United States, but anything they like, outgoing US Chief of Staff, General Ray Odierno, warned in an interview published in the Army Times.

“Nobody ever talks about SOUTHCOM [Southern Command], but I worry about the networks that have been established over the years,” Odierno said in the interview published on Tuesday.

The US Army still has a light presence on the land border with Mexico, but border security has been an increasingly important domestic concern over the past 20 years as the flood of drugs into the United States, most recently inexpensive heroin, has soared.

“Most of these networks have been established to move drugs into North America,” Odierno explained.

However, Odierno noted that his concerns ran deeper because the openness of the long border gave the drug cartels the ability to smuggle anything else into the United States as well.

“[F]rankly, they can traffic just about anything, and that's of great concern to us,” he acknowledged.

US border security, like the other security challenges facing the US armed forces, was also impacted by the sweeping manpower cuts forced on the Army by budgetary pressures, Odierno warned.

“I worry about our capability to meet all these different challenges as we move forward,” he said. “And I worry about the long-term impact increased requirements and reduced resources are going to have our soldiers.”

Odierno is scheduled to retire on Friday and be succeeded as chief of staff by General Mark Milley, previously head of the US Army’s Forces Command.