Migrant Caravan Approaching US Mexico Border

[CharlesHarris]

FBI investigating activists plotting 'armed rebellion' at the US-Mexico border with cartel-supplied guns

Wendy Fry, The San Diego Union-Tribune April 29, 2019 at 01:14 PM

When federal law enforcement officials last year began collecting dossiers on mostly American journalists, activists and lawyers in Tijuana involved with the migrant caravan, one part of their investigation focused on an alleged plot by a drug cartel to sell guns to protesters, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation report.

A Dec. 18, 2018, document from the FBI, obtained by the Union-Tribune, specifies an alleged plan for activists to purchase guns from a "Mexico-based cartel associate known as Cobra Commander," or Ivan Riebeling.

The protesters wanted to "stage an armed rebellion at the border," the FBI reported to dozens of federal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Mexico.

The unclassified report was provided to the Union-Tribune on the condition the person providing it would not be named, and with the request that the entire document not be shared online because of the ongoing nature of the investigation.

The document warns of "anti-fascist activists" that "planned to disrupt U.S. law enforcement and military security operations at the US/Mexican border."

Two additional law enforcement officials confirmed the investigation is ongoing, although no one has been charged. "Unclassified" means information can be released to people without a security clearance, but the document was also labeled "law enforcement sensitive," which means it was intended to be seen only by those in law enforcement.

"This is an information report, not finally evaluated intelligence," the six-page report states. "Receiving agencies are requested not to take action based on this raw reporting without prior coordination with the FBI."

The FBI sent its report with "priority" to the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Administration, among other agencies...

The FBI's report says a group of activists in Tijuana supporting the migrant caravan "were encouraged to bring personally owned weapons to the border and the group also intended to purchase weapons from a Mexico-based cartel associate known as Cobra Commander, AKA the Mexican Rambo, and smuggle the weapons into the United States..."