Tulsi Gabbard Reveals How Trump Showed ‘His Seriousness’ Against The Cartels Who Ran Border Under Biden

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard noted during a Saturday morning Fox News interview that the recent capture of a notorious Mexican drug cartel boss by President Donald Trump’s administration shows Trump’s “seriousness” and that he is “not messing around” on the issue.

Gabbard’s office announced Tuesday the Oct. 15 arrest of Sinaloa Cartel Plaza Boss Leonardo Daniel “El Pato” Martinez Vera, who allegedly led an operation which took part in a range of crimes including kidnapping and murder. “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host Griff Jenkins asked Gabbard if El Pato’s arrest — made possible due to intelligence collected by the ODNI’s National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) — sends a message to “the plaza bosses who have run our southern border under the Biden administration.” (RELATED: National Counterterrorism Center’s Intelligence Leads To Arrest Of Sinaloa Cartel Boss ‘El Pato’)

“Yes, it’s very significant. This operation — I would love to tell you about how it was carried out,” Gabbard answered. “Because our folks, who are working now without pay because of the Democrats’ government shutdown, worked tirelessly to get this guy arrested and behind bars, but also the public messaging that we did on behalf of President Trump shows his seriousness.”

WATCH:

Almost all Senate Democrats voted Thursday afternoon to block a bill which would have paid some federal workers and U.S. service members during the ongoing government shutdown, which entered its 25th day Saturday.

“And this actually played an integral role in his [El Pato’s] continuing to be behind bars, because people are seeing President Trump is not messing around with this. If they try to resort to their own games of bribery and all of this other stuff, they then will be putting themselves in the target,” the DNI added.

“We will not allow cartel gangs who target Americans to roam freely, whether in the U.S. or across the border in Mexico. Our team at NCTC is on the watch, preparing for the moment to strike,” Gabbard said in a Tuesday press release announcing El Pato’s arrest.

The State Department designated the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in February 2025, along with other notorious Latin American crime syndicates, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua (TdA).

Since Trump began his second term in office, illegal border crossings significantly fell from their peak under the Biden administration. Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a prominent Trump critic, admitted Thursday on Fox News that since Trump came back to the White House, “We don’t have the problem that existed before with people coming across the border.”

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