US prosecutors charge 13 people over an alleged pipeline smuggling stolen cars through El Paso to Mexican cartels

Operation Southbound Takedown broke up a network whose members stole vehicles — targeting both individual owners and large rental car companies — and drove them across the El Paso border. The 29 recovered vehicles carried an estimated combined value of $1.14 million. US Attorney Justin Simmons cautioned that the stolen cars were fuelling cartel operations including human smuggling, drug trafficking and murder.