Unwitting border area residents are being roped into smuggling contraband for transnational criminal groups that have operated throughout the pandemic despite border closures, as the fight over routes is again resulting in the slaughter of civilians in Mexico.

Why it matters: The cartels smuggle drugs and even people through legal ports of entry, in hidden car compartments or commercial trucks, undeterred by any border wall or COVID-related closures. Now criminals are bloodletting to control the corridor to at least one crossing.

The latest: Last Saturday 19 people were killed, four of them suspected cartel members, and two women kidnapped across the border from McAllen, Texas, in Reynosa, in a rare attack on civilians. Victims include a 19-year-old nursing student, shopkeepers and a bike mechanic.

• Authorities are blaming two Gulf Cartel splinter cells that are fighting over the area near the Pharr, Texas, bridge.
• It’s the seventh busiest port in the U.S. and the fourth busiest on the border with Mexico, the U.S.’ largest trading partner.
• Controlling the corridor to the crossing allows cartels can move drugs like cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and meth to U.S. buyers in South Texas and beyond.

Between the lines: The outbreak of violence comes as both governments hold advanced discussions on when and how to safely reopen the border.

• Its closure to “nonessential” movement because of the pandemic has hit businesses that rely on customers from both sides of the border. The closure was just extended at least until July 21.
• Essential travel, like crossing for school or doctor visits or the return home of U.S. citizens or permanent residents, continues.
• One of the myriad ways cartels have kept their businesses running is using some of those people as “blind mules.”

How it works: Criminal organizations advertise purported courier jobs on Facebook, looking for people with cars who can still go through the ports of entry.

• The ads claim the job is to legally move money between exchange houses, according to the Homeland Investigations branch of ICE.
• The cartels request an “interview” with “job” candidates in places like Ciudad Juárez, and while they talk the contraband is stashed in the distracted person's car.
• The goods are picked up on the other side if the unknowing mule crosses undetected.

For perspective: Despite the pandemic, violence in Mexico has not receded, especially in areas disputed by cartels both near the border and in southeast Mexico. Homicides continue their trend towards historic highs.

• President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced a federal investigation of Saturday’s attack.