Jack of Harts

The Borderplex, as the region around El Paso, Juarez, and Las Cruces was known, had a long history of fighting the drug cartels and various gangs. Some of their history was good. Some was bad. The Second Great Depression deprived them of the federal support they had long enjoyed, and the Drug Wars quickly escalated into high gear as the cartels thought they saw a chance to improve their position. Running gunfights passed through much of the Borderplex for months, placing the cities under conditions of virtual siege. Police, Sheriffs, and Texas Rangers fought the gangs and cartels every day, and citizen militias defended neighborhoods from rooftops and walls. They built or printed makeshift guns and mixed explosives in their backyards and garages, all in the fight to bring law and order back to their ravaged neighborhoods. It was a dangerous time to live in the Borderplex, and the cost in lives was heartbreaking, but they stood on their own in the end. They drove the drug cartels out, and they tamed the worst of the gang problem. They survived and thrived and help provide an example of how the Mexican States could move into a new future with their American neighbors.