This is what modern surveillance actually looks like. The infrastructure is built in one country, funded by state contracts, and operated by a private company. The data does not stay there. It moves across borders, into systems the public never sees, under agreements most people will never read. There is no notification. No access request. No meaningful way to find out what was collected, where it went, or who used it. The system exists first. The access comes later.
Grupo Seguritech was founded in Mexico City in 1995. By 2026 it had collected 21.8 billion pesos (roughly $1.27 billion) in Mexican state contracts and built or operates more than 188 command centers across 26 of Mexico's 32 states. Its flagship product, Plataforma Centinela, integrates cameras, license plate readers, facial recognition drones, and helicopter tracking systems into a unified surveillance network. In some areas, surveillance camera density across the network is reported at roughly one device per eight people.
In April 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Chihuahua Governor María Eugenia Campos Galván signed a memorandum of understanding on cross-border cooperation. Officials say intelligence from the Centinela system has since been shared with US Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, the DEA, the ATF, and ICE. Vehicle crossings are tracked. Suspects are identified. The company says it is "willing to share information with Texas State authorities and commercial partners." A Rest of World investigation published in April 2026 documents cases where that sharing was used operationally. Venezuelan migrants identified and handed to Border Patrol. A drug trafficker wanted by the FBI surveilled and arrested. A missing elderly man located within twenty minutes of a cross-border data request.
When a US federal agency runs its own surveillance program domestically, it operates under a legal framework that at minimum creates paper. FOIA requests can reach it. Congressional oversight committees can demand briefings. Courts can issue injunctions. None of that applies to Seguritech. It is a Mexican private company. The MOU was signed at the gubernatorial level. The data sharing is contractual, not statutory. When surveillance is routed through a foreign private company, the accountability gap is structural.
Seguritech registered two Texas entities in 2024 and 2025, Seguritech and Condor Solutions LLC and Seguritech International LLC. The infrastructure already exists in Mexico, the data is already flowing to US federal agencies, and the company is now building a physical footprint in the United States. A 20-floor command center called Torre Centinela was completed in Ciudad Juárez in April 2026, directly across the border from El Paso.
US agencies have long used data from foreign and private sources to avoid the constraints that would apply if they collected the same data themselves. Third-party doctrine, data broker purchases, and international law enforcement agreements all serve the same function. Getting the information without triggering the oversight. Seguritech is a large, well-funded, government-contracted version of that logic. The surveillance infrastructure exists because Mexican state governments paid for it. US agencies access it because a Texas governor signed a piece of paper. The people whose vehicles and faces are in the database have no way to know, no right to contest it, and no mechanism to find out what was shared.
There are also corruption allegations on the Mexican side. A former governor was reported to have moved into a Texas home registered to a former Seguritech executive after awarding the company a contract. Multiple subsidiaries have faced investigation for contract irregularities. The Mexican customs agency cancelled its Seguritech contract in 2025 for excessive costs. None of that affects the cross-border data-sharing arrangement with US agencies, which continues.
Government surveillance programs do not stay within the legal structures built to contain them. When data is cheaper to buy or borrow from a foreign company, that is what happens. Seguritech was invited into the US federal data ecosystem. The MOU made it official.
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FAQ
What is Grupo Seguritech?
A Mexican private security and surveillance company founded in 1995. It manages more than 188 command centers across 26 of Mexico's 32 states and has received $1.27 billion in Mexican government contracts since 2012.
What data does Seguritech share with US federal agencies?
Officials say Centinela platform data (including vehicle tracking and facial recognition results) has been shared with US agencies including CBP, the FBI, the DEA, the ATF, and ICE, following a 2022 cross-border cooperation agreement between Texas and Chihuahua.
Why can't Americans FOIA this surveillance data?
Seguritech is a Mexican private company. US freedom of information laws apply to US government agencies, not foreign private contractors. FOIA requests may reach records held by US agencies, but not Seguritech's internal systems. When surveillance is outsourced to a foreign private company, the accountability trail is much harder to follow.
Is Seguritech operating inside the United States?
Yes. The company registered two Texas entities in 2024 and 2025. It already shares data with US federal agencies and is now building direct US infrastructure.
What can you do to reduce exposure from this kind of cross-border data sharing?
Assume vehicle and face data collected near borders is shared across agencies and jurisdictions. Minimise what you expose at crossing points. Use a VPN to separate your network activity from your physical location data.