The Estrada Plot: How the FBI Captured a Secret Army and Stopped the Invasion of Mexico

The Estrada Plot would be a wonderful source for undergraduate lecture classes, as well as for history enthusiasts interested in a well-woven and well-researched tale of 'true crime' along the U.S.–Mexico border.—Julian F. Dodson, Journal of Arizona History
By 1926 the Mexican government of Plutarco Elías Calles had sparked widespread discontent with its radical social policies. Plots to overthrow the administration ran rampant. One of the strangest conspiracies arose within a clique of exiled Mexican military officers . . . in Hollywood.

Bill Mills takes readers inside the forgotten story of General Enrique Estrada and his Southern California army. Secretly gathering recruits from city barrios and Imperial Valley farms, Estrada and his staff of ex-generals not only built an invasion force but stockpiled an arsenal of small arms to supply it. Attempts to acquire armored vehicles and airplanes had moved forward when law enforcement got wind of the clandestine military activity. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, newly reorganized under J. Edgar Hoover, assigned a four-man team to unravel the plot. Racing against time, the agents pitted old-school legwork against Estrada’s determination and, as the day of the invasion arrived, confronted the general’s caravan fewer than ten miles from the Mexican border.

Packed with intrigue, The Estrada Plot is the unlikely true crime drama of how the early FBI foiled an invasion from within the United States.