Thread: FBI: Border face-off involved men in Mexican Army uniforms

From CNN.com.

FBI: Border face-off involved men in Mexican Army uniforms

Tuesday, January 24, 2006; Posted: 3:48 p.m. EST (20:48 GMT)


SIERRA BLANCA, Texas (AP) -- Men dressed as Mexican Army soldiers, apparent drug suspects and Texas law enforcement officers faced off near the U.S.-Mexican border after three suspicious SUVs attempted to flee state authorities, officials said Tuesday.

Andrea Simmons, an agency spokeswoman in El Paso, told The Associated Press that Texas Department of Public Safety troopers chased three SUVs, believing they were carrying drugs, to the banks of the Rio Grande during Monday's incident.

Men dressed in Mexican military uniforms or camouflage were on the U.S. side of the border in Texas, she said.

Simmons said the FBI was not involved and referred requests for further details to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, California, reported Tuesday that the incident included an armed standoff involving the Mexican military and suspected drug smugglers. The incident follows a story in the Bulletin on January 15 that said the Mexican military had crossed into the United States more than 200 times since 1996.

In a news conference, Rick Glancey of the Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition, said three Hudspeth County deputies and at least two Texas Department of Public Safety troopers squared off against at least 10 heavily armed men from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

U.S. officials who pursued three fleeing SUVs to the Mexican border saw what appeared to be a Mexican military Humvee help one of the SUVs when it got stuck in the river, he said.

When that didn't work, a group of men dressed in civilian clothes started unloading what appeared to be bundles of marijuana from the SUV, and the stuck vehicle was then torched, he said. A second SUV had a flat tire and was left behind in the United States and its occupant ran across the border, he said.

Glancey said he could not confirm whether the armed men seen at the site were Mexican Army, police officers, or drug dealers, and would not detail what markings deputies may have seen on the men's uniforms or the Humvee.

Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department said that Mexican army personnel had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border, the Daily Bulletin newspaper reported earlier.

"It's been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident with Mexico that it's been going on for years," Doyal said. "When you're up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us."

Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, whose officers were involved in a similar incident last year, said he is certain that Mexican authorities know who was involved.

After the newspaper reported on Mexican military crossings earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the report was overblown and most of the incursions were just mistakes.

In eastern California, Arizona and New Mexico, the U.S.-Mexico border is largely unmarked. But in Texas, the Rio Grande separates the two countries and even when dry, is a riverbed about 200 feet wide.

In November, Doyal said Border Patrol agents in the border town of Fort Hancock called for help after confronting more than six men dressed in Mexican military uniforms. The men allegedly were trying to bring more than three tons of marijuana across the Rio Grande, Doyal told the newspaper.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserv

Chertoff doesn't believe that this happens that often and that is only innocent errors in navigation. I guess it'll take the bodies of Mexican soldiers in uniform with backpacks full of drugs on our side of the line to make it real to the people in Washington.

Originally Posted by kennethm3

Chertoff doesn't believe that this happens that often and that is only innocent errors in navigation. I guess it'll take the bodies of Mexican soldiers in uniform with backpacks full of drugs on our side of the line to make it real to the people in Washington.

Let's just hope the bodies are Mexican dopers, rather than American cops who were outgunned by some of those neighbors who bring their machine guns when they make navigation errors. Has anyone seen my blood pressure medicine?

Yeah...men "dressed as" Mexican Army soldiers... I can remember several incidents of men "dressed as" Mexican Army soldiers on the US side of the border. Funny thing was most of them had Mexican Army vehicles waiting on the South side of the River.

If I remember correctly, wasnt a BP Blazer shot up/at by what appeared to be Mexican Military?

This is something that happens so frequently, it's the one of the worst case scenarios in the Border Patrol. Since most of the country has no clue as to what goes on with it's southern border it seems like something that can be blamed on navigational error. God help the PA's seen in Mexico due to a navigational error. After being victimized by Mexico, they'll face a second victimization upon their return to the U.S., in the form of a pink slip.

Navigational error?? Not on that part of the border, and not with modern technology...

I wonder if they found anything of interest in the SUV that was left behind?

Big, why would the PA get a pink slip once back in the U.S.?

My government, your government, our government does not have the desire, or the will to secure our borders...period. Our government is negligent in carrying out it most fundemental reason for existence...to protect the citizens of the USA from foreign invasion. It is the best known Secret that the Mexican government is nothing more than a drug cartel, and smuggeling ring with a quasi-legitimate face to it.

It is corrupt from the very head to the tiny toe, and it will not change..it is cultural. But that is their problem, not ours.

I live with the "undocumentated immigrants" everyday and see first-hand how they are such a "boom" to the local economy. They are a burden, pure and simple. They tax our school systems by enrolling their children who do not speak english, yet are main streamed...thus sucking off resoures children of citizens should receive. These kids are in the system for years, barely speaking english, because they do not speak it at home, and outside of the classroom they speak their native tongue with their friends...they end up uneducated, with no job skills working as unskilled labor and supplementing their income through drugs, theft, or being a coyote.

They tax our health care system to the point of hospitals closing their ER because they can't afford to remain open. The illegals go the ER for a headache, stomach ache, or whatever...they must be treated..then leave and never pay. They have emergency heart, lung, kidney surgery births,and never pay...The best ER in the state dealing with gunshot wounds had to close...now when an officer is down, he/she no longer has this valuable resource...some "boom" to the economy.

I do not believe for one second that the same country that put a man on the moon nearly 30 years ago, that can put a missle up Sayeed's rear from an unmanned aircraft cannot secure our borders...it makes me sick!

To me it's pretty black and white...you do or don't...you never just try. Build a wall, patrol it, and shoot to kill anyone attempting to breach the wall..end of story.

Incidents like this are just one more reason why there should be some more "assistance" from the guys with tanks and bigger guns. If the Mexicans can't keep there military on there side of the border, perhaps a couple of M1A1's can help them remember where the border is.

The story only merited a paragraph in the NY Times and the Washington Post.

Mexican drug run thwarted at border
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 25, 2006


U.S. law-enforcement authorities confronted several men in Mexican military uniforms and a camouflaged Humvee with .50-caliber machine guns who had crossed into Texas with suspected drug smugglers 50 miles southeast of El Paso, forcing an armed standoff along the Rio Grande, says a Texas sheriff.
Hudspeth County, Texas, Sheriff Arvin West said the incident began at 2:19 p.m. Monday when his deputies -- working as part of an anti-drug smuggling enforcement initiative known as "Operation Linebacker" -- pursued three SUVs spotted driving north from a border area along the Rio Grande near Interstate 10.
Sheriff West said the pursuit, which began near Sierra Blanca, Texas, ended for one of the vehicles when it blew out a tire and the driver fled. He said deputies seized 1,400 pounds of marijuana from that vehicle.
As the southbound chase continued for the other two SUVs, he said the deputies and at least two Texas Department of Public Safety troopers who had joined in the pursuit encountered several men on the U.S. side of the border dressed in what he described as battle dress uniforms (BDUs). He said they "appeared to be soldiers, in a Humvee vehicle with what appeared to the officers as being .50-caliber machine guns."
Sheriff West said one of the vehicles made it into Mexico, but the other got stuck in the river, where a group of men in civilian clothes offloaded what appeared to be bundles of marijuana. He said the truck was then set ablaze by the "soldiers."
No shots were fired and no injuries were reported during what amounted to an armed standoff at the border.
T.J. Bonner, a veteran Border Patrol agent and president of the National Border Patrol Council, yesterday called the incident "just another example of what we have been saying all along: This is a serious problem and it's not going to go away.
"The U.S. government has got to put its foot down and take decisive action," said Mr. Bonner, whose union represents all 10,000 of the agency's non-supervisory personnel. "It would be nice if the Mexican government would address the problem, but it won't even admit there is one."
In November, the U.S. Border Patrol chased a dump truck full of marijuana in the same area when it also got stuck in the river seeking to return to Mexico. While Border Patrol agents sought to unload 3 tons of marijuana, the driver -- who had fled -- returned with a heavily armed group of men wearing Mexican military uniforms and carrying military-style weapons. The soldiers backed the agents away and bulldozed the truck back into Mexico.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff dismissed reports of possible Mexican military incursions into the United States as "overblown" and "scare tactics." He said those involved in the crossings may have been dressed in military uniforms, "but they are just criminals, they are not military but they are wearing camouflage so someone may assume they are military."
Mr. Chertoff also said a significant number of 216 confirmed incursions since 1996 were "innocent," noting that police and military units in Mexico pursuing criminals "may step across the border because they do not know exactly where the line is."
Law-enforcement officials yesterday noted that the Texas-Mexico border is clearly marked by the Rio Grande.
Yesterday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokeswoman Kristi M. Clemens said the Border Patrol was notified of possible narcotics smuggling by the sheriff's office involving suspects dressed in military-style uniforms and using military-style equipment. She said the incident is under investigation.
Ms. Clemens also said the Bush administration is discussing the matter with the government of Mexico and is asking for a thorough investigation and response.
Rafael Laveaga, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, yesterday said that country's Ministry of Defense has ordered an investigation of the incident, but "already has informed us they do not have the type of vehicles and heavy weapons described by the sheriff" in the area.
"We strongly deny that members of the Mexican military were involved," Mr. Laveaga said, adding that criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking "wear look-alike military uniforms and use look-alike military equipment to affect an image of the Mexican military."
Republican Reps. David Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee, and Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, have asked the House Judiciary Committee, the Department of Homeland Security, the House Homeland Security Committee and the House International Relations Committee to investigate suspected incursions by the Mexican military.
The two California congressmen, citing what they called the "critical importance of border and national security," also asked Mr. Chertoff to explain how these incidents occurred, to outline the department's current policies to address illegal crossings, and to explain its strategy for preventing similar acts in the future.
Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, also has asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to "initiate an official investigation" and "open a dialogue with Mexico to prevent any future incursions.
"These incidents pose a significant threat to our national security, as I'm sure you agree," Mr. Kyl said.
A Mexican government commission yesterday said it will distribute at least 70,000 maps showing highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert to curb the death toll among illegal border crossers.

Originally Posted by kennethm3

Chertoff doesn't believe that this happens that often and that is only innocent errors in navigation. I guess it'll take the bodies of Mexican soldiers in uniform with backpacks full of drugs on our side of the line to make it real to the people in Washington.

This has happened before. We have had Mexican military personnel in custody, but the PA's were ordered to release them and their equipment (hummers and automatic weapons). Of course the PA's took pictures of said subjects. Happened in early 2000.

Bill O'reilly had the president of the National Border Patrol Council on his show to discuss this topic. However, it never made the national news.

Then there were several incidents in San Diego sector, Brownfield Station and Campo Station,in 2001 and 2002. Of course those involved navigation errors and the PA's being flanked by the "men who appeared to be dressed in Mexican military uniforms" as they took the high ground around the PA's

I say we send some of the D.C. bosses to the river in Naco, AZ, give them a pair of NVG's and let them watch the Mex. military operate on our side of the border. Pretty intense, especially when you tell them where they are and they don't comply right away with your orders.

Or Yuma, AZ. Etc.

Stay safe.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs...601250317/1001

Originally Posted by tacguy

This has happened before. We have had Mexican military personnel in custody, but the PA's were ordered to release them and their equipment (hummers and automatic weapons). Of course the PA's took pictures of said subjects. Happened in early 2000.

Good, at least I didn't have to say it.

Originally Posted by electra1978

Navigational error?? Not on that part of the border, and not with modern technology...

I wonder if they found anything of interest in the SUV that was left behind?

Big, why would the PA get a pink slip once back in the U.S.?

Not to rip the mexican army too badly but can they afford a GPS for any of their cars? I think the might be on the good 'ol map system... It'd be a scary thought to be that outgunned and in a stand off. Best part will be when vincente fox doesn't do anything about it.

Originally Posted by LearninginMN

Not to rip the mexican army too badly but can they afford a GPS for any of their cars? I think the might be on the good 'ol map system... It'd be a scary thought to be that outgunned and in a stand off. Best part will be when vincente fox doesn't do anything about it.

Well they should be able to afford it with all the drug money they've accumulated over the years.

Plus, it's pretty hard to miss the large border marker a.k.a. the Rio Grande.