Investigators have long documented that Mexican drug gangs often wear
camouflage clothing and carry military-style automatic weapons.
[they were probably "Zetas"]
U.S. lawmaker calls for troops after clash with Mexican smugglers
BY DAVID MCLEMORE
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS - A West Texas [encounter] along the Rio Grande between U.S. law
enforcement officers and heavily armed Mexican drug smugglers in
military-style clothing prompted congressional demands Tuesday for an
international investigation and a call for deployment of U.S. troops to
the border.
The incident, which occurred Monday on U.S. soil at an isolated river
crossing about 50 miles east of El Paso, Texas, is the latest incident
involving armed incursions along the U.S. border with Mexico.
And it comes less than a week after Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff called a California newspaper's account of such border
incursions "overblown."
The incident Monday involved an encounter between two Hudspeth County
Sheriff's Department deputies and three Department of Public Safety
troopers and 10 heavily armed drug smugglers.
A spokesman for Mexico's Foreign Ministry said Mexican military
personnel had nothing to do with the incident and suggested the
trespassers may have been drug traffickers wearing military-style gear.
The incident began on Interstate 10 near the Sierra Blanca checkpoint
when DPS troopers began chasing three westbound SUVs believed to be
carrying marijuana.
When the SUV drivers saw that they were being followed, they made a
U-turn and headed south toward the river to an area known as Neely's
Crossing, said Rick Glancey, executive director of the Texas Border
Sheriffs Coalition.
At the crossing, one of the SUVs drove across the shallow river into
Mexico. A second one got stuck in the muddy banks. And as the Texas
deputies watched, a military-style Humvee attempted to pull it from the
mud, while several armed men in green uniforms fanned out around it,
Glancey said.
When the Humvee failed to extricate the truck, a group of men in
civilian clothes walked into the ankle-deep river, removed what
appeared to be bales of marijuana and hauled them to the Mexican side.
They then set the truck, a Ford Expedition, ablaze.
The third vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade, was abandoned on the U.S. side
with a flat tire as the driver escaped on foot. Deputies found 1,447
pounds of marijuana inside.
"What this latest incidence underscores is the necessity of increased
support for local law enforcement to aid improving our border
security," said Glancey. "If this doesn't open D.C.'s eyes, I don't
know what will."
Monday's incident was not the first face-to-face confrontation for
Hudspeth County deputies.
In November, deputies responded to assist Border Patrol agents at the
border town of Fort Hancock, Texas, where they encountered six men in
military uniforms attempting to carry a load of marijuana over the
river.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Tuesday they have
launched an inquiry into the Monday incident and asked Mexican
authorities for a thorough investigation and full answer on what
happened.
"(Customs) is coordinating closely with the appropriate federal, state
and local authorities," said Kristi Clemens, Customs' assistant
commissioner for public affairs. "The U.S. government is also
discussing the matter with the government of Mexico and is asking for a
thorough investigation and response. We take very seriously and
investigate fully any alleged incident of criminal activity, threats
against our agents or possible incursions."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also has ordered an investigation, spokeswoman
Kathy Walt said.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a frequent critic of the
administration's border security efforts, called Tuesday for the
federal government and the governments of southern border states to
immediately deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in light of what he
termed "recent armed assistance Mexico's military has given to drug
smugglers."
"Our border has literally turned into a war zone with foreign military
personnel challenging our laws and our sovereignty," Tancredo said.
"The only way to deal with this dangerous situation is to tap the
resources of our own military," Tancredo said. "I call on President
Bush and the governors of border states to immediately deploy military
personnel to defend our borders against the Mexican military."
U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on
Terrorism and Homeland Security, called on Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice to initiate a formal investigation on the reported
border crossings and to begin a dialogue with Mexican officials to
prevent further occurrences.
"These illegal incursions are a violation of our sovereignty and pose a
significant danger to U.S. law enforcement officials and citizens near
the border - especially if all parties involved are armed. The
potential for violence is significant."
Sen. Kyl noted that the Department of Homeland Security released
figures that indicate that there have been 231 documented incursions
along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico since 1996.
Of those, 63 in that nine-year period occurred in Arizona and 28
occurred along the Texas border, according to Homeland Security.
In each instance, U.S. agents at the local level asked Mexican federal
police and army officials to clarify what happened.
Many included accidental forays by legitimate Mexican authorities
across a poorly defined border in rough and isolated country while in
pursuit of drug dealers. The Texas-Mexico border, however, is
delineated by the Rio Grande River.
Investigators have long documented that Mexican drug gangs often wear
camouflage clothing and carry military-style automatic weapons.
But Tuesday's request for a Mexican government response significantly
ups the ante, federal officials said.
In Mexico, officials said the National Defense Ministry has begun an
investigation of the incident and launched a search for the vehicles
identified by photographs taken by Hudspeth County deputies.
Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal said that men dressed as
Mexican soldiers manned what looked like .50-caliber machine guns
mounted on vehicles about 200 yards inside the U.S. border during the
incident.
In Mexico, a ministry spokesman said that the Army's Ciudad Juarez
garrison does not maintain Humvees with mounted .50-caliber machine
guns.
"It cannot be ruled out that said actions are designed as much to harm
the image of our armed forces as the bilateral cooperation between
Mexico and the United States in the fight against organized crime and,
in particular, narcotrafficking," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
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