AZMEX UPDATE 3 OCT 2012
Note: mostly extended coverage of the Ivie shooting, and a couple
probably unrelated incidents.
But could it be indicating changes in doing business coming since the
Mexican elections?
More on that soon.
Note: Like the English language media, they get some details wrong
Posted October 3, 2012, 1:49 AM
shootout with drug traffickers in Naco, Sonora
Murder Border Patrol agent.
Omar Chiquete
Nogales, Arizona - New Day
http://www.nuevodia.com.mx/local/asesinan-a-border-patrol/
A Border Patrol agent of the United States was killed and another was
wounded after a shootout early Tuesday near Naco, Arizona.
The Border Patrol Agent, Nicolas Ivie, 30, died after officers went
to the activation of a motion sensor promptly at 2:00 am, near Mile
352 on Highway 80.
Another Border Patrol agent suffered injuries that put his life in
danger and was airlifted to a local hospital. As reported by federal
authorities, is in stable condition at this time.
"Firstly, our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this
time Ivie agent terrible," said Jeffrey D. Self, commander of the
Joint Operations Command-Arizona. "This is a tragic loss for Customs
and Border Protection. We are committed to pursue and bring the
perpetrators of this heinous act to justice. "
The Acting Chief of the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, Manuel
Padilla, said, "The Tucson Sector is mourning the loss of one of our
own. It stands as a reminder of the dangers that CBP officers face
every day. We thank our state, local, federal and international
partners for their support and commitment in the pursuit of justice
in this tragedy, "he said.
The investigation is being conducted by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and the Office of Cochise County Sheriff.
Nicolas Agent Ivie, was a native of Provo, Utah and joined the Border
Patrol in January 2008.
Authorities are urging members of the public to report any activity
they see, and be alert to any suspicious activity by calling toll
free 1-877-872-7435.
Shoot drug smuggler
A shipment of marijuana was secured by federal authorities after they
had to shoot from a helicopter the driver of the vehicle carrying
drugs and who tried to flee.
This was announced by the Sheriff Tony Estrada, who said the incident
took place on Thursday afternoon, at about 15:20 hours, when federal
agents of unity "Disrupt" reported a suspicious vehicle with a cargo
of drugs.
Support of other units patrol was requested by federal agents was
reported in the Kino Springs area, located northwest of Nogales,
Arizona.
During the chase, a patrol vehicle with two federal agents was
overturned and both suffered injuries considered minor, so the
support of an air unit was requested.
When the driver of the vehicle that was given to the flight
approached the Mexican border and being in unpopulated area, federal
agents fired from the helicopter hitting the driver in the left
shoulder, which made him stop his journey and he could be arrested.
An unspecified drug shipment was seized by the federal authorities
and one person was arrested but was not admitted to the Adult
Detention Center of Santa Cruz County Sheriff.
Note: Unrelated?
Chase near Naco, Arizona leads to officer-involved shooting
By Associated Press
Originally published: Oct 3, 2012 - 6:53 am
http://www.ktar.com/22/1579515/Officers-shoot-suspect-near-Naco-Ariz
NACO, Ariz. -- Authorities said a man who fled from southern Arizona
police officers is in custody and being treated for a gunshot wound.
The officer-involved shooting took place Tuesday night in the Naco
area near the U.S.-Mexico line. Earlier Tuesday, Border Patrol agent
Nicholas Ivie was shot to death and another agent wounded in the same
area.
Cochise County Sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Capas said the situation
began when Bisbee Police attempted to pull over a man riding a
motorcycle on Naco Highway.
Police said the man fired at officers, who fired back. The man then
fled the area on foot.
Capas said authorities later received a call about an injured man at
a Douglas home. Bisbee police identified the man as the motorcyclist.
The man is being hospitalized to treat a gunshot wound.
Note: another incident from area included.
BP agent shot and killed in Cochise County
Posted: Tuesday, October 2, 2012 1:59 pm | Updated: 2:16 pm, Tue Oct
2, 2012.
Nogales International/AP
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/bp-agent-shot-and-killed-in-
cochise-county/article_0f584d86-0cd4-11e2-bc8e-001a4bcf887a.html
A Border Patrol agent was shot to death Tuesday near Naco, the first
fatal shooting of an agent since a deadly 2010 firefight with Mexican
bandits near Rio Rico that left Agent Brian Terry dead.
The shooting came one week after two armed men were chased into
Mexico by Border Patrol agents and Santa Cruz County sheriff's
deputies south of Patagonia.
In the Naco incident, Agent Nicholas Ivie, 30, and a colleague were
on patrol in the desert when shooting broke out shortly before 2
a.m., the Border Patrol said. The second agent was shot in the ankle
and buttocks, and was airlifted to a hospital.
Authorities have not identified the agent who was wounded, nor did
they say whether any weapons were seized at the site of the shooting.
The shooting occurred after an alarm was triggered on one of the many
sensors along the border and the three agents went to investigate,
said Cochise County Sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Capas.
Authorities have not identified any suspects, Capas said. It is not
known whether the agents returned fire.
In the local incident, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office
received a call on the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 25 from the U.S.
Border Patrol after two of its agents who were checking sensors near
Duquesne Road heard shots fired, Sheriff Antonio Estrada told the
county board of supervisors last Wednesday.
The agents saw two people carrying rifles and they called for backup,
Estrada said. The Border Patrol responded with a helicopter and a
BORSTAR unit, while five sheriff's units also responded.
Upon arrival, agents in the helicopter saw the two men heading back
into Mexico, where they were detained by three unidentified people.
Mexican authorities were unaware of the event as of Wednesday,
Estrada said.
A Border Patrol spokeswoman said it was determined that shots had
been fired in Mexico and agents were not shot at. Nobody was injured
on the U.S. side of the border, Estrada said.
Border agent slain; partner wounded
UNKNOWN GUNMEN FLEE SHOOTING SCENE EAST OF BISBEE
BENJIE SANDERS / ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Border Patrol agents peer over the border fence into Mexico,
searching for suspects in the shooting death of agent Nick Ivie and
the wounding of another agent. The killing took place in an area
known for decades as a drug-smuggling corridor.
Brady McCombs and Tim Steller Arizona Daily Star
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/border-agent-slain-partner-
wounded/article_4338b8e7-b034-54ea-8c6c-0ecaccef93a0.html
NACO - U.S. Border Patrol Agent Nick Ivie usually got home from his
overnight shift at about 4 a.m., but on Tuesday about that time other
agents knocked on the door of his Sierra Vista home.
They came to tell Ivie's wife, Christy, Nick had died.
Ivie and two other agents responded early Tuesday morning to an area
where a ground sensor had been tripped, about eight miles east of
Bisbee and five miles north of the border. They were on foot in the
hilly area when unknown gunmen opened fire.
Ivie, a 30-year-old father of two young girls, died of his wounds,
another agent was wounded and the third agent was not hit. The
wounded agent was in stable condition Tuesday after surgery at a
Tucson hospital.
The agents were assigned to the Naco Border Patrol station, which was
renamed in honor of slain agent Brian Terry just two weeks ago.
Ivie's death put a new name on the dismaying list of victims of
border violence.
"It just goes to show that whether you are an armed Border Patrol
agent on duty or a simple rancher like Rob Krentz out working his
ranch - if you're in border country you are in peril," said Rod
Rothrock, acting sheriff of Cochise County.
Residents of the area midway between Naco and Douglas, about 100
miles southeast of Tucson, said the number of illegal immigrants has
plummeted since 2008 when a fence across the border was completed and
the economy tanked. The twist: Drug-smuggling traffic has remained
about the same.
Indeed, the killing took place in an area that has been a drug-
smuggling corridor for 30 to 40 years, said Lee Morgan II, who
retired as a U.S. Customs Service special agent in 2006 after decades
in the area.
"It's a historically bad area," said Morgan. "Over the years we've
had numerous armed confrontations, shootings, pursuits."
Tripped sensors routine
The Border Patrol has buried sensors in many spots along border
trails in Southern Arizona. Responding to a tripped sensor is a
routine part of an agent's shift, said Art Del Cueto, president of
the National Border Patrol Council local 2544 in Tucson.
Agents learn over time which sensors tend to signal illegal-immigrant
groups, and which usually mean drug smugglers are moving through, Del
Cueto said. But whenever they respond, they're in a heightened state
of alertness.
The agents who responded early Tuesday radioed that they had come
under fire from three or four people, Cochise County sheriff's Cmdr.
Marc Denney told the Los Angeles Times. It is not known whether the
agents returned fire, sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Capas told The
Associated Press.
By the time deputies responded, the gunmen had disappeared,
apparently on foot, Denney told the Times. "Whether they were picked
up in another vehicle is unknown," he said. "They had a bit of a jump
on us." Border agents were sent to try to cut off escape routes to
Mexico.
Two suspects were detained by Mexican officials south of the border
Tuesday, Denney told the L.A. Times. Rothrock, the acting sheriff,
told the Star he had heard that but couldn't confirm it.
Rothrock's agency and the FBI are investigating the case jointly, but
they declined to give any details of the shooting or investigation at
a news conference Tuesday.
In Mexico, soldiers and federal and state police were sent to the
area, but a spokesman for the Mexican military said no arrests were
made, the Times reported.
President Obama called Ivie's family Tuesday to offer condolences and
to express his gratitude for the agent's "selfless service to his
nation," the White House said. Obama said the administration "was
doing everything it could to locate those responsible."
"It's changed a lot" recently
Dan Oldfield's dogs started barking about 2 a.m. Tuesday.
Oldfield, 66, has lived on property along Arizona 80 for 25 years,
just southeast of the Bisbee-Douglas highway in the southeastern
foothills of the Mule Mountains.
"I got up and there were three cop cars with automatic weapons in my
driveway," Oldfield said.
The officers told him an agent had been killed, and helicopters began
circling the area, swooping over the house all night, he said.
The late-night action in the area has calmed in recent years as the
groups of illegal border-crossers dwindled, he and other residents
said. Much of the change happened after 2008, when the fence was
completed between Naco and Douglas, said rancher Fred Giacoletti. Yet
he and others said the drug-smuggling traffic has not gone down.
Ironically, the potential for trouble seems higher, said Tony
Coulson, who retired as the agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement
Administration's Tucson office in 2010. "The drug smuggling has been
historically very aggressive in that area," Coulson said, adding:
"The nature of trafficking has so changed, in the sense of the
violence and the shooting."
Yet some residents feel quite safe compared to border agents, whose
job puts them in harm's way. "It's actually pretty quiet down here,"
said Cynthia Binyon, who lives east of Naco.
A dedicated dad and Mormon
Ivie was a loving husband and father who cherished spending time with
his daughters, ages 3 and 1, said Kevin Goates, president of the
Sierra Vista stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. Originally from Provo, Utah, Ivie served his Mormon mission
in Mexico City and became a border agent assigned to the Naco station
in January 2008.
He was a dedicated member of the Mormon church, serving as second
counselor to the bishop of his local congregation. In that role, he
conducted meetings and spoke to the congregation on Sundays.
Ivie loved taking the girls to the park and riding bikes with them,
Goates said. "His family life was the center of everything that he
did," Goates said.
On Monday evening, Ivie spoke with Dr. Jarrett Hamilton about the
tithe Hamilton's young son had offered at the previous day's service.
Ivie wanted to be sure the boy got proper credit for it, Hamilton
said. And before starting his shift on Monday night, Ivie went to his
wife's soccer practice, Goates said. While the mothers were
practicing, Ivie rounded up all the kids and played with them.
"We believe that families are eternal," Goates said. "So, they have
the hope of being able to be with Nick again. That gives them
tremendous hope and comfort."
You can help
A foundation has been established to help the Ivie family pay for its
expenses. People can make donations to the Nicholas Ivie Memorial
Fund at any branch of National Bank of Arizona.
Search continues for suspects in Border Patrol shooting
DEREK JORDAN AND JONATHON SHACAT | HERALD/REVIEW
Tue, 10/02/2012 - 4:02pm
http://www.svherald.com/content/news/2012/10/02/332203
BISBEE — A U.S. Border Patrol agent was fatally shot early Tuesday
morning in rugged terrain in a remote area seven miles east of Bisbee
and about five miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Agent Nicholas Ivie, 30, was killed around 1:30 a.m. after he and two
other agents responded to a tripped sensor, hit near mile marker 352
on Highway 80. One other agent sustained non-life threatening wounds,
was airlifted to a local hospital and was reported to be in stable
condition on Tuesday afternoon, according to a press release.
Ivie was a native of Provo, Utah, and joined the U.S. Border Patrol
in January of 2008. He currently lived in Sierra Vista, and he was
assigned to the recently dedicated Brian A. Terry Border Patrol
Station in Naco, Arizona. He leaves behind a wife and two young
daughters.
Commander Jeffrey Self said Ivie died in the line of duty while
protecting the nation against those who threaten the public's way of
life. His death strengthens the resolve to enforce the rule of law
and bring those responsible to justice, said Self, who is the
commander of Joint Field Command of Arizona with Customs and Border
Protection.
"Many of the CBP family received a call at 2 o'clock this morning and
it has been a long day for us, but it has been longer for no one more
than a wife, whose husband is not coming home, and it has been longer
for no one more than two children whose father is not coming home,"
he said at Tuesday's press conference.
Authorities set up a checkpoint on a dirt road about seven miles
southeast of Bisbee.
Agents at the checkpoint declined to comment and barred reporters
from going further. Two helicopters from federal immigration agencies
could be seen from a distance circling the area. And a fugitive-chase
team could be seen staging on a roadside.
The area near the shooting is scattered with houses, trailers and
ranchettes. Mesquite trees and creosote bushes dot the landscape,
with a mountain range nearby to the west.
The U.S. government has put thousands of sensors along the border
that, when tripped, alert dispatchers that they should send agents to
a particular location.
The agents were fired upon in a rugged hilly area about five miles
north of the border as they responded to an alarm that was triggered
on one of the sensors, said sheriff's spokeswoman Carol Capas. It is
not known whether the agents returned fire, she said.
The agents who were shot were on patrol with a third agent, who was
not harmed, said George McCubbin, president of the National Border
Patrol Council, a union representing about 17,000 border patrol agents.
Ivie worked as an emergency medical technician before joining the
Border Patrol, said his brother-in-law, Todd Davis. He served a two-
year mission with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in
Mexico City after high school.
Ivie's desire to help others, and his love of the outdoors and riding
horses led him to the Border Patrol, where he served on the horse
patrol unit, Davis said.
"Nick always tried to help others. He was a very selfless man with
his family, with his friends, in anything he did," Davis said. "You
know the risk but you pray this day would never happen."
Twenty-six Border Patrol agents have died in the line of duty since
2002. Bisbee-area residents expressed a mix of concern and
frustration about the shooting, along with recognition that the
border can be a dangerous place.
The region has seen its share of violence in recent years, including
the Terry shooting and the slaying of a well-known rancher in 2010.
That killing was, in part, credited with pushing Arizona lawmakers to
pass a law that requires officers, when they stop someone, to check
the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country
illegally.
"There is no security on the border — none," said Edward L. Thomas,
who owns rental properties in Bisbee.
James Turgal, special agent in charge for the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's Phoenix Division, said the shooting incident
demonstrates the danger that law enforcement agents face along the
southwest border everyday. Turgal said the FBI's Phoenix Division and
the Cochise County Sheriffs Office are conducting a joint investigation.
"The FBI is utilizing all necessary resources in conducting this
investigation, and that is to ensure that those responsible will be
brought to justice," he said during the press conference. "We have
deployed Phoenix Division evidence response teams … to process the
crime scene, which may take some time, and I have pledged all FBI
resources from across the country to assist in support of this
investigation."
During Tuesday's press conference, Rod Rothrock, Cochise County
Sheriff's Office chief deputy, said the Sheriff's Office deployed all
assets that could be deployed to assist in the search for the suspects.
Authorities declined to comment on whether or not anybody is in
custody, or if any weapons or other evidence were collected at the
scene because it is too early in the process.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Manuel Padilla, Acting Chief Patrol
Agent, said, "Tucson Sector mourns the loss of one of our own. It
stands as a reminder of the dangers that agents of CBP face every
day. We appreciate our state, local, federal and international
partners for their support and commitment in seeking justice in this
tragedy."
The scene of this shooting is located in the general vicinity of the
January 2007 incident in which Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Corbett
fatally shot Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, an illegal immigrant
from Mexico, who was entering the United States. Corbett was charged
but the case was later dismissed after two trials that resulted in
hung juries.
In December of 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who began his
career at the Naco Station, was fatally shot while on patrol near Rio
Rico. His murder is linked to Operation Fast and Furious, a program
in which federal law enforcement agencies knowingly allowed the
trafficking of illegally purchased weapons into Mexico.
Robert Heyer, cousin of Agent Terry and Chairman of the Brian Terry
Foundation, said in a statement released Tuesday that the family
extends its heartfelt prayers and condolences to family of the Border
Patrol agent who lost his life and to the family of the agent who was
shot and has been hospitalized.
"Today's shooting of two U.S. Border Patrol agents near Naco, AZ is a
tragic reminder of the dangers faced by the brave men and women who
patrol our borders and keep our nation safe. It is also a graphic
reminder of the inherent dangers that threaten the safety of those
who live and work near the border. It's a stark reminder of the armed
criminals who roam the border seeking to do harm to those who cross
their paths," he stated, adding, "We hope that those responsible for
this shooting are brought to justice swiftly."
Officials are urging anyone with any information about Tuesday's
shooting incident to call 1-877-872-7435.
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