AZMEX UPDATE 4 APR 2014
Note: most such incidents are never reported.
U.S. Officials Confirm Illegal Border Incursion By Mexican Soldiers Allegedly Pursuing Smugglers
Published April 02, 2014Fox News Latino
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/04/02/us-officials-confirm-illegal-border-incursion-by-mexican-soldiers-allegedly/
After a series of denials, Mexican authorities have finally admitted that two heavily-armed and camouflaged soldiers crossed over the border into Arizona and drew their weapons in an edgy standoff with U.S. Border Patrol agents in January.
According to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times, the Jan. 26 showdown was confirmed in a Border Patrol foreign military incursion report and confirmed in a separate letter from R. Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol's parent agency.
The report describes that in the incident, the two Mexican soldiers – who accidentally misidentified themselves to U.S. border agents – claimed to be pursuing drug traffickers and only went back south of the border once U.S. border agents called for backup.
U.S. officials said that this is one of the most serious territorial incursions in recent memory and even though weapons were not fired, the standoff highlights growing tensions between Washington and Mexico when it comes to patrolling the border regions. U.S. officials added that the recent incursion was one of nearly two dozen by Mexican soldiers into southern Arizona over the last four years.
Mexican officials from the Embassy in Washington D.C. confirmed early Tuesday to journalists that the two men were soldiers, after previously claiming that the men were drug smugglers in military uniforms. The soldiers purportedly were tracking two men carrying backpacks full of drugs and after retrieving the backpacks the soldiers found themselves on the U.S. side of the border.
"Those individuals were part of a counter-narcotics operation, which had taken place a few minutes prior on the Mexican side of the border," said Ariel Moutsatsos, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy, according to the Los Angeles Times. "The two members of the Mexican army did not see any sign notifying them that they were crossing the border."
Moutsantos also added that Mexican authorities have run into U.S. border agents crossing the border into the U.S.'s southern neighbor, a claim previously made by Mexico on other occasions but usually denied by the U.S. government.
"Both U.S. and Mexican agents have sporadically and accidentally crossed our common border during their patrols," he added. "Both countries understand that this is something that happens as part of normal activities."
The U.S. government has so far chalked up the incident as an unfortunate but unintentional event, seemingly downplaying any negative political ripple effect.
"We have raised the issue of incursions onto U.S. territory with Mexican authorities both in Washington and in Mexico," a U.S. Embassy official in Mexico City told the Los Angeles Times. "We will continue to do so. There have been incursions by the Mexican military but they were unintentional. U.S. border officials work closely with their Mexican counterparts to ensure respect for the border and to return them quickly to Mexican territory. The bilateral collaboration in these incidents testifies to the strength of our security cooperation."
While the Mexican government's confirmation appears to rule out any official misconduct, some border security experts said that drug smugglers have been known to hire soldiers to assist in their trafficking operations – luring in military members with promises of quick money.
"It's pretty easy to co-opt them," said James Phelps, a border and homeland security professor at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. "Many are essentially a functional asset of the cartels."
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Note: The local terrain favors tunnels
Federal authorities in Arizona and Mexico shut down an incomplete drug-smuggling tunnel Friday in Nogales.
By Associated Press
Originally published: Apr 4, 2014 - 6:32 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1720250/Federal-authorities-in-Arizona-and-Mexico-shut-down-an-incomplete-drugsmuggling-tunnel-Friday-in-Nogales
NOGALES, Ariz. -- Federal authorities in Arizona and Mexico shut down an incomplete drug-smuggling tunnel Friday in Nogales.
A task force developed information that a tunnel was being constructed inside a residence located in Nogales, Sonora.
That's just a few yards south of the international border fence near the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz.
Task force members notified Mexican authorities and they subsequently discovered the tunnel entrance in a backyard shed at the residence.
The tunnel is approximately 449 feet long with about 60 feet in Mexico and 389 feet in the U.S.
The tunnel is roughly 4 feet tall and ends underneath a canyon just east of the Mariposa port.
Authorities say no people or drugs were found inside the passageway and no arrests have been made in the case.
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Note: AZMEX UPDATE usually just covers Mexico and the U.S. Interesting that not more tunnels found north of the Mexican mining center of Cananea, Son.
Two drug tunnels, with rail systems, found at U.S.-Mexico border
Reuters By Dan Whitcomb
Federal agents secure 2 tunnels at the border
http://news.yahoo.com/two-drug-tunnels-rail-systems-found-u-mexico-163343844--finance.html
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have uncovered two drug-smuggling tunnels underneath the U.S.-Mexico border, both surfacing in San Diego-area warehouses and equipped with rail systems for moving contraband, officials said on Friday.
The discovery led to the arrest of a 73-year-old woman accused of running one of the warehouses connected to a drug smuggling operation, according to a joint news release by four federal agencies.
The tunnels were discovered as part of a five-month investigation by the so-called San Diego Tunnel Task Force.
Federal law enforcement officials said the first tunnel, which connects a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico, with one in an industrial park in the border community of Otay Mesa, is about 600 yards long and is furnished with lighting, a crude rail system and wooden trusses.
The passageway is accessed via a 70-foot shaft secured by a cement cover and includes a pulley system on the U.S. side apparently intended to hoist contraband up into the warehouse.
The second tunnel was even more sophisticated, built with a multi-tiered electric rail system and an array of ventilation equipment.
"Here we are again, foiling cartel plans to sneak millions of dollars of illegal drugs through secret passageways that cost millions of dollars to build," U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement.
"Going underground is not a good business plan. We have promised to locate these super tunnels and keep powerful drug cartels from taking their business underground and out of sight, and once again, we have delivered on that promise," Duffy said.
The two tunnels are the sixth and seventh cross-border passageways discovered in the San Diego area in less than four years, according to the task force.
Since 2006, federal authorities have detected at least 80 cross-border smuggling tunnels, most of them in California and Arizona, and seized some 100 tons of narcotics associated with them.
end
Note: next two local, computer english
In armed attack on ex-cop riddled in Bácum Dies
Posted by Regional
on April 4, 2014 in police
http://www.elregionaldesonora.com.mx/noticia/40102
This is a former policeman , who went by the name of Edgar Alexis Ureta Beltran, and had his domicile at Aguila number 350 Colony Villa del Rey, and in the scuffle an active police were fired upon being of Eladio name Jesus Alcaraz Alcántar wounded in the left leg, the place came the MP agent .
Rolando Castañeda
Bácum , Son - . A new armed attack in this district left a toll of a former police officer dead and an active police injured as this attack occurred at 20:30 am yesterday , in street Base and the T in this municipality.
Police authorities confirmed that the dead cop by the name of Edgar Alexis Eureta Beltran , 21 , residing at No. 350 Aguila Street in the Villas del Rey colony and who received at least four impacts of 9 mm caliber bullet .
While the injured policeman by the name of Jesus Alcaraz Eladio Salazar, active police, Bácum , which was diagnosed with a wound in and out of the left leg
He said the crime took place when two men on a motorcycle shot at the occupants of a black colored Rodeo wagon which escaped after the attack , but also the driver of the vehicle l where allegedly the victims were traveling .
Meanwhile other officers ; Pedro Pablo Ibarra Santillanes , 25 and Jesus Alberto Grijalva Calderon , 29 , escaped injury , authorities went to the place of the three levels and MPFC agent who ordered the removal of the body of law for autopsies .
END
Ensures PFP two shipments of drugs
Federal Police seized 5.7 kilograms of "crystal " to intercept a car with double bottom Sonoyta road . They arrested the driver and passenger for investigation.
Tribune San Luis
April 3, 2014
By Fredy Mejia
http://www.oem.com.mx/tribunadesanluis/notas/n3344963.htm
San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora. - In surveillance operations carried out on the road stretch Sonoyta -San Luis officials Federal- Regional Security Division Police intercepted a car loaded with the drug "crystal " and found abandoned next to the border fence United States to Mexico three packages of marijuana.
The incident occurred last Monday at 500 meters 145 kilometers and 24, at 11.30 am , when officers intercepted a Honda 1998 , green and VNR- 6053 Sonora plates , manned by Filiberto Olivas Felix , 45 , who was accompanied by Gregorio Verdugo Lopez, 47 .
When requesting documents auto driver and passenger noticed that they were nervous , cause for which they asked them to come down for a inspection.
When nearly completed inspection they had noticed irregularities at the height of the board , so they noticed the packages containing 5,700 kilograms of "crystal " .
Immediately arrested Olivas Felix and Verdugo Lopez , who revealed that they left Culiacan to Tijuana , Baja California.
Hours later, officers of the Federal Police in Sonoyta resident involved in operating in coordination with the Border Patrol and the United States who were aware of suspicious persons at kilometer24 500 meters
Because it was not detected any person for the Mexican side , the officers patrolled the side of the metal fence being found lying three polyethylene packages with 31.5 pounds of marijuana .
Those arrested for methamphetamine were moved to this town for submission to the Office of the Public Prosecutor's Office and the packages of marijuana available to the social representative of the Federation residing in Sonoyta for investigations.
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