FBI says attacks on Border Patrol agents are connected

The FBI and it’s Mexican equivalent, the PGR, are working together to solve an increasingly violent problem

BROWNSVILLE – The FBI has determined the two recent attacks on Border Patrol agents are connected.

Two separate attacks occurred on two separate nights. One boat patrol near Brownsville was shot at, and days later agents driving along the river banks were attacked.

The shots came from across the Rio Grande River. The FBI says it’s all about drug and human trafficking. The Border Patrol is making headway toward shutting down these types of operations by cutting off the routine routes for smugglers.

Border Patrol spokesman Salvador Zamora said, "It's a direct result of our gaining operation patrol in those areas where human traffickers and drug smugglers have been confident and comfortable operating in those areas."

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Lupita Murillo Reports
Minutemen say video shows Mexican army crossing into US
Startling new video from the Minutemen tonight. They claim the video shows members of the Mexican military sneaking over the border.

Eyewitness News 4 has obtained the video from the Minutemen, showing what they say is an infiltration of the Mexican Army.

There is no audio and there are no signs indicating where the video was taken.

Earlier this week, the Border Patrol issued a report saying the Mexican military has crossed into the U.S. over two hundred times in ten years.

Chris Simcox and a group of Minutemen volunteers say they shot this video in 2004 along the Arizona/Mexico border.

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Marijuana among border seizures
Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times

Cockfighting spurs, parakeets and 1,232 pounds of marijuana were among items seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in the El Paso area this week, an agency spokesman said.

The law prohibits the importation of live birds. Agents also seized 30 Valium tablets, caught 27 fugitives wanted for a variety of crimes and used a gamma ray inspection system to discover a stowaway in a rail car coming from Mexico.

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Illegal tunnel found under U.S.-Mexico border
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN DIEGO – Authorities on Friday found a partially-completed illegal tunnel under the U.S.-Mexican border.

Acting on a tip received by U.S. authorities, Mexican federal police located the tunnel entrance on Mexican soil three-quarters of a mile west of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego.

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Mexico City offers new computers for old guns
REUTERS

MEXICO CITY – Mexicans are being invited to exchange their weapons for computers under a quirky new idea to curb rampant crime in Mexico City.

Authorities in one of the city's 16 districts are offering a new computer, out of 150 donated by a charitable foundation, for each gun handed in.

"People often have a gun at home, which could perhaps be for self-defense, but sadly it becomes a family tragedy when it is not used properly " Guadalupe Lopez, local government head for the central district of Alvaro Obregon, told Reuters.

Shootings are a daily occurrence in Mexico City, a sprawling megalopolis of 18 million people where muggings, carjackings and kidnappings are common.