Border patrolers face rise in assaults, agency says

By Greg Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 15, 2008

OTAY MESA – The Border Patrol says assaults against agents in San Diego County have taken a dramatic upturn since the fall, including one attempt to set a booby trap that could decapitate agents riding all-terrain vehicles.

On Saturday night, agents found a thick wire stretched across a dirt road they use to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border. It was attached at one end to a secondary border fence and ran through a hole in the main fence several yards away.

When pulled taut, the wire stretched about 4 feet over the ground.

The Border Patrol says it's part of a sizable spike in the number of assaults on their officers in the area – 176 since October, compared with 254 for the entire previous fiscal year.

The bulk of these assaults are taking place in one area, east of the San Ysidro border crossing on Otay Mesa, Agent Mark Endicott said. That's where the trap was found.

The area where the bulk of the assaults have taken place faces a Tijuana neighborhood just over the border known as Colonia Libertad. The hills in that neighborhood have long been used by street gangs and drug traffickers.