Drug fear on border escalating

WFAA.com San Antonio Bureau ^ | November 27, 2005 | DAVID McLEMORE

[SwinneySwitch]

As rival gangs intensify attacks and weaponry, officials fight to keep up

DEL RIO, Texas – Val Verde County Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan has dealt with smugglers and drug gangs for decades, both as sheriff and as a customs agent.

But in the last year, the risks of drug-fueled terrorism have raised the stakes to scary levels. Rifles and handguns have been replaced by rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, and high-caliber machine guns.

"Now the bad guys have more sophisticated training and better equipment," Sheriff Jernigan said. "They're better armed and willing to shoot."

This month, Border Patrol officials reported that assaults against agents all along the border nearly doubled from the previous year.

As President Bush prepares to tour the U.S.-Mexico border this week, law enforcement officials in counties up and down Texas' 1,200-mile border with Mexico are coping with issues of national security, increased illegal immigration, and a growing fear that the drug cartels are moving upriver and just across the border from here.

Val Verde County, a stony outcrop of sheep and goat ranches and sharply etched limestone canyons, rests along the Rio Grande 150 miles west of San Antonio.

Its biggest city, Del Rio, and its Mexican neighbor, Ciudad Acuña, have missed the explosion of drug violence that has enmeshed Laredo and Nuevo Laredo 180 miles downriver.

But law enforcement officials know it's coming. They've seen the signs.

"We're in a time of transition," said Chief Deputy Terry Simons.

"Our concerns are just how strongly the cartels' sphere of influence will extend through this county."

Federal investigators have blamed the increasing level of violence along the border on the bloody turf battle between three violent cartels, a battle leaving 158 dead and accounting for more than 40 kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo alone.

The FBI has told Congress that the continuing violence centered in that city stems from the battle between rival smuggling organizations: the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel, remnants of the Juárez cartel and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's Federation, a splinter group of the Juárez organization.

"We've gathered intelligence that indicates the Zetas, the Gulf cartel's enforcers, are making an appearance in Ciudad Acuña," Deputy Simons said. There's also an indication of a presence of MS-13, a Central American drug gang with tentacles in the U.S. that provides muscle for the Guzmán cartel.

"To make matters worse, a few months ago we picked up information that a new order went out from the Zetas that no more drug loads would be lost," he said. "It used to be that losing a load now and then was a cost of doing business. Now the Zetas are telling their people they can't give up a load. They're to fight the cops. ...

"We're caught in the middle until somebody wins," Deputy Simons said. "It's not just drug smuggling anymore. You have to think of it as narco-terrorism."

Gangs have ties in U.S.

In a Nov. 17 congressional hearing on border security, Chris Swecker, FBI assistant director for criminal investigations, testified that each of the competing cartels has cemented ties to U.S. street and prison gangs, including the Texas Mexican Mafia, the Texas Syndicate and Los Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos, or The Brotherhood of Latin Gunmen.

For the border sheriffs, it is, at best, an uneven battle.

Sheriff Jernigan has 13 deputies to patrol a county of 3,100 square miles – roughly three-fourths the size of New Jersey. Most of the county's 45,000 residents live in Del Rio. The rest are scattered across isolated ranches and small communities, connected to state highways via gravel ranch roads or private twisting dirt roads. The deputies also patrol roughly 90 miles of river frontage, including thick stands of carrizo (cane) and limestone cliffs.

Val Verde County provides each deputy with a military-style automatic rifle and a vehicle. Deputies supply their own side arm. Each vehicle – usually a heavy-duty four-wheel drive truck – is equipped with water, food, extra fuel, tow straps, a GPS device, a change of clothes and extra ammunition, much of it paid for out of the deputies' pockets.

In the rocky, isolated terrain, radios frequently don't work and cellphone coverage fades not far from the city limits.

"When you're out there, driving ... to some call about a man with a gun, you're by yourself," Deputy Joe Faz said. "The other deputy on duty has to watch the rest of the county. You can call the Border Patrol for backup, but you know they're 20 minutes or more away. So it's just you."

Six months ago, a smuggler's car was seized with a highly sophisticated communication system superior to anything the deputies have in their vehicles. And last year, deputies found a modern baseball-style grenade along a dirt path leading up from the river. They believe someone running security for a load of drugs dropped it. Deputies have also gathered information on smugglers armed with an RPG-7, a shoulder-fired rocket, and white phosphorous grenades.

"What we need is money to put more boots on the ground and give these guys better training and equipment," Sheriff Jernigan said.

"But this isn't just our fight. ... If border law enforcement doesn't work, than the rest of the country is going to lose."

Bracing for violence

That sentiment is echoed all along the border.

"El Paso County sees these types of criminal behaviors more often than we would like," El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego said. "The border is so wide open, this will be problematic until lawmakers in Washington, D.C., address these national-security concerns."

Officials on both sides of the border in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez area are bracing for an increase in drug violence.

Two weeks ago, gunmen killed two Mexican police officers in Ciudad Juárez. And earlier in the month, police found the bodies of a former Interpol chief and his lawyer crammed into oil drums and sealed with concrete. Both men appeared to have been suffocated with plastic bags, authorities said.

Ciudad Juárez, a city of 1.3 million, is infamous for its powerful drug hub controlled by the Juárez cartel, whose No. 2 leader was arrested Nov. 11, along with other suspects.

When President Bush visits El Paso this week, said Manuel Mora, the new FBI agent-in-charge, he will discover that while counterterrorism remains the top national security issue, drug trafficking remains the priority and poses the biggest criminal threat for the border city across from Ciudad Juárez.

"This is El Paso, Texas, and everyone here is vigilant about the drug problem and the crime that comes with it," said Mr. Mora. "I can't say that I've seen any of the alarming signs, but that doesn't mean we're not concerned," he said.

A senior Mexican intelligence official, however, had this sober assessment: "We're seeing the violence gradually move from the Nuevo Laredo region up the Rio Grande into the Juárez-Chihuahua area," the official said. "The war continues. What changes are the battle sites."

Sheriffs want help

This year, the sheriffs of 16 Texas counties joined forces to form the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition to lobby state and federal officials for help. They recently received a $500,000 state grant from Gov. Rick Perry.

"We know that border violence has escalated in Nuevo Laredo, and we have heard about activity pushing west towards El Paso County," said Rick Glancey, interim executive director of the group. "With the presence of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, we hope to intercept those problems before they make a hard push in any direction."

The coalition enthusiastically endorsed a bill introduced Nov. 17 by U.S. Reps. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, and John Culberson, R-Houston, which would authorize $100 million to pay the direct costs of training and equipping additional deputies and pay overtime costs. It would also direct some funds to build detention beds to house illegal immigrants taken into custody.

The Homeland Security Department recently addressed another major complaint of border sheriffs – the loophole in immigration law that allowed illegal immigrants from nations other than Mexico, known as OTMs, to be released with a "notice to appear," pending deportation proceedings.

This month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced a temporary stop of the notice to appear – known derisively along the border as "catch and release" – as part of a new border security initiative that includes funding for additional Border Patrol agents.

"If they want to fix it, they need to make it permanent," Sheriff Jernigan said. "The OTMs were coming through in droves from all over the world. They'd come up to us, asking where to find a Border Patrol agent. We'd see them later, waiting to hitch a ride along Highway 90. And no one had any idea of where they were going or what they might do once they got there."

It's not just drugs

Not all the border concerns stem from drugs or illegal immigration. In Vega Verde, a neighborhood along the river west of Del Rio that borders a major smuggling route, thieves come across the river, hit the homes there and get back to Mexico before deputies can arrive.

"They're taking guns, jewelry, air conditioners, anything they can get on a raft and get across," Deputy Faz said. "Landowners are frustrated. And my concern is that people will start taking the law in their own hands. What's going to happen if residents take up their hunting rifles against some Zetas bringing a load of dope across?"

Recently, deputies frustrated with the inaction of Mexican authorities staged an impromptu raid, taking boats across the river and seizing stolen property.

"The funny thing is, with all this activity on the river, the Border Patrol never showed up," Deputy Jose Luis Blancarte said. "We're bringing back TVs and air conditioners and nobody saw it? We don't have to worry about terrorists sneaking suitcase nukes across the border. They could be bringing whole bombs, and no one would know."

The border sheriffs say their main concern is the safety of their residents. "We don't want to be immigration officers," Sheriff Jernigan said. "We just want to make sure our counties are safe. To do that we need help, and that help has to come from the federal government.

"My nightmare is that it will take another 9-11 attack to wake up this country about the vulnerability of the border," he said. "And some border sheriff is going to have to say it came through his county."

Staff Writers Alfredo Corchado in Mexico City and Diane Jennings in Dallas contributed to this report.

E-mail dmclemore@dallasnews.com

[SwinneySwitch]

"But this isn't just our fight. ... If border law enforcement doesn't work, than the rest of the country is going to lose."

[stopem]

NOTHING, drugs, gangs, gang wars, homeland security, will impress President Bush to stop this insanity!

He refers to his "guest worker program" as an answer to a major growing problem, he will not address the problems involved with those already here, causing Americans fear of diseases brought in by the illegals like TB, the hospital health crisis, all the money it costs taxpayers to support them, increased crime rates, just a multitude of problems and all he can reply is a "guest worker program".

Mr. President this is a war, and a guest worker program will not solve it.

[squarebarb]

This is a no-brainer.

I hope Bush's visit to El Paso wakes him up.

[mtbopfuyn]

Isn't that nice that Bush has decided to make this little tour. He'll bring back nothing but pictures of cactus. Nothing will have changed.

[ncountylee]

Bush is pushing a guest thug program.

[SwinneySwitch]

Border Ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.

[1066AD]

And heaven help the rancher who tries to protect himself, all the La Raza types will be on him like a ton of bricks.

[rolling_stone]

Bush is pushing a guest thug program.

yes along with "amnesty" for lawbreakers, what about the millions who waited to enter lawfully, its a slap in their face.

[Graybeard58]

"But this isn't just our fight. ... If border law enforcement doesn't work, than the rest of the country is going to lose."

I agree with that. I live in the interior of the country, not a lot of illegals around here that are visible anyway but when my country is being invaded it's my fight too.

[ncountylee]

While I hope that the interior of the country doesn't suffer, there's no stopping the tide without a wall.

[ex-Texan]

Michael Savage is correct. Vincente Fox is not our friend.

[cripplecreek]

Our entire govt needs to be reminded that they are the true "guest workers" in this country. We invited them to do the job in DC and if they aren't going to do it we can uninvite them.

[gaspar]

RPG-7s on the border? Where are they coming from?

[henderson field]

"...Deputy Faz: ...my concern is that people will start taking the law into their own hands..."

Did you mean to say "defending themselves"?

Public officials who are illiterate should not be public officials.

Neither should those who cannot do their jobs.

[B4Ranch]

>>Val Verde County provides each deputy with a military-style automatic rifle and a vehicle. Deputies supply their own side arm. Each vehicle – usually a heavy-duty four-wheel drive truck – is equipped with water, food, extra fuel, tow straps, a GPS device, a change of clothes and extra ammunition, much of it paid for out of the deputies' pockets.<<

automatic or semi-automatic?

Recently, deputies frustrated with the inaction of Mexican authorities staged an impromptu raid, taking boats across the river and seizing stolen property.

Our Val Verde County Sheriff deputies raided into Mexico? I just sent an email to the author asking for claification. I'll post the reply, if one comes.

[stopem]

Sounds like a civil war in the making. It will probably come to that shortly if this major cancer isn't stopped from spreading!

[Itzlzha]

*PING*!!!!

Gaspar asked..."RPG-7s on the border? Where are they coming from?"

In case you didn't know...they are comong from the OBL-ers FAVORITES...

See...they have moved from just "Doing the jobs Americans won't do"...to "Conquering the territories that the Bush Administration and the OBL-ers won't defend!"

Tell me again just WHY a vote for Bush was so great? Just like the ENTIRE Bush clan...they are GREAT overseas....but SUCK when it comes to defending America and it's economy and values HERE!

And yet, the "Cult of Bush" and OBL-ers want a Bush dynasty...like we NEED more Kennedys!

[uptoolate]

"Rifles and handguns have been replaced by rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, and high-caliber machine guns."


Uh....Excuse me for be stupid, but, this sounds like an invasion.

Can a state governor declare war against an invading enemy? Or can war only be declared at the federal level? Do the citizens of Texas, who according to the Constitution have the right to bear arms and form a militia, have the right to start shooting any male, female, or child attempting to invade the sovereign land of Texas?

If defending the land against enemy insurgents rings up a body bag total of thousands, how do you think the rest of those who have infiltrated this land and formed communities in every city in these United States are going to react to seeing the deaths of those from their native land?

The price this nation will pay for not having controlled its borders, (reacting to a problem instead of acting to prevent one), may be close to what the French have just experienced.

We will reap what we sow.

[freekitty]

You mean we are wimping out?

[television is just wrong]

It won't he is a globalist. He wants to punish this nation for being successful and help the other nations with no brains to succeed.