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Violence like this along the border is getting worse and is already spilling over into the US and Texas. When will the Obama Administration and the Federal Government step up to do more to protect our own border from this escalating violence? The car bomb article today from the associated press (see below) is yet another example of this escalating violence. If you live on the border, massive gun battles and explosions can be heard on a nearly daily basis. Here are some articles I have posted about border violence just in the last year. I barely even scratch the surface: SHOCKING Texas/Mexico Border WARZONE...

BROWNSVILLE — A Mexican businessman is the target of a federal probe alleging widespread money laundering that involves the Gulf Cartel and a former Tamaulipas governor who owns a condiminium on South Padre Island. Fernando Alejandro Cano Martinez, 55, of Ciudad Victoria, Tamps., is charged with conspiracy to launder monetary instruments since on or about Jan. 1, 1998. The indictment alleges Cano and others conspired to use an array of corporate entities they formed in Texas to launder portions of bribes paid by the Gulf Cartel to high level elected officials and candidates for such elected office in Tamaulipas. Millions...

Tamaulipas law enforcement officials confirmed the ghastly find made by employees at a popular shopping area in the state capital of Ciudad Victoria: dismembered bodies left in bags. Authorities were called about 7:30 a.m. to the Soriana Tamatan Shopping Center in the city that lies about 200 miles south of Reynosa. In the bed of a compact Chevrolet pickup, authorities found the remains of three men who had been chopped to pieces and stuffed into several bags, said a Tamaulipas law enforcement official who requested anonymity for security reasons. Initially authorities believed that more bodies had been in the pickup,...

No injuries have been reported after unknown gunmen fired several gunshots at a Reynosa newspaper Monday afternoon. The unidentified shooters opened fire at political tabloid Hora Cero about 1 p.m. Monday, said a Tamaulipas law enforcement official who requested anonymity. A reporter familiar with the Hora Cero attack said “every part” of the newspaper’s building along the Ribereña highway had been hit with bullets, though none of its staff suffered injuries. “They shot up the whole ... building,” the reporter said in Spanish, adding that Hora Cero’s editors had received threats in recent weeks. Hector Hugo Jimenez, the general director...

MEXICO CITY — As gangster wars rampage along the Gulf Coast and northeast Mexico, federal officials have poured in thousands more troops — an emergency move punctuated by Wednesday's slaughter of least 31 inmates in a prison gang riot. With the region looming as this winter's primary battleground in Mexico's criminal wars, some 13,000 army soldiers, plus several thousand more marines and quasi-military federal police now patrol Tamaulipas state, which borders Texas from Laredo to the Gulf. Bloody riot The inmates were killed as members of rival gangs butchered one another inside a state prison in Altamira, an industrial port...

One of the most violent days recently in northern Tamaulipas took place Tuesday as one large firefight broke out in Matamoros, another firefight took place in Rio Bravo, and various grenade attacks occurred in Reynosa, Ciudad Victoria and Rio Bravo. In Matamoros, fighting broke out about 5 p.m. near the intersection of Cuauhtémoc Avenue and Calle Doce. Soon after, another fight broke out along Calle Sexta near the intersection with Canales Avenue. The fighting soon moved to the San Francisco neighborhood, where it reportedly lasted close to 30 minutes. The fighting allegedly took place between two groups of gunmen, with...

The Mexican military has taken over police department in 22 cities across Tamaulipas. The transition started on Wednesday and is expected to continue through the weekend. Tamaulipas state officials reported that 22 out of the state's 43 municipalties are affected: • Nuevo Laredo • Guerrero • Miguel Alemán • Mier • Camargo • Díaz Ordaz • Reynosa • Río Bravo • Valle Hermoso • Matamoros • San Fernando • Soto la Marina • Abasolo • Jiménez • Hidalgo • Padilla • Victoria • El Mante • González • Altamira • Tampico • Madero Soldiers from the Mexican army are expected...

Gunmen killed, 17 kidnapping victims rescued A series of deadly shootouts and blockades brought life to a standstill south of the border in Matamoros on Friday. Residents reported a series of shootouts and blockades throughout different parts of the city. Mexico's Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) confirmed one gun battle with armed men in the Colonia Pedro Moreno on the city's southside. SEDENA officials reported that soldiers came under fire in the neighborhood where two gunmen were killed during the battle. Soldiers patrolling the area heard cries for help from a group of alleged kidnapping victims inside a nearby building....

Authorities have confirmed that a Monday afternoon shootout took place in an industrial area located in the eastside of Matamoros. The shootout between soldiers and armed happened in an area along the highway to Playa Bagdad around 3:30 p.m. Monday. A precise location was not immediately available but officials confirmed it took place in an area near the Colonia CIMA 3 and Ciudad Industrial. Residents reported on Twitter that helicopters were heard and seen firing "incessantly" in the Colonia CIMA 3. Another Matamoros resident reported that the shootout was so bad that nearby maquiladora workers had to stop and take...

The decapitated bodies of three men were found Tuesday on the highway between Reynosa and Mon-terrey, near the junction at Los Herreras, the news agency Reforma reported. The report of three bodies by the highway’s kilometer 98 was made at approxi-mately 8 a.m. Officials are investigating if the bodies pertain to three human heads that were found hours earlier in the municipality of Huala-huises. One of the bodies also had been dismembered. The bodies were wrapped in blankets and in black plastic bags. Forensic personnel and more than 50 federal police and military troops re-sponded to the scene. The manner...

Zetitas sought by gov't, cartel foes Authorities were out in force patrolling the streets of Reynosa after a string of attacks allegedly carried out by Zetitas — young Zeta foot soldiers — that caused panic among its residents. Details were not readily available, but authorities and a group of gunmen clashed Sunday morning in the Anzalduas residential area. Tamaulipas state authorities said the brief clash left no one injured or dead. Those patrolling the streets included Mexican Federal Police, the Mexican Army, the Mexican Navy, Tamaulipas State Police and Reynosa Municipal Police, said a Mexican law enforcement official. And two...

Mexico City – Three suspected organized crime gummen were killed and another three were wounded in a clash near the northeastern Mexican city of Matamoros with army troops, who seized more than 100 weapons and nearly a score of vehicles after the gun battle, military sources said. The Defense Secretariat's 4th Military Region said in a statement that 83 automatic rifles, 18 handguns, five grenade launchers, a rocket launcher, 11 fragmentation grenades, 28 40 mm grenades, 315 ammunition clips, more than 18,000 rounds of ammunition, 17 vehicles and eight kilos of marijuana were confiscated in Wednesday's operation. The operation began...

The Mexican government announced Thursday the addition of 500 soldiers to the Tamaulipas Public Safety Office. At a news conference in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico’s Public Safety spokesman Alejandro Poire said the military forces were being sent to support the state police to help safeguard the community. “Together, the state and the federal government, we will decrease criminal activity and achieve true peace,” Poire said. The added manpower will help speed up the upgrading of state and local police departments, he added. Tamaulipas Governor Egidio Torre Cantu said the Tamaulipas and local police forces will go through a process of improvement...

MISSION — U.S. authorities are investigating a shooting between U.S. Border Patrol agents and an unidentified man who fired at them from the Mexican side of the border near Chimney Park on Tuesday night. The shooting happened near the winter Texan RV park about 11:50 p.m. after border patrol agents from the McAllen station saw a group of people trying to smuggle marijuana into the country on two rafts, said Rosalinda Huey, the federal agency’s spokeswoman. “No agents were injured during the shooting and it is unknown if anyone on the Mexican side was struck,” she said. As agents tried...

Life is returning to normal in Matamoros following a series of blockades and a shootout between armed men and federal troops. Matamoros officials confirmed that it all started in front of the Tamaulipas State Police building off Avenida Marte R. Gomez around 7:20 a.m. Thursday. The gun battle lasted until around 8:20 a.m. Thursday but resulted in a series of blockades on major streets throughout the city. One of the blockades reportedly happened near the Mexican side of the Veterans International Bridge prompting Cameron County officials to temporarily close the southbound lanes of the bridge. Matamoros officials told Action 4...

From mass graves to mass kidnappings, the situation in parts of Mexico continues to look grim. Mexico's federal police rescued 51 people, including six Chinese and 18 Central American migrants, who were captive in the same border city where more than five dozen people were freed last week, authorities said Monday night. Police investigators were led to the latest group while following up on last week's rescue of 68 people in Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, federal officials said. Authorities gave no motives or identified the kidnappers or drug gang involved, but drug cartels have been accused of pulling people...

Easter morning was filled with terror for some residents south of the border. The Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office (PGJE) confirmed that one person is dead and six others are wounded following a series of attracks. It all started around 4:30 a.m. Easter Sunday in the coastal towns of Tampico and Ciudad Madero. PGJE officials reported that gunmen damaged a gas station and several other businesses. Authorities reported that seven people were caught in the crossfire and taken to local hospitals where one of them passed away. The identities of person killed and those wounded were not released. No suspects have...

This is the time of year when Mexican families traditionally drive long distances to celebrate Easter together. But Highway 101 through the border state of Tamaulipas is empty now — a spooky, forlorn, potentially perilous journey, where travelers join in self-defensive convoys and race down the four-lane road at 90 miles per hour, stopping for nothing, and nobody ever drives at night. “My friends thought I was crazy to come down,” said Ester Arce, traveling from Atlanta to San Luis Potosi in the south. Arce was stopped at a gas station, waiting for her husband to retie the ropes holding...

Sixteen municipal police officers from San Fernando, Tamps., have been arrested in connection with the investigation into the mass grave found there last week, Mexican authorities announced Wednesday. The officers allegedly provided protection to the Zetas drug cartel in San Fernando — located about 80 miles south of Brownsville — and are accused of covering up the massacre, according to a news release from Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office — known as the PGR. Mexican authorities say they continue to work to identify 126 bodies that have been found since last week when authorities began finding the bodies. The most recent...

At least one U.S. citizen was among dozens of men reportedly forced off passenger buses by armed attackers in the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas, where 72 bodies were found in mass graves last week, U.S. officials said Sunday. The man has yet to be located, said a warden’s message posted on the website of the consulate, which is located in the Tamaulipas city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. In a separate warden’s message issued Friday, the consulate had warned that Mexican criminal gangs may be planning attacks "in the near future" against U.S. law enforcement or...