Mexican Troops Aiding Smugglers, Report Says

A report outlining hundreds of incursions into the United States by Mexican armed forces over the past 10 years supports what many officials have known for a long time: The corruption once thought endemic only to Mexico's police forces has spread to its military.

The Daily Bulletin reported Sunday on a Department of Homeland Security document that outlines 216 incidents since 1996 where Mexican military personnel crossed the U.S.-Mexican border and were spotted or confronted by the Border Patrol.

Additionally, a map bearing the seal of the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy, dated 2001, shows the locations of 34 of those incursions spread across the southwest United States.

The documents are a striking reminder that steps intended to bolster official action in the drug war can backfire in unexpected ways.

During the past decade, Mexico's military has become involved with anti-drug efforts to a greater degree than ever before, a trend furthered by President Vicente Fox in 2001, when he disbanded the nation's federal judicial police, saying it was too corrupt to successfully fight drug trafficking.

However, while the Mexican armed forces once had a better reputation for avoiding corruption than the nation's police departments, the huge amount of available bribes means many soldiers and high-ranking army officials are now on the payroll of the cartels, according to a report from the Washington Office on Latin America, a nonprofit policy and research organization.

Dozens of officers, including several generals, have been tried for crimes related to drug trafficking in the past 10 years. In 1997, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo was accused of using military resources to target one drug cartel at the behest of another. He was later sentenced to 71 years in prison.

Ironically, involving the military in Mexico's drug war has done little to slow the production of illicit drugs or their movement into the United States. The Drug Enforcement Administration's seizures of heroin, cocaine and marijuana have remained relatively steady during the past five years.

"Available data indicate that Mexico's supply of marijuana and heroin to the United States has not changed substantially; transport of cocaine through Mexico to U.S. cities also appears to have remained relatively stable," the nonprofit's report found. "Furthermore, Mexican cartels are responsible for a growing trade in methamphetamines."

Deserters from Mexico's military are known to work for drug cartels, including a paramilitary unit called Los Zetas -- a U.S.-trained anti-narcotics force connected to violence as far north of the border as Dallas.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security did not return calls for comment Monday.

Mexican officials contacted by the Daily Bulletin denied that the military has crossed the U.S. border at all in the past 10 years, except on occasions when units got lost in the desert.

Rafael Laveaga, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Washington, D.C., said the incursions recorded by the Border Patrol could have resulted from drug smugglers using bogus uniforms to disguise themselves.

But T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, discounted that idea.

"On many instances, (officers) can confirm that these are Mexican military units," Bonner said. "There's corruption there. The drug lords have been able to buy the military and police, and it makes it difficult for us to cooperate."

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said he was shown a report by the Border Patrol in 2001 that detailed incursions by military units. His complaints to the State Department and Mexican ambassador were brushed off, he said.

"The military is as dirty as any other part" of the government, Tancredo said. "They're part of the cartels, or many are. It's all got to do with money and drugs -- and it's bad."

Related Stories: • Mexican soldiers defy border • Border agents unaware of gang death threat • Report: MS-13 gang hired to murder Border Patrol Special Report: Beyond Borders Blog Site: Beyond Borders Blog ONLINE EXTRA: Official Homeland Security memo download inside article

How could I didn't hear about an Armed Standoff on MSM nightly nooze?

Article Launched: 1/23/2006 11:00 PM

Police face Mexican military, smugglers
Armed standoff along U.S. border

By Sara A. Carter and Kenneth Todd Ruiz, Staff Writers

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Mexican soldiers and civilian smugglers had an armed standoff with nearly 30 U.S. law enforcement officials on the Rio Grande in Texas Monday afternoon, according to Texas police and the FBI.

Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States, said Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department.

******Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border -- near Neely's Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso -- when Border Patrol agents called for backup. Hudspeth County deputies and Texas Highway patrol officers arrived shortly afterward, Doyal said.

"It's been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident with Mexico that it's been going on for years," Doyal said. "When you're up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us."

An FBI spokeswoman confirmed the incident happened at 2:15 p.m. Pacific Time.

"Bad guys in three vehicles ended up on the border," said Andrea Simmons, a spokeswoman with the FBI's El Paso office. "People with Humvees, who appeared to be with the Mexican Army, were involved with the three vehicles in getting them back across."

Simmons said the FBI was not involved and referred inquiries to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE did not return calls seeking comment.

Doyal said deputies captured one vehicle in the incident, a Cadillac Escalade reportedly stolen from El Paso, and found 1,477 pounds of marijuana inside. The Mexican soldiers set fire to one of the Humvees stuck in the river, he said.

Doyal's deputies faced a similar incident on Nov. 17, when agents from the Fort Hancock border patrol station in Texas called the sheriff's department for backup after confronting more than six fully armed men dressed in Mexican military uniforms. The men -- who were carrying machine guns and driving military vehicles -- were trying to bring more than three tons of marijuana across the Rio Grande, Doyal said.

Doyal said such incidents are common at Neely's Crossing, which is near Fort Hancock, Texas, and across from the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

"It happens quite often here," he said.

Deputies and border patrol agents are not equipped for combat, he added.

****"Our government has to do something," he said. "It's not the immigrants coming over for jobs we're worried about. It's the smugglers, Mexican military and the national threat to our borders that we're worried about."

Citing a Jan. 15 story in the Daily Bulletin, Reps. David Dreier, R-Glendora, and Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego, last week asked the House Judiciary Committee, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the House Homeland Security Committee and the House International Relations Committee to investigate the incursions. The story focused on a Department of Homeland Security document reporting 216 incursions by Mexican soldiers during the past 10 years and a map with the seal of the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy, both of which were given to the newspaper.

Requests by Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee, and Hunter were made in jointly signed letters.

On Wednesday, Chertoff played down the reports of border incursions by the Mexican military. He suggested many of the incursions could have been mistakes, blaming bad navigation by military personnel or attributing the incursions to criminals dressed in military garb.

Mexican officials last week denied any incursions made by their military.

But border agents interviewed over the past year have discussed confrontations those they believe to be Mexican military personnel.

"We're sitting ducks," said a border agent speaking on condition of anonymity. "The government has our hands tied."

I guess those Mexican Military and their tanks I saw on TV after Katrina had just made a wrong turn! ~Larousse2.

- Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552.

- Kenneth Todd Ruiz can be reached by e-mail at todd.ruiz@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8555.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.