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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 07/12/2003 2:17:06 PM PDT by One_American
Louie Gilot
El Paso Times
In the pitch dark, FBI agent Samantha Mikeska came face to face with a man who had crawled through a hole in the chain-link fence between Mexico and the United States to rob a train.
The man turned on his heels and ran back to the fence. He was tall -- 6 feet- and heavy -- 200 pounds. Mikeska is 5-foot-4 and weighs 130 pounds. But she needed to stop him. It was her job.
So, she jumped on his back and held on tight.
She was dragged to the other side of the fence, into the home turf of Mexican train-robbing gangs, where she continued handcuffing her prisoner even as rocks rained down on her.
Mikeska, 39, is one of the two FBI agents who barely survived the doomed sting operation at the border between Sunland Park and Anapra, Mexico, last September.
Wednesday, the only two men to have stood trial in the case were sentenced to two years in prison and to pay almost $77,000 in restitution.
One of the men, Carlos Ivan Aguirre, 20, pleaded guilty to attacking Mikeska.
"My intentions were not to do harm. My intentions were to make (the agents) go back. One thousand times I apologize. I'm happy the agents are still alive, and God bless them," Aguirre told the federal court in Las Cruces on Wednesday.
Although charges against about 13 other suspects were dismissed and the man Mikeska was after has disappeared into Mexico, likely never to be found, the events of the night of Sept. 12 continue to generate controversy in Mexico and to weigh on Mikeska's mind.
Mikeska did not grow up dreaming of being a police officer or an FBI agent, she said in an interview Thursday. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor's degree in accounting. But after five years of shuffling papers, she yearned for more excitement than financial reports could offer, and she joined the Bryan, Texas, Police Department. Two years later, in 1997, she became an FBI agent assigned to the El Paso field office. Here, she joined the 18-member SWAT Team.
Last year, Union Pacific Railroad asked the FBI SWAT Team to help with ongoing train robberies in the hilly desert along the chain-link fence built in 1996 between Sunland Park and Anapra. The train tracks run parallel to this border, in plain view of the people of Anapra, who built their shacks of cardboard and wood pallets right up to the fence.
For years, thieves have cut holes above the waist-high metal bar that runs the length of the high fence, and climbed over. They have laid copper wires on the tracks to slow down or stop trains, and they have disengaged some train cars, which were then left behind to be looted of their cargo of big-screen televisions and refrigerators.
The FBI had conducted two previous missions to thwart the robberies, one in 2000 that yielded no arrests and one in 2001, when five juveniles were arrested. During those operations, the SWAT Team bundled up with bullet-proof vests and helmets, but the robbers turned out to be "a bunch of little kids" who had a habit of throwing sand in agents' faces, Mikeska said.
By the time the third mission came around, Mikeska opted not to wear a helmet, only her goggles.
At 8:20 p.m. Sept. 12, 40 FBI agents and 20 Border Patrol agents and railroad police officers waited in hiding near a stopped train. They caught the first two men who climbed on top of the containers of merchandise. That's when Mikeska almost bumped into a third man, later identified by investigators as Eduardo "Lalo" Calderón, and ran after him 50 feet to the fence.
She said she jumped on his back, snaking an arm around his neck as he reached a cut-out portion of the fence that was held open by five or six men on the south side. The men hit Mikeska but she didn't let go, so they pulled both her and Calderón through the hole.
They landed on the 15-or-so feet of land on the south side of the fence that is still part of U.S. territory. Straddling Calderón's back, Mikeska handcuffed his left hand when something hit her forehead. Stunned, she stared at the weapon -- half a brick -- and at her own blood dripping down.
At that time, FBI agent Sergio Barrio came through the fence and helped handcuff Calderón. People were screaming in Spanish around them and throwing things.
Then, suddenly, Mikeska saw movement on her right.
"It's a guy standing with a baseball bat. He curls up and hits me. It shatters my left eye socket," she said.
Mikeska said she fell down and was dragged by her short blond hair. Someone ripped her goggles off and threw sand in her eyes.
She saw Calderón run away, handcuffed.
FBI investigators said he found help cutting off the handcuffs and is now hiding, possibly still in Anapra.
Mikeska scurried up the hill, tripping and bleeding. She found the hole in the fence, put her stomach against the metal bar, flipped her body over into the north side and blacked out.
A dozen men rushed through the fence after her and retreated only when another agent shot at them, FBI officials said.
Although time stood still for Mikeska, the ordeal only lasted five minutes.
After a day and a half of drug-induced coma, Mikeska woke up at Thomason Hospital with stitches all over her face.
Mikeska was back on the job 35 days later and returned to the SWAT Team within two months. She has permanent peripheral damage in her left eye and a herniated disk in her neck.
"It humbles you. I always thought I was invincible. I have a will now. I've taken care of all my personal matters. ..." she said. "The biggest regret I have is that it's upsetting my grandmother."
Update
Wednesday, Carlos Enrique Garcia Castillo, 25, and Carlos Ivan Aguirre, 20, each received two years in prison for breaking and entering a carrier facility and assaulting a federal officer. There are no more cases pending.
Wednesday, a Mexican judge canceled the arrest warrants issued in February against 66 municipal police officers and Mexican Customs officers for treason and abuse of authority. The judge said there was not enough evidence to prove that all the officers had participated in the arrest of about 13 people in Anapra, including Aguirre, who were turned over to the FBI without the usual extradition proceedings the night of the attack. Only one officer, Jose Manuel Cazares Perez, was ever arrested and is awaiting trial.
June 16, El Paso attorneys Sib Abraham and Carlos Cardenas filed a claim for damages against the FBI, the Border Patrol and other federal agencies on behalf of about 11 Anapra residents seeking $1 million in damages for each plaintiff for violation of constitutional rights.
Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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I can't see what the problem is here.
These are just a few illegal aliens undocumented immigrants coming to America to do the unpleasant work our own people don't want to do!
Two whole years? Wow, that's punishment, all right.
"It's a guy standing with a baseball bat. He curls up and hits me. It shatters my left eye socket," she said.
This pendejo was an accessory to attempted murder, and only he got two smegging years?! Madre de Dios! Agent Mikeska is a genuine hero!
If I were to say what I want to say after reading this I would surely be banned.
Me too - it involves a tazer, a sensitive portion of the anatomy, and lots and lots of batteries.
Me too - it involves a tazer, a sensitive portion of the anatomy, and lots and lots of batteries.
Me too. Mine would include jumper cables, a bottle of vinigar, a wet suit, and a goat on a leash. I kill when I'm angry.
It would have been the perfect chance. Everyone (except the extreme Marxists) would have cheered Bush for doing it. He missed one hell of an opportunity to correct past administrations erred policies.
Well I would not call it "the beginning" more like the early middle phase. Did you see that the Nevada Supreme Court overroad the citizen enacted Constitutional requirement for 2/3 of the legislature to approve new taxes. If the Constitution (of the US and States) doesn't even slow 'em down, nothing will.
PC kills no matter what the issue. Chose any PC thought control law, and you'll see some type of death curse following it.
Since this is all in the nature of international piracy, such awards are most likely considered quite fair and legal.
Shame on you!
I'd like to say much more, but I respect Free Republic, and I don't want to get into a name-calling contest.
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