Free Republic

McALLEN, Texas—Illegal border-crossers are coming into the United States wearing wristbands that relate to the smuggling organization or cartel that they paid to cross the river, according to new reports and confirmation by Border Patrol agents. The wristbands have been spotted on illegal immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, as well as discarded on the ground beyond the river. Some illegal aliens were found wearing two different colored wristbands. The system “basically outlines a process that the smugglers are using to know who paid, who didn’t, so that they can start moving them through—because they’ve got so...

One soldier and one gunman are dead following a fierce battle between alleged members of the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas in Miguel Aleman early Thursday morning. Mexico's Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) confirmed the deaths during a statement released Thursday evening. SEDENA officials reported that a battle between former allies the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas erupted around 5 a.m. Thursday. Several businesses and other buildings were burned and damaged during the firefight. Soldiers were deployed to the area to fight both groups of armed men. One of the groups fled towards Ciudad Mier while the other stayed to...

MEXICO CITY — Mexican soldiers seized nearly 10 tons of marijuana, a machine gun, scores of assault rifles and three grenades in a raid Thursday just across the border from Texas, the military said. Soldiers stopped a fleeing minivan and searched a nearby building outside the city of Miguel Aleman, across from Roma, Texas. Inside, they found the marijuana, 89 assault rifles, more than 80,000 rounds of ammunition and a host of other weapons, a Mexican Defense Department statement said. Five men, from ages 28 to 62, were arrested, according to the statement. The seizure follows weeks of bloody confrontation...