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Authorities in Maverick County found the bodies of two men in their underwear dumped in a canal Tuesday morning. The men haven't been identified, said Chief Deputy Sheriff Ruben Cano. The bodies have been taken to San Antonio for autopsies. One of the men had a large cut on his neck and was wrapped in plastic bags, and may have been killed somewhere else, Cano said. The second victim appeared to have been killed in the canal north of Eagle Pass, he said. Sheriff's investigators, who are working with the Texas Rangers, don't have any leads and haven't found any...

City of Eagle Pass International Bridge No. 2 closed due to bomb threat By: Jose G. Landa© The City of Eagle Pass International Bridge No. 2 located on 400 Garrison Street has been closed down today, Wednesday, September 26, 2012, at approximately 10:30 a.m. due to a bomb threat on the bridge. Federal and City of Eagle Pass officials decided to close down the International Bridge No. 2 after locating a suspicious package at the bridge. Maverick County Sheriff Tomas S. Herrera stated that his deputy monitoring the bomb threat on behalf of his department reported that there appears to...

The carjacking of a Catholic bishop and other violence have prompted U.S. Consulate officials to issue an alert for Americans living in or traveling to the border community of Piedras Negras. The U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo issued a security message for Americans late Wednesday. Consulate officials are asking Americans to keep to a low profile and stay informed due to a recent wave of drug cartel violence. Americans are asked to follow the consulate on both Twitter and Facebook to get updates about the ongoing violence. The recent violence started with a September 17th jailbreak where 131 inmates escaped...

Authorities in Eagle Pass shut down the two international bridges there Tuesday night after shootouts in its sister city of Piedras Negras. One female police officer was killed and six people were wounded during the fighting, and prosecutors in the border state of Coahuila said a wounded officer is in serious condition. Traffic to Mexico was shut down on both bridges about 9 p.m., according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Traffic from Mexico at the city's larger bridge, the Camino Real International, was rerouted overnight to the Eagle Pass International Bridge. Both resumed normal operation Wednesday at 7:40 a.m.,...

BROWNSVILLE — A former military official brought in to purge the police force of a northern Mexico border city was assassinated early Saturday, three days after about 70 patrol officers went on strike to demand his resignation.

MORELIA, Mexico — Gunmen killed 12 people in different parts of Michoacan state, including three men who were beheaded, state officials said Friday. The bodies were found in a stretch of territory from the mountains to the Pacific coast that is plagued with drug cartel violence. All were killed during a 24-hour period starting Thursday, the Michoacan state prosecutor's office said. Four bodies were found stacked on top of each other in the Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, three without heads, the office said in a statement. The heads were in plastic bags next to the pile.

Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that a grand jury has indicted five men on kidnapping conspiracy charges related to a January incident involving cross-border drug trafficking and torture. Charged in the indictment, and each facing life in prison if convicted, were Crystal City residents Heriberto Macias Diaz, David Perez and William Davalos, and San Antonio residents Leroy Guerra Garcia and Mark Anthony Jiminez. The men are accused of conspiring to kidnap a Pearsall tow truck driver and taking him to Piedras Negras, where he was tortured and threatened with death, all to find the location of missing drug money, according to...

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico — A lesbian couple from Texas became the first international visitors to take advantage of Coahuila state's new civil union law when they registered their union today in Ciudad Acuna, across the border from Del Rio, Texas. Maria Carreon Lara, 39, and Amparo Maldonado, 24, of Midland, Texas, registered as a "civil solidarity union" under a law that went into effect in January making Coahuila the first of Mexico's 31 states to grant recognition to such unions. The Coahuila law allows nonresidents to register under the law as long as they are in the state legally. It...

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico — Two police officers here were formally charged Monday in the rape of a 22-year-old San Antonio woman. A judge ordered the pair to remain in prison without bail after upholding the initial charges of rape and abuse of power. The officers, Jonas Santiago Morales, 42, and Oscar Ramirez Vazquez, 20, said they would fight the charges and maintained that the sexual intercourse with the San Antonio resident was consensual. Prosecutors and defense attorneys will submit their evidence to Judge Maria Beatriz Mendoza within 40 days. The officers face between 10 and 21 years in prison, Mendoza...

LAREDO — The Piedras Negras Police Department remained on a tight leash Saturday after a Mexican police officer and cadet were arrested in the alleged rape of a 22-year-old San Antonio woman. Piedras Negras police identified the accused as veteran officer Jonás Santiago Morales, 42, and police cadet Oscar Ramírez Vázquez, 20. Both were suspended as the investigation into the Saturday morning incident continued, according to local news reports. The officers deny the allegations. Piedras Negras is across the border from Eagle Pass, about two hours south of San Antonio. The details of the incident, as told by the accuser,...