Mexico Trucker Online Articles

2 Mexican soldiers stopped on U.S. side

Two Mexican soldiers and a security guard were temporarily detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers after crossing into United States on Friday at the Paso del Norte Bridge in Downtown El Paso, a CBP spokesman said.

The guard and uniformed soldiers, who were armed, were stopped about 2 p.m. near the foot of the bridge on the U.S. side, said Roger Maier, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection. The type of firearm carried by the soldiers was not immediately available.

The three detainees were interviewed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, released without charges and returned to Mexico, Maier said.

“It was determined these individuals were attempting to perform an operation to remove illegal vendors from the bridge and were attempting to seek assistance, cooperation from U.S. authorities at the bridge,” Maier said.

The soldiers had been in the Juárez area for only a couple of days and were not familiar with border-crossing protocols, Maier said.

Mexican military officials with Joint Operation Chihuahua said in a statement that soldiers of the 75th Infantry Battalion were chasing a suspicious person who ran into U.S. territory. Officials praised the “excellent” cooperation of U.S. authorities.

The border line is set at the middle of the top of the international bridges.
On Monday, the Mexican army sent an estimated 2,000 new soldiers to Juárez as part of a rotation of soldiers. Soldiers, including military police, can regularly be seen posted on international bridges checking vehicles leaving and entering Mexico.

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times
Posted: 01/17/2009 12:00:00 AM MST

El Paso City Council To Debate Legalizing Drugs

Last Tuesday Mayor John Cook vetoed a unanimous city council resolution asking the U.S. Government to have a serious discussion about legalizing narcotics. On Tuesday, city council will have an opportunity to overturn the veto.

City Councilman Beto O’Rourke put the item back on the agenda. The amendment to have the drug discussion is part of a bigger resolution introduced by the Border Relations Committee. The idea of the resolution was to show support for Mexico during this violent time. However, the committee says once O’Rourke’s amendment was added to the equation everything else in the resolution, like cracking down on weapons going into Mexico, was forgotten.

“The subject matter persuaded by Mr. O’Rourke has its place but not in the proposal made to city council,” said Jose Contreras, of the Border Relations Committee. “It created havoc with us and the press ran away with it all over the country, and this is not the idea we had for a resolution like this, they completely forgot about the resolution.”

O’Rourke said the so called ‘War on Drugs” has been going on for 40 years and nothing has worked so why not try something new. “We’re not arguing that the U.S. legalize drugs we’re just asking that all options be on the table and I don’t think it’s too much to ask to have a discussion,” said O’Rourke.

In order to overturn Cook’s veto the council will need a super majority vote, which means at least six council members.

SOURCE: Robert Boyd KDBC 4 News

ICE officer from Mass. arrested in child-porn case

A federal immigration officer from Hull, Ma. was accused today of having sex with an 11-year-old child while in Brazil to deport immigrants, taking photographs of the act.

Michael Clifford, a 44-year-old immigration agent, was arrested today after a grand jury indicted him on a charge of possessing child pornography. He was ordered held without bail pending a hearing Tuesday. If convicted, he faces 15 to 30 years in jail, plus a fine of up to $250,000 and supervised release.

A woman at Clifford’s house in Hull declined to comment.

Clifford allegedly picked up the child late at night at an outdoor café in Rio de Janeiro while there on official business in March, according to the US Attorney’s office in Boston. He allegedly returned to his hotel, had sex with the child and photographed the child involved in sexual acts.

The hotel’s security camera showed Clifford entering the hotel with the child late at night and then sending the child out of the hotel the next morning, the US Attorney’s office said.

The Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Professional Responsibility in New England are investigating the matter.

Clifford’s arrest follows two recent immigration-related investigations in New England.

Last month, Lorraine Henderson, Massachusetts’ top federal border official in charge of stemming drug smuggling and illegal immigration, was arrested on charges that she hired illegal immigrants to clean her Salem condominium.

This week, seven workers at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., were punished in connection with the death of a 34-year-old Chinese immigrant, Hiu Lui Ng, who was held there for 25 days until he died in August of cancer. The facility denied that the actions resulted in his death, but said the employees were disciplined for failing to follow unspecified policies and procedures. US Immigration and Customs has withdrawn all 153 immigrant detainees from the facility and is investigating the death.
My my, who can we trust? A Chief Patrol officer in the Blaine Sector under indictment for sex with a child? This bozo!

U.S.-Mexico drug war: We’re clucking like chickens

By showing true mettle and grit — by standing with staid backbones — Beto O’Rourke and the seven other city representatives sent others running for the proverbial hills, like chickens, Tuesday.

Mayor John Cook and U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes couldn’t run fast enough, bwaak, bwaak.

It boiled down to simply asking Congress to at least discuss the feasibility of making drug use legal as a way of breaking the backs of drug cartels.

At issue is the war zone that is Juárez, and figuring out how to stop the mobster drug lords and their armies, who rule that city of 1.5 million. They’ve already killed nearly 1,700 people in the last year and two weeks.

An intelligence report says they plan on killing high-level politicians this year, and that may include U.S. politicians.

O’Rourke proposed that the federal government discuss lifting the prohibition on narcotics in this country, as was done with the lifting of prohibition of alcohol more than 70 years ago. Just discuss it, that’s all.

Could it work?

No, it won’t!

OK, then, let’s not do it.

That all that was proposed and placed on a City Council resolution that mostly dealt with the city’s intent to help Juárez as much as possible.

Cook vetoed that almost immediately.

He sounded good by stating: “It’s not realistic to believe that the U.S. Congress will seriously consider …”

What he really said was: Holy smoke! I don’t want to get near that political hot potato.

Reyes said, “Legalizing the types of drugs that are being smuggled across the border is not an effective way to combat the violence in Mexico.”

What Reyes really said was: Jeezo-beezo, get that away from me.

So what do we do? Any suggestions? Should we tell the murderers to be nice? Maybe they’ll listen to reason? Maybe we can send Dr. Phil over there?

Or, does somebody want to say that “education is the answer.”

City Council simply asks for a discussion in Congress.

For instance:

Did all of America turn into drunks back when the prohibition against liquor was lifted?

Will we all become addicted to marijuana and other narcotics if drugs are made legal?

Hey, let’s shoot crap into our veins, Bubba. It’s legal now.

Will we actually do that?

What’s disheartening about this “run for the hills” attitude of some is the resolution didn’t say, “let’s legalize drugs!” It was simply: Let’s have the feds talk about it, see if it’s feasible — get the smartest minds involved in the discussion.

After all, nobody seems to have a better idea. Mexico’s federal, state and local law enforcement are Barney Fife when it comes to dealing with the cartels.

The citizens in Mexico are too afraid to rebel against the free-for-all kidnappers, extortionists and armed robbers who seem to get away every time.

Our federal government is a “Cook & Reyes” on this because, just as O’Rourke told the El Paso Times on Tuesday, any politician pushing this idea needs a whole lot of courage and will certainly have to worry about ever getting elected again.

Facts are: We’re not stopping our citizens from selling automatic weapons to the cartels. We’re not stopping billions of dollars worth of illegal drugs from coming into the U.S. We’re not stopping our buying and using the drugs. We’re not stopping the billions of dollars of cash going back to the cartels.

And now we can’t even talk about a new way to stop all that, just because it’s controversial?

_{Joe Muench / El Paso Times}

Sanctioned Murder – Nicholas Corbett won’t be tried a third time

It’s official: Border Patrol agent Nicholas Corbett won’t be tried again in an illegal immigrant’s shooting death.

U.S. District Court Judge David Bury has granted a prosecution motion to dismiss second-degree murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide charges, without prejudice, meaning hey can be refiled if new evidence is developed.

Two trials in 2008 ended with jurors deadlocked. The first, 10-2 for conviction, the second 11-1 for acquittal.

Bury’s action last month ends criminal proceedings stemming from the Jan. 12, 2007 murder of 22-year-old Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera of Puebla, Mexico, in Cochise County.

But Corbett also faces a $7.5 million dollarcivil suit Dominguez’s family filed last month.

Notice of intent has been filed with the US government to file a civil rights suit against Corbett and the USDOJ.

A Border Patrol spokesman in Washington said Corbett remains on administrative duties while an internal investigation continues.

Laura Zuniga stripped of crown – PGR granted 40 days detention rights by Mexican Judge

Laura Zuniga, 23, detained on suspicion of drug and weapons violations has been stripped of her crown in the Hispanoamerican Queen pageant, contest organizers said Saturday.

Zuniga was stripped of first-place honors for “failure to comply with the regulations of the title she represents,” Bolivia-based pageant organizing company Gloria Promociones said in a statement. She beat more than 19 contestants from Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States to win the title in October.

Runner-up Vivian Noronha of Brazil will receive the crown.
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Mexican beauty queen arrested in gun-filled truck

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – A reigning Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled guns and ammunition, police said Tuesday.

Miss Sinaloa 2008 Laura Zuniga stared at the ground, with her flowing dark hair concealing her face, as she stood squeezed between seven alleged gunmen lined up before journalists. Soldiers wearing ski masks guarded the 23-year-old model and the suspects.

Zuniga was arrested shortly before midnight on Monday at a military checkpoint in Zapopan, just outside the colonial city of Guadalajara, said Jalisco state police director, Francisco Alejandro Solorio.

Zuniga was riding in one of two trucks, where soldiers found a large stash of weapons, including two AR-15 assault rifles, .38 specials, 9mm handguns, nine magazines, 633 cartridges and $53,300 in US currency, Solorio said.

Zuniga told police that she was planning on traveling to Bolivia and Colombia with the men to go shopping, Solorio said.

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Not surprising that firearms in Mexico have ties to El Paso

EL PASO – The recent sentencing of two men convicted of federal arms-trafficking charges represents the latest cases with ties to El Paso investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

John Avelar, 32, of El Paso and Jonatan López-Gutiérrez, 33, of Mexico were sentenced, respectively, to 37 months and 48 months in prison, after pleading guilty to their roles in a gun-smuggling scheme.

The indictment against them and others listed several weapons purchased from licensed dealers in El Paso, including a .50-caliber sniper rifle, then apparently smuggled into Mexico.

Investigations and prosecutions have increased significantly under the ATF’s Project Gunrunner and eTrace programs, which are carried out in collaboration with Mexican authorities, said Tom Crowley, ATF spokesman in Dallas.

“Since October 1, in the Dallas division, the ATF has opened approximately 50 Project Gunrunner cases, with the bulk of them out of El Paso,” Crowley said. “This does not include cases still being worked on from fiscal year 2007, or cases out of the Houston division.

“Smuggled weapons that end up in Mexico likely are being used in the current drug-related violence, as well as in the (United) States, where they often end up in the hands of gangs. Because of the proximity to the border and the large number of firearm dealers, a lot of the weapons recovered in Mexico originate from Houston. We also have a significant number of weapons coming from Dallas and other areas of Texas, including El Paso.”

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