A new batch of troops arrived in Nuevo Laredo this weekend to supplement the soldiers already assigned to border security.
Although the authorities did not reveal the exact number of agents and soldiers who arrived, , military sources commented this week that between the 26 and the 29 of February, 2600 additional troops would be added to the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon
According to a report of the Secretariat of the National defense (Sedena), the military will be distributed immediately to the municipalities of Nuevo Laredo, Miguel Aleman, Mier, Diaz Ordaz, Reynosa, Bravo River, Matamoros and the coasts of the Bagdad Beach, in the Gulf of Mexico, to carry out tasks of patrolling, monitoring and interdiction duties.
Yesterday, around the noon, two C-130 Hercules aircraft coming from Sonora, landed in the International Quetzatcóatl International Airport in Nuevo Laredo, with elements of the Special Forces, Fast Intervention, Artillery, Cavalry and Armor.
Included were 150 members of the Aero Movilf Fuerzas Especiales. (GAFES).
“The additional manpower will reinforce with the troopse that we have in this border city, monitoring the Police, within the city, roads coming in and out of the cityas well as the International bridges”, informed Military commanders of the Nuevo Laredo garrison.
Editor Note: A thought occurred to me reading this article. Growing up in Little Rock, close to Little Rock AFB, serving in the Air Force in the 70′s, and knowing several C-130 pilots and crewmen, it takes a high level of skill to fly one of the babies; If Mexican’s can fly the C-130 or any other aircraft for that matter, then why can they not drive and operate commercial vehicles properly and safely? Ehhhhh?
Just two of some 1,600 police officers investigated after the army raided police stations in five border cities last week are being subjected to “a criminal process,” the Tamaulipas state government said. Most of the officers were back on the job Saturday. The fate of the two officers was unclear Saturday as city, state and federal authorities were unable to confirm where they were from, if they were under arrest, and what charges, if any, they faced.
Tuesday’s coordinated dawn raids by troops and federal agents kept most city police off the streets for days in Matamoros, Reynosa, Ciudad Alemán, Río Bravo and Nuevo Laredo. Soldiers took away police firearms, grounded patrol vehicles and checked radios and personal effects.
But so far, the investigation has brought meager results.
Fourteen officers in Río Bravo, southwest of Weslaco, were arrested because their police radios were not tuned to the authorized frequency, but were released on Friday, said Tamaulipas state and city officials.
“No crime was proven against them,” city spokeswoman Gloria Treviño said.
The raids followed the arrests days earlier of four Nuevo Laredo officers on suspicion of radioing information on military and federal operations to drug traffickers.
Police officers Saturday still didn’t have their firearms returned to them in Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa, according to officials for the two larger cities subjected to the military operation.
Reynosa’s 540 officers were expected to have their firearms back on Saturday, “or (today) at the latest,” said Joel Martínez, a city spokesman.
Officials for Tamaulipas, which borders Texas from Laredo to the Gulf of Mexico, said the army began returning firearms to some police departments Friday.
Mexico’s National Defense Ministry, which runs the army, has had no comment on the operation since it began.
Sean Mattson – Express News
Nuevo Laredo Police, disarmed and suspended once again!
Special forces of the Mexican Army and federal agents surrounded municipal police headquarters early Tuesday all along the South Texas-Mexico border, seizing more than 1,000 police officers’ firearms and other equipment and holding an unspecified number at military headquarters.”It was a direct order from the highest level,” said a spokesman for the Army stationed in Nuevo Laredo. “Faith has been lost in the city police working in Tamaulipas.”
Nuevo Laredo Mayor Ramón Garza Barrios said his office was aware of the drastic action to be taken by the federal authorities, and is in complete support of the effort to get rid of corruption along the border.”General DEM Rigoberto García Cortez, garrison commander, had notified us,” the mayor said. “It’s part of the anti-crime operations that (national authorities) have activated in our city.”Nuevo Laredo streets, as well as those in Miguel Alemán, Río Bravo, Valle Hermoso, Reynosa y Matamoros, are now patrolled by heavily armed soldiers, federal agents and state police as every city police officer was relieved of duty until officials can ascertain whether any are involved with drug traffickers.
In Nuevo Laredo, some 500 officers were pulled off the street and disarmed. An untold number are in detention at the Army headquarters.
In 2005, the Army disarmed 600 local police and 40 of them were taken to Mexico City for interrogation at the federal public safety office. Several months later, firearms were returned to a select group of officers who underwent extensive background checks and completed new training designed to clean up the department.
All the weapons seized Tuesday were taken to the garrison in Nuevo Laredo to be checked by ballistics experts to determine whether they had ever been used in drug-related crimes.
In addition to checking the firearms, each officer’s personal documents and backgrounds will be under a microscope. Drug tests were administered to every officer.
The Army spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said every city grants its officers a license to use firearms. The checks will verify whether the weapons being carried by officers match the licenses they were issued.
The actions of the special forces, known by the Spanish acronym of GAFES, alarmed many officers in the six cities that border South Texas.
“They have us (stunned). If they know who to take, then they should fulfill their responsibility,” said one officer, who asked not to be identified. “They have lists. They have been working for some time on gathering intelligence and they know the bad officers.”
In Reynosa, soldiers and federal agents surrounded police headquarters. Some officers said they were afraid because the agents might make mistakes and arrest people who aren’t connected to drug traffickers. The police headquarters in Matamoros also was surrounded by armored vehicles, as agents and soldiers commandeered weapons and began checking identification.
Garza Barrios said that as soon as city police officers pass the inspection, they will be returned to the streets but no time frame has been established for that.
UPDATE: Nuevo Laredo Police back on the job without weapons or vehicles
Nuevo Laredo’s police force is back to its patrolling duties Wednesday but without their firearms, said city spokesman Alberto Rodríguez Wednesday morning.
All they have are night sticks and shields, he said.
El Norte (Monterrey) reported in the early afternoon that the police were being required to remain inside the city’s police station.
In a follow-up phone conversation with Rodríguez this afternoon, he said that the police don’t have access to their patrol vehicles either.
Officers are just doing foot patrols in some part of the city, he said.
No officers have been arrested and they are no longer being required to remain at police headquarters by the military, he said.
The 450-member police force is taking its normal shift changes, he said. It appears many officers remain at police HQ.
“They were just playing soccer right now,” said Rodríguez.
Local authorities ordered drug tests on the officers.
Police do not know when they will be given their weapons or vehicles or normal job descriptions back.
With the occupation of the northern frontier of Mexico by the Mexican military, I thought it would be interesting to see just who these guys are. What I found was a very proud, highly trained and specialized force that could stand shoulder to shoulder with any Army unit in the world.
The Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (Special Forces Airmobile Group, GAFE) is a very powerful special forces unit of the Mexican Army’s Special Forces Corps, trained by the world’s special forces.
There are a total of nine battalions, one High Command GAFE unit and one other group is assigned to the Infantry Parachutists Brigade.
Within the structure of the unit there are regular, intermediates and veterans. The regulars usually operate more as light infantry. The intermediates are mainly instructors with medium ranks such as lieutenants and captains, they are also known as the COIFEs, considered by many the Mexican Green Berets. They carry out the most delicate black ops, they are known as the Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales del Alto Mando(High Command GAFEs). The GAFE motto is “Todo por México” (Everything for Mexico).
History of GAFES
It was created in 1986 as the “Fuerza de Intervención Rápida” (Rapid Intervention Force) to provide security for the World Cup soccer games in Mexico City. The French Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN) trained the group in special weapon and counter-terrorism tactics. On June 1. 1990, the group adopted its current name.
Eight years later the GAFEs saw action fighting the EZLN guerrillas in Chiapas, Mexico. Nobody knows for sure, except for the army, the operations they carried out.
Nowadays the army special forces continue fighting the war against drug cartels in Mexico. They have successfully captured many big drug leaders such as Benjamin Arellano Felix and Osiel Cardenas Guillen of the Cartel del Golfo.
Training
Since its creation they have received a wide variety of training from different special forces groups from around the world. The Army unified all the knowledge by creating in 1998 the Escuela Militar de Fuerzas Especiales ( Special Forces Military School). Later on changing its name to Centro de Adiestramiento de Fuerzas Especiales (“Special Forces Training Center”), located in the foothills of the Iztaccíhuatl volcano, on May 1, 2002. The basic special forces course lasts 6 months.
The training takes on various forms.
- Jungle/Amphibious/Combat Diving: Jungle and Amphibious Operations Training Center in Xtomoc, Quintana Roo. Training also takes place in different scenarios in the state of Guerrera.
- Urban/Intervention: San Miguel de los Jagueyes, La Casa de la Muerte ( Killing House) in Puebla and Temamantla, Estado de México.
- Mountain: El Salto, Durango and Guerrero.
- Desert Operations Training Center: Laguna Salada and Baja California
- Airmobile/Airborne: Air Force base of Santa Lucía, Estado de México and Guerrero.
- High mountain: Nevado de Toluca, Iztaccíhuatland Pico de Orizaba volcanoes.
Transportation and Weaponery
The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter in addition to the MI-17/8, CH-53 Yassur 2000, MD-530F & Bell 212/412 helicopters, make up the air fleet of GAFES.
The weapons preferred are varied. FX-05 Xiuhcoatl, HK G3 assault rifles, M4 carbine, HK MP5 submachine gun, BARRET .50, HK PSG-1, REMINGTON 700 & the Fusil de Precisión Morelos sniper rifles, Remington M1100 tactical, Mossberg 500 shotguns, B-300, RL-83 Blindicide & RPG-7 rocket launchers, HK P7M13, Beretta 92F & Colt .45 pistols, M249SAW light machineguns, MGL Mk-1, and M203 40mm grenade launchers.
Now, any of you right wing nut cases up for a friendly little border war?
Families of the officers and civilian employees of the Nuevo Laredo Municpal Police, who were arrested Saturday staged a protest today in front of the military barracks and at the Bridge of the America’s.
Saturday, 4 officers and 7 civilians were detained and accused of passing classified information concerning police and military movements to the cartels.
Read the story in Spanish as reported by El Manana de Nuevo Laredo
I find it interesting to note that El Manana is reporting this protest was organized by family members of those detained by the Federal Forces. That is not surprising.
I made a trip to Reynosa over the weekend. A quick trip, there and back. As always, I took Mexico Hwy 2.
In Camargo, there is a toll bridge where the military had set up a check point north and south. I experienced no problems going to Reynosa. Coming back however, my car was searched. The soldiers were very polite and professional and offered their thanks for my cooperation.
North of Reynosa, the Federal Security Forces of the PFP had another checkpoint in operation. This time, I was waved through in both directions. But these guys appeared serious about interdicting drugs, arms and whatever other contraband they found.
I spoke with a friend of mine the other day who is a Professor in Rio Bravo, the town that has seen a spike in cartel violence in recent weeks. She advised me that soldiers and Federal officers were going house to house, questioning residents and when appropriate, doing searched of the premises.
Returning to Nuevo Laredo on Hwy 85 on the southern edge of NL, there were troop carriers with at least 100 soldiers preparing to set up checks on that highway or perhaps were planning a raid on one of the ranchos in that area.
This area south of town has been the scene of several raids in the past year where evidence of cartel activities have been discovered.
The word on the street and in the news is the people of Mexico are fed up with the violence of the cartels and the corruption associated with them and they are asking the government to use a heavy hand in dealing with the cartels
They crossed the line last week when they murdered not only the Police Commander in Tijuana, but also his wife and two young children and terrorized a nearby school.
And for those who said in the article they can’t have fun anymore, I don’t see why not. This comment was made in response to the Federal troops entering a popular nightclub in Nuevo Laredo Saturday night called the Silverado, a known hangout for bad guys.
Get used to it! Whatever it takes to restore the peace along the border. You can’t have it both ways
Arriving on board military transport at Nuevo Laredo International Airport, 250 members of Aeromóvil Special Forces Group (GAFES), Mexico’s equivalent of the US Army’s elite Ranger’s, boarded a convoy of 32 military vehicles to be dispersed at various points around the city. The troops will be garrisoned with the cities 1st Motorized Cavalry Regiment here in Nuevo Laredo.
The arrival occurred at the same time that the mayors of the border cities of Tamaulipas met privately in Ciudad Victoria with Governor Eugenio Hernandez Flores and authorities of the Federal Security Service.
The Federal Security Service is a division of the PFP.
Elements of GAFES were quickly dispersed to various locations around the city, from Blvd. Colon to the western colonias of the city.
The troopers were also stationed at both bridges in Nuevo Laredo to assist IFA or Mexican Customs in searching vehicles entering Mexico for prohibited items such as weapons and other contraband.
The seizure of weapons and ammunition smuggled in from the United States is a priority in President Calderons initiative against the cartels.
In addition to troops in Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa received 600 troops, Matamoros 400 with assistance of Naval Marines from their bases east of Matamoros on the coast.
All highways at this point have manned checkpoints to check vehicles going in both directions.
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