Mexico Trucker Online

During a routine inspection of an American bus entering Mexico, Army units discovered a person trying to smuggle guns into Mexico illegally.

The bus, Omnibuses Mexicanos of Houston Texas. The location, Bridge number 2 at the foot of I-35.

Confiscated was a 12 gauge shotgun, a .22 caliber rifle with scope and a .380 semi auto pistol from Luis Estrada Carrizal, 62 years old.

All passengers were detained for a period of time at the Palacio Federal by agents of Mexican Customs and the Attorney General’s investigators. All with the exception of Mr. Carrizel were allowed to continue their journey later in the day.

This is the second time an American bus has been detained at the border. Tuesday, during another routine inspection, $120,000.00 was found. No person claimed ownership of the money.

Buses are inspected on both sides of the border as they enter the respective countries for contraband, including drugs, undeclared money and illegals.

Not a big deal as the old fool was probably thinking to make a quick buck although weapons of these types are not a favorite of the cartels. Carrizel is looking at a minimum of 2 years in Mexican Federal Prison.

A push by U.S. and Mexican authorities to combat the high-powered arms trafficking that fuels Mexico’s bloody drug war is putting increasing numbers of suspected drug smugglers in court.

Prosecutions for federal gun law violations are on pace to reach a 20-year high in South Texas as federal agents work to stem the “iron river of guns” that officials estimate supply 90 percent of the weapons used by the cartels.

The push is stretching the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ 135 agents along the 2,000-mile border who are tasked with monitoring some 6,700 licensed gun dealers. In Texas the legal shops offer a buffet of high-powered automatic rifles, some of which have been used to kill thousands in drug-related violence this year.

“There’s no other source for guns,” said Francesca Perot, a Houston-based ATF spokeswoman. “It’s not rocket science — it’s cliché. The weapons come from here.”

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McALLEN -(The Monitor) The former owner of an Edinburg. Texas trucking business was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday for his role in a drug smuggling and money laundering ring.

A federal jury in Houston found Ricardo Garcia Heredia, 44, of McAllen, guilty in May of multiple counts of conspiracy and drug possession.

Prosecutors allege Garcia used his business - Edinburg-based Earth Transportation - as a front to recruit drivers for cocaine shipments that passed through the Rio Grande Valley on their way to Chicago.

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A U.S. Border Patrol agent told jurors Friday in federal court that she had been involved in the pursuit of a tractor she said was driven by Artis Ryan Miller.The pursuit started when Agent Judy Sepulveda’s canine unit alerted her to the presence of marijuana in a tractor Aug. 2, 2007, at the Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. 59 near Freer, she said in court.

Sepulveda identified Miller in court as the driver of the truck.

An agent sent the truck to secondary inspection, but the driver drove off on the highway, Sepulveda said.

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U.S. Sen. John Cornyn announced new federal legislation Friday that aims to crack down on commercial truck drivers who smuggle illegal immigrants.The legislation, dubbed the Putting the Brakes on Human Smuggling Act, imposes tougher penalties against commercial truck drivers convicted of smuggling humans, said Cornyn, who was flanked at the Laredo North checkpoint by Carlos X. Carrillo, Laredo Sector Border Patrol chief; Gene Belmares, mayor pro tem; and Steve McCraw, Texas Homeland Security director, among others.

“While those who smuggle narcotics generally lose their commercial license permanently, human smugglers are often free to continue operating commercial vehicles and frequently continue to break the law,” Cornyn stated.

Under current federal law, those convicted of smuggling drugs can receive a lifetime suspension of their commercial driver’s license, with no opportunity to reapply. However, anyone convicted of smuggling humans can have their commercial driver’s license suspended for only a year.

And, if they receive a second conviction of smuggling illegal immigrants, they can wait up to 10 years before reapplying for a commercial driver’s license.

“We’re going to be urging colleagues of Congress to act to eliminate this disparity and make sure we discourage all manner of illegal activity here along the border region,” Cornyn said.

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AUSTIN — Truckers who smuggle drugs or people into the U.S. are now risking not only prison time but also the loss of their commercial driver’s licenses as Texas uses a longstanding law in a new border crime crackdown.

“Up until today, when those lawbreakers had their trucks apprehended, they were convicted in federal court, they typically paid a small fine or served a brief sentence, then it was back to business as usual. Well, starting today, that all changes,” Gov. “Slick” Rick Perry said Thursday at the Texas Capitol with U.S. Border Patrol sector chiefs.

“If you are a commercial trucker who is involved in the illicit transportation of drugs or humans and you get caught, our effort’s going to be to stop you from being able to drive a truck again for the rest of your life,” he said.

The “Texas Hold ‘Em” initiative is meant to ensure the Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees driver’s licenses, gets documentation of federal smuggling convictions so it can suspend or revoke commercial driver’s licenses under existing law. In the past, there was a gap in convictions being reported, said Judy Brown, chief of the DPS driver license division.

The Texas initiative already has resulted in suspension of commercial driver’s license privileges in Texas in five cases, DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said. Two are Texas licenses, and the other three states — Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina — will be notified so they can revoke those licenses, Mange said. One Texas case was for smuggling drugs; the rest involved smuggling people.

Under state and federal law, people convicted of transporting illegal drugs face a lifetime disqualification of their commercial driver’s license privileges, Brown said.

The disqualification for smuggling unauthorized immigrants is a year’s license suspension for a first offense and a lifetime revocation for a second offense, she said. That’s on top of criminal penalties.

Another feel good initiative from the offices of “Slick Rick” which I doubt will have any deterrent to the problem. If they want to tackle the problem head on, why not do something about the leeches, like “Cadillac Man” in El Paso, “Doc” in Laredo Texas, who facilitate the relationship between smugglers and truckers.

“Alien- and drug-smuggling organizations are aggressively recruiting truck drivers using the promise of easy money, sex and drugs,” said Carlos Carrillo, chief of the Border Patrol’s Laredo Sector.

In these tough economic times, this is an attractive way to make a few extra bucks, but now, unlike in years past, the chances of getting busted are almost 100%. I see it weekly at the CBP checkpoints around Laredo, American trucks in impound having been caught with illegal cargo.

We’ll see how this “Texas Hold Em” Initiative pans out, but I wouldn’t get too excited about it. Only if you are licensed in Texas.