DPS adds to border enforcement in Texas

DPS adds to border enforcement in Texas

By Jason Buch
Updated 06:18 p.m., Saturday, June 9, 2012

HIDALGO COUNTY - It was an unlucky day for the drug mules scrambling to reach a stash house near Mission.

Their black Ford F-250 pickup, its bed and cab loaded with 1,200 pounds of pot, was spotted by law enforcement on a recent afternoon, and within minutes a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter swooped overhead.

The driver turned his truck around and headed for the river.

The chopper shadowed the pickup as it sped over unpaved roads weaving through the network of irrigation channels and farmland gently sloping toward the Rio Grande. Below the Anzalduas International Bridge, the truck hit the water.

The driver and his passenger swam across to the Mexican side of the river while Border Patrol agents swarmed the truck and confiscated the load.

"I think he took a wrong turn there because normally there would have been two or three rafts and about three or four people to take (the drugs) across," said Capt. Stacy Holland, one of two helicopter pilots flying patrols out of Edinburg on the day of the chase.

Such escape attempts have become more frequent, DPS said, since the department bolstered its presence on the border with more troopers, technology, equipment and weapons.

The Legislature has provided more than $600 million for border security since 2007, with most of the money given to the DPS to target drug and human smugglers. The border operation today represents a small army, with specialized Ranger Reconnaissance Teams, new intelligence centers, patrol boats, helicopters and surveillance cameras watching for traffickers.

Even a high-altitude spy plane soon will be deployed.

It's a departure from traditional DPS roles as highway patrolmen and a support service to local law enforcement agencies.

Spending questions

The new strategy is based on "the idea of unifying the efforts and recognizing that there's insufficient resources for Border Patrol to secure the border," DPS Director Steve McCraw said. "How do we work together to amplify border security?"

But civil rights advocates and others question the need for DPS involvement in border security when the Border Patrol is at an all-time high in personnel and funding. Meanwhile, they say, there's no indication beefing up border security has hurt Mexico's drug cartels.

"That money could perhaps be used for other purposes, as we already have Texas Parks and Wildlife" patrolling the river in boats, Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said. "Ranger Recon Teams? I don't really know what they've done as we're not privy to that information. DPS is doing the best job they can, but I do, however, feel that their way of working is totally different from local law enforcement."

One of the first DPS efforts was the launch of Operation Border Star, a controversial program started in 2007 that provides funds to local law enforcement agencies along the Rio Grande.

In 2011, the Legislature set aside more than $10 million for DPS to distribute directly to local law enforcement agencies for border security. But Border Star came under sharp criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. A 2009 report from the group found that Border Star encouraged participating agencies to conduct traffic stops that rarely yielded drug seizures or asset forfeiture.

"They're using this money that's supposed to be supplementing federal (drug enforcement) work, and using it for busting a street-level dealer," said Krystal Gomez, advocacy and policy counsel with the ACLU of Texas Brownsville office.

DPS officials say Border Star has a value beyond providing extra cash to agencies along the Rio Grande: All 40 departments that take part in the program must submit information about their law enforcement activity to DPS, such as when and where pursuits and drug seizures occur, to continue receiving funding.

Mixed results

In 2009, Gov. Rick Perry and the DPS announced the deployment of Ranger Reconnaissance Teams, specially trained and heavily armed units that are dispatched to hotspots. The agency won't discuss much about their operations other than to say they have investigative and tactical abilities and are often sent to rural areas. The Ranger teams have seized 78,000 pounds of drugs and arrested 76 people, according to DPS. They've also referred 1,103 illegal immigrants to federal agents.

DPS investigative efforts have yielded mixed results. In April 2010, sheriff's deputies in Zapata County told the Rangers that a group of hit men for the Zetas cartel had crossed the border to kill a man in Rio Grande City, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. The Rangers arrested five people. But 90 days later, prosecutors didn't have enough information to indict the suspects and a judge ordered them released. They were turned over to federal authorities and deported, according to prosecutors.

The Rangers eventually submitted the results of their investigation to the District Attorney's Office for Webb and Zapata counties, which indicted the suspects on criminal conspiracy charges. They remain fugitives in Mexico.

Operation Drawbridge

In another effort, the department is installing 500 cameras along the border, part of an electronic monitoring program called Operation Drawbridge. When a Drawbridge camera is triggered, it sends an image to the DPS Border Security Operations Center in Austin. If it shows something of interest - immigrants or drug mules - the image is saved and added to the stream of information DPS shares with other agencies.

Guadalupe County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said he didn't know DPS was running helicopter patrols on the Rio Grande. The department has been most helpful to him when filling its traditional role backing up local law enforcement, Treviño said.

"The best thing about DPS, from my perspective, is that they are there when you need them. I don't see them initiating any groundbreaking type of initiative, or I don't see them really hitting the front line that hard, but I do see them as an excellent resource," he said.

jbuch@express-news.net

DPS adds to border enforcement in Texas - Houston Chronicle