2 found dead on U.S. side of border

By Jason Buch
Updated 10:47 p.m., Tuesday, May 22, 2012

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 were 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 evidence of an organized crime connection, Cano said.

Piedras Negras, across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, has suffered from cartel-related violence in recent years, and Eagle Pass itself has been used as a smuggling point for the San Antonio-based Mexican Mafia prison gang. But homicides are rare in the county of 54,000.

“I would say we average maybe one or two a year,” Cano said. “But this is unusual to have a double homicide.”

jbuch@express-news.net

2 found dead on U.S. side of border - San Antonio Express-News