Thread: Jackals in the Night: Border Patrol's Helicopter Unit

Jackals in the Night: Border Patrol's Helicopter Unit Keeps Watch in California Mountains
Friday , April 25, 2008
By William LaJeunesse



OTAY MOUNTAIN, Calif. —

The Otay Mountains east of San Diego have for years provided an open corridor for illegal immigrants entering the United States.

But now a unique air unit is closing up this gap, flying in by helicopter every day to catch unsuspecting immigrants.

Part mountain goat, part jackal, the 54 agents of the Border Patrol's Air Mobile Unit trek up and down the mountains to swoop in on immigrants and the groups that smuggle them into America.

National Guard and Border Patrol helicopters drop two-man teams — mostly ex-military members equipped with night scopes, infrared devices and tracking dogs — into remote canyons and steep ridges on every other peak of the mountain range just north of the border. Their shift runs from dusk till dawn.

• Click here to see the Air Mobile Unit in action.

In four years, the Air Mobile Unit has arrested 20,000 undocumented immigrants and turned back about 3,000 more, though they estimate about 4,000 have gotten away. Where they once caught none, the unit now captures between 30 and 100 immigrants a day.

For decades, smugglers used the rugged Otay Mountains — physically imposing and largely inaccessible — as a hideaway from the Border Patrol. Broiling hot in the summer, freezing in the winter and flush with rattlesnakes in the spring, the mountains provided a reliable if difficult passage that agents, lacking road access, were unable to patrol.

“Before the unit was created, there would be days before anyone would get down there just because of the terrain,â€

CLICK on the link and then click on the area for the video and check it out.
its amazing

Originally Posted by jamesw62

CLICK on the link and then click on the area for the video and check it out.
its amazing

Your right, james62...amazing video...good find on your part. Here is the direct link for viewing:
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.h ... laylistID=