Thread: Officials confirm armed stand-off between Mexican soldiers, US Border Patrol

5:40 PM 04/02/2014
Caroline May
The Daily Caller



Two armed Mexican soldiers crossed into the Arizona and drew their guns during a concerning stand off with Border Patrol agents back in January, the Mexican government and U.S. officials have confirmed.

In the most recent of more than 20 instances since 2010, in which Mexican soldiers have crossed into southern Arizona, the Los Angeles Times reports that the Jan. 26 confrontation ended only after the Mexican soldiers retreated back to Mexico, when Border Patrol drew their weapons and called for backup.

Documents obtained by the The Times/Tribune Washington Bureau confirmed the incident which found Mexican soldiers 50 yards inside the U.S., misidentifying themselves to Border Patrol, which resulted in a 35 minute confrontation. No shots, however, were fired.

According to the report, U.S. officials are characterizing the standoff as one of the most serious border incursions in years.

And while Mexico denied for weeks that their soldiers were involved — saying instead that the two men were drug smugglers in Mexican uniforms — it confirmed to the Times Tuesday that Mexican soldiers were involved in the incident.

“Those individuals were part of a counter-narcotics operation, which had taken place a few minutes prior on the Mexican side of the border,” Ariel Moutsatsos, Mexican Embassy spokesman, told the LA Times. “The two members of the Mexican army did not see any sign notifying them that they were crossing the border.”

Moutsatsos added that is was an isolated incident and that U.S. officials sometimes accidentally cross into Mexico too.

“Both U.S. and Mexican agents have sporadically and accidentally crossed our common border during their patrols,” he said. “Both countries understand that this is something that happens as part of normal activities.”

U.S. officials have put the incursion into the accident column as well.

“We have raised the issue of incursions onto U.S. territory with Mexican authorities both in Washington and in Mexico,” a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Mexico told the Times. “We will continue to do so. There have been incursions by the Mexican military but they were unintentional. U.S. border officials work closely with their Mexican counterparts to ensure respect for the border and to return them quickly to Mexican territory. The bilateral collaboration in these incidents testifies to the strength of our security cooperation.”

While both the U.S. and Mexico did not report a reason to believe the pair were involved in any wrongdoing, border experts told The Times that Mexican military personnel are often hired by cartels to help smuggle drugs.

“It’s pretty easy to co-opt them,” James Phelps, a security studies professor at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, said according to The Times. “Many are essentially a functional asset of the cartels.”

http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/02/of...border-patrol/

Judicial Watch
4/2/14

Mexican Military Holds Border Patrol at Gunpoint Inside U.S.

April 02, 2014In the latest Mexican military incursion into the United States, two heavily armed camouflaged soldiers from Mexico actually crossed 50 yards inside Arizona and held American Border Patrol agents at gunpoint in a tense confrontation.

Armed with assault-style weapons, the Mexican soldiers retreated back south after a 35-minute standoff as if nothing ever happened and the Obama administration just let it slide. The unbelievable foray was made public by a mainstream newspaper that obtained government documents with alarming details of the January 26 incident. Specifically, the paper cites the Border Patrol Foreign Military Incursion report and a separate letter from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske, an Obama appointee who was recently sworn in.

The Mexican soldiers were spotted by a Border Patrol agent entering the U.S. about 2.5 miles west of Sasabe Arizona shortly before 9 a.m. A second federal agent positively identified the two individuals in tan, digital camouflage uniforms, on foot traveling westbound, on the United States side of the International Boundary Fence Line, according to the report obtained by the newspaper. The Mexicans misidentified themselves to U.S. Border agents and claimed to be pursuing drug smugglers, the government documents say.

Kerlikowske admits that the intruders were “confirmed members of the Mexican military” but he asserts that U.S. border officials determined that no further action was necessary involving the matter. Like a loyal Obama lapdog Kerlikowske claims military incursions from Mexico are infrequent though he was apparently forced to admit that there were 23 incidents in the Tucson and Yuma sectors of Arizona since 2010, including three this fiscal year alone.

The latest incursion was one of the most serious in recent years, according to U.S. officials that apparently didn’t want their name printed in the newspaper. The same officials, clearly insiders privy to information that’s not made public, seem to indicate that Mexican soldiers aren’t chasing drug smugglers but rather protecting cartels as they transport their cargo into the United States through the treacherous desert.

Not surprisingly, Mexico’s government long denied that its soldiers were involved in the January incursion and initially suggested the men were drug smugglers somehow clad in military uniforms. When reporters confronted Mexican officials with the evidence the embassy changed its story to this: “Those individuals were part of a counter-narcotics operation, which had taken place a few minutes prior on the Mexican side of the border,” said Ariel Moutsatsos, minister for press and public affairs at the Mexican Embassy. “The two members of the Mexican army did not see any sign notifying them that they were crossing the border.”

The official version from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico is that incursions happen and that they are “unintentional.” No worries, says an American Embassy spokesperson quoted in the story, because U.S. officials work closely with their Mexican counterparts to ensure respect for the border and to return them quickly to Mexican territory. “The bilateral collaboration in these incidents testifies to the strength of our security cooperation,” the U.S. Embassy official said.

Judicial Watch has done a lot of work in this area and has obtained records from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that show Mexican military incursions occur quite often and go unpunished by the U.S. For instance, the DHS documents reveal 226 incursions by Mexican government personnel into the U.S. occurred between 1996 and 2005. In 2007 alone, 25 incursions occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border involving Mexican military and/or law enforcement. The problem has only gotten worse over the years, according to the records obtained in the course of JW’s ongoing investigation.

A few years ago police in Phoenix Arizona reported that three members of Mexico’s army conducted a violent home invasion and assassination operation that killed one person and littered a neighborhood with gunfire. The Mexican military officers were hired by one of that country’s renowned drug cartels to carry out the deadly operation, according to Phoenix police officials, who confirmed the soldiers were armed with AR-15 assault rifles and dressed in military tactical gear. An official police memorandum describes it as a “drug rip,” a tactical assault in which approximately 100 rounds were fired.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/20...nt-inside-u-s/

The article from JW.
Mexican Military Incursion In U.S. Neighborhood

June 26, 2008

In one of the most disturbing Mexican government incursions into the U.S., three members of Mexico’s army conducted a home invasion and assassination operation in Arizona this week that killed one person and littered a neighborhood with gunfire.

Phoenix police say the Mexican military officers were hired by one of that country’s renowned drug cartels to carry out the deadly operation.

The three invaders were dressed in military tactical gear and were armed with AR-15 assault rifles. They clearly had military training and the one Mexican soldier who was captured said the gang was completely prepared to ambush Phoenix police.

Official police memorandums documenting the violent incident have been posted on a local news web site and the information is unbelievable. The reports provide details of the “drug rip,” which officials describe as a tactical assault in which approximately 100 rounds were fired. Windows were raked and doors were breached as the heavily armed Mexican soldiers entered the residence clad in body armor, black combat boots, ballistic helmets and thigh holsters.

One of the police documents specifically says that all the suspects are Mexican military coming into the United States with full tactical gear and police raid shirts to conduct home invasions. Another memo points out that Mexican drug cartels are increasingly moving north of the border to protect themselves from rival cartels. The sophisticated operations have for years used military tactics and personnel and now the violence has shifted to Phoenix.

The problem is severe and will only get worst, leaving one local law enforcement expert to recommend that police enlist present and past military personnel to assist with training and response to such sophisticated and potentially lethal military tactics.

Mexican military incursions are more common than most Americans might think. Judicial Watch has made public the astounding amount of incidents that occur regularly yet go unpunished by the U.S. government. Mexican military incursion reports obtained from the Department of Homeland Security through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that 226 incursions by Mexican government personnel into the U.S. occurred between 1996 and 2005. In 2007 alone, 25 incursions occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border involving Mexican military and/or law enforcement.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/20...-neighborhood/