Thread: Cross-border crime: US squads to investigate spillover viole

Cross-border crime: US squads to investigate spillover violence
by Adriana M. Chávez \ El Paso Times
Posted: 01/22/2011 12:00:00 AM MST

The FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration have created new squads to help prevent the violence in Juárez from spilling into the El Paso area.

Both have been nicknamed the Cross Border Violence squads. The FBI's official name is Squad 15, while DEA officials said their squad doesn't have a formal name.

Both squads focus on violent crimes committed by groups responsible for the drug-related violence across the border.

David Cuthbertson, special agent in charge of the FBI's El Paso Division, said the FBI squad officially started Oct. 1 after the agency was given money for specialized operations along the border.

The squad's mission, Cuthbertson said, will focus specifically on crimes in which the victims or suspects cross the border during the commission of a violent crime.

"It allows us to keep a laser focus on the issue of cross-border violence," Cuthbertson said.

The squad will allow FBI agents to collect and stay updated on intelligence that may prevent such crimes from taking place in El Paso.

Examples of the cases the FBI squad will investigate include the U.S. Consulate slayings in March of last year of Lesley Enriquez Redelfs, a consulate employee; her husband, Arthur Redelfs, an El Paso County sheriff's detention officer; and Jorge Salcido Ceniceros, a maquiladora supervisor and the husband of consulate employee Hilda Antillon.

He also mentioned the Aug. 24 murder of a Fabens man that is believed to be linked to drugs.

Cuthbertson declined to specify what kind of investigative tactics agents will be using, but denied speculation that agents listen in on phone calls made from Mexican cell phones.

"We have no authority to tap Mexican phones. We don't use that technique," Cuthbertson said.

The main goal of the squad, Cuthbertson said, is to "stay out in front of intelligence."

"We want the criminal organizations to understand that law enforcement (in El Paso) is on top of things, so they don't want to take their chances here,"FBI Special Agent Armando Ramos Jr. said.

DEA agents are targeting drug-trafficking organizations that finance violent crimes in the U.S, said Joseph Arabit, special agent in charge of the DEA's El Paso Field Office. Arabit said the agency received funding for the squad within the past three months.

"We were addressing this specific issue with our other enforcement components," Arabit said. "As the situation (in Juárez) worsened, we saw the need for dedicating a group."

One example of the type of crime the new DEA squad investigates is the Sept. 3, 2009 kidnapping of Sergio Saucedo, 30, in Horizon City.

Saucedo's mutilated body was found three days later on a Juárez street. Three men have since been charged in federal court in connection with Saucedo's kidnapping and slaying.

"We hope to use the information we gather to secure U.S. prosecution," Arabit said. "Another mission of the group is to gather intelligence that will certainly lead to preventing some of this violence on both sides of the border."

Neither Cuthbertson nor Arabit would specify how many agents are assigned to the squads or how the intelligence will be gathered, but said they will work with state and local law-enforcement agencies, as well as their counterparts in Mexico, to help make the squads' missions successful.

Cuthbertson said the squad will be working with an FBI border liaison officer in Juárez. The DEA's squad will be based in El Paso, Arabit said.

Although the murder rate in Juárez averages out to about eight a day, El Paso County saw only seven murders last year. Cuthbertson said that El Paso's low crime rate may be attributable to a large law-enforcement presence in the area and that the violence in Juárez has its roots in the Mexican city.

"The violence in Juárez has a lot to do with things in Juárez, not El Paso," Cuthbertson said.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_17163386

Where Is the Border Patrol

Originally Posted by topsecret10

Where Is the Border Patrol

Probably not enough agents due to funding cuts for one thing.

Related: http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-1174011.html#1174011