Thread: Dope-fighting deputies told to back off from border

Dope-fighting deputies told to back off from border

Web Posted: 02/09/2006 12:00 AM CST
Mariano Castillo
Express-News Border Bureau

LAREDO — Unidentified men thought to be drug cartel operatives threatened the safety of the Hudspeth County deputies who thwarted a smuggling operation east of El Paso on Jan. 23, along with their families.


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Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal said three men inside a black and red Ford Bronco approached the wife of one of the deputies last Thursday and made a threat before driving across the Rio Grande into Mexico.

"They told her that her husband and the other officers needed to stay off the river down there," Doyal said.

On Friday, a Hudspeth deputy in the Fort Hancock area received information a cartel was talking about putting together a "death squad" to target the deputies, Doyal said.

The three deputies who were targeted were the same who witnessed the failed Jan. 23 marijuana smuggling operation that set off diplomatic volleys between the United States and Mexico because men dressed in military uniform provided the drug smugglers protection during the standoff.

The Mexican government denied its army was involved in the incursion, blaming drug traffickers in pseudo-army gear.

Sheriff's deputies that day gave chase to a convoy of SUVs that fled toward the Rio Grande, where a military-style Humvee awaited to protect them.

Authorities found more than 2,000 pounds of marijuana inside the SUVs that broke down on the U.S. side of the border.

The Sheriff's Office didn't release the names of the threatened deputies, but one of the deputies involved in the incident told the San Antonio Express-News on Jan. 26 that, "Basically, if we tried to do anything, it would've been suicide for us. We were outgunned and outmanned."

Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West offered to relocate the threatened deputies.

"Each one of them stated that they were going to stand their ground. They weren't going to be run out," Doyal said.
El Paso FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said the agency was aware of the threats, but had not been asked by the sheriff to investigate.

The FBI could investigate the case under a law that makes it illegal for anyone to cross international boundaries with the purpose of threatening someone, Simmons said.

The incident has resulted in extra security near the deputies' homes and at area schools.

Sheriff West was among the law enforcement officials who testified in Washington Tuesday about the increasingly brazen drug traffickers along the border.


http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/mexico ... 94bc6.html

These Officers are True Hero's. There going to stand there ground. God bless them.

What I want to know is; how did the people who threatened the deputies, know which deputies were involved in the incident and who their wives were? Sounds to me like there's an informant in the Sheriif's office, working for the drug cartel. If anyone on this forum is from Hudspeth county, you might want to mention that to Sheriff West.