Border agents under attack, three migrants die in seperate weekend action
By Dale Quinn
Aug 27, 2007
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
A U.S. Border Patrol agent suffered injuries to his leg when his patrol vehicle was slammed by a suspected marijuana smuggler Sunday afternoon.
In separate incidents, unknown assailants fired on four agents near the Mexican border Sunday night and three bodies have been recovered in the desert since Friday, officials said.
The suspected smuggler, an illegal entrant, was arrested after evading Border Patrol agents for more than an hour, according to a U.S. Border Patrol press release. More than 1,100 pounds of marijuana were found in the stolen truck the man was driving.
Agents in the Yuma Sector noticed the truck pulled off the side of a highway near Gila Bend about 1:30 p.m. and approached it.
The vehicle fled at high speed, forcing the agents to end the pursuit and contact other agents at the Ajo Border Patrol station in the Tucson Sector, according to the release.
An Ajo agent spotted the vehicle parked in a wash and again approached the vehicle. The agent called for backup after noticing marijuana in the truck’s bed before it again sped away.
Another agent who responded saw the vehicle and was about to begin a search on foot, but the truck emerged from his blind spot, striking his patrol vehicle and injuring the agent.
The suspect was taken into custody after a foot pursuit and a brief struggle.
In the shooting incident, agents were patrolling near Lochiel, which is about 20 miles east of Nogales, about 10:30 p.m. when someone fire four shots at them, said Agent Sean King, a Tucson sector Border Patrol spokesman.
None of the agents were injured.
The agents responded after a sensor sounded an alarm at a Border Patrol station, King said. When the agents arrived, they left their vehicle and began to patrol on foot.
The agents walked about 1/4 mile when three pickups began to approach their patrol vehicles. As the agents began to return to the vehicles, someone fired four shots at them.
The agents took cover, but were unable to locate a shooter, King said. They radioed for help and two Border Patrol helicopters and a special response team were sent to the scene.
In the meantime three more shots were fired.
The helicopters and additional agents then arrived and the agents were able to return to their vehicles.
Neither the pickup trucks that approached the Border Patrol vehicles nor any shooter was found, King said.
Border Patrol agents also recovered the bodies of two suspected illegal entrants Friday, King said. A man who illegally entered the U.S. returned to Mexico and told Mexican officials his cousin had died in the desert.
He was allowed to return to the United States and guided Border Patrol agents to the body of a Oaxaca, Mexico man. The body was found about 23 miles north of the border near Topawa on the Tohono O’odham Nation.
The illegal entrant who guided agents to the body said the man was in his early 20s. An agent on patrol found the body of a second suspected illegal entrant Friday night, King said.
The agent found the man about 13 miles north of the border along Federal Route 21 on the Tohono O’odham Nation. The man appeared to be in his late 20s and carried no identification.
On Sunday evening, Pima County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a decomposing body found north of Ryan Airfield, said Lt. Michael O’Connor.
A man riding a dirt bike found the body and guided deputies to him. The man had no identification and investigators are unsure about his identity.
He was found in an area that’s frequently used by illegal entrants.

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