Thread: Gun Battle Between Texas Rangers, Border Sheriff and Cartels

is not the first time shots have been exchanged along the Texas-Mexico border. Since January of last year, DPS has tracked at least a dozen incidents of shots being fired from Mexico and into Texas, with U.S. officers shooting back in some cases.

In some cases they have shot back???? WTS!

An article from above has been updated
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First came the rocks, then came the bullets

Game wardens and Border Patrol run into drug runners on Rio Grande

By LYNN BREZOSKY
STAFF WRITER

June 9, 2011, 9:54PM

BROWNSVILLE — The gunfight between U.S. law enforcement officers and Mexican drug runners Thursday started with rocks thrown at two Texas game wardens and escalated into gunfire, according to authorities.

Officers then fired back.

Texas Parks and Wildlife spokesman Mike Cox said the wardens were treated and released at a local hospital after being hit by "several large jagged rocks" hurled from the other side.

"Our game wardens were in fear of their lives and they fired and the other officers fired as well," he said.

Cox said the gunbattle lasted only a few minutes, describing it as "intense but short-lived."

There were three TPW boats and one Border Patrol boat involved, he said, noting that game wardens work the river as fully commissioned Texas peace officers.

According to the Department of Public Safety, at least three drug runners were wounded in the gunfight.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said the shootout occurred in the Hidalgo County community of Abram. He said Texas Rangers, the TPW wardens and the U.S. Border Patrol were involved, and that his deputies were among those on the scene "after the fact."

Suspicious activity

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called the incident a "brazen attack" and added, "Cartel-related violence along our border is real and escalating, and the administration cannot continue to deny it when American lives - particularly those of our law enforcement - are directly in harm's way."

DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said the officers were part of a multi-agency "Texas Ranger Reconnaissance" operation and had attempted to stop a large drug load from coming across the river.

Officers arrived in patrol boats after becoming suspicious about a vehicle on the U.S. bank of the river and by two boats loaded with drugs on the water, Mange said. The officers encountered "heavy gunfire from the Mexico side" while attempting to interdict the boats, she said.

It was unclear what happened to the wounded or whether arrests were made. Mexican authorities were notified of the abandoned boat loads of drugs and were on the scene, the DPS said.

"A multi-agency investigation is currently under way and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the government of Mexico are working closely to determine the complete circumstances of the shooting," said Rosendo Hinojosa, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector.

Teams on duty since 2009

Gov. Rick Perry in September of 2009 announced the establishment of the reconnaissance teams to bolster what he said were inadequate federal resources along the Texas-Mexico border.

The teams, made up of Texas Rangers and Texas National Guard Counterdrug forces, are deployed to high-traffic, high-crime areas to help stem the flow of contraband, according to an agency news release.

Staff writer Gary Martin in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

www.chron.com

Cross-border gunfight erupts on Rio Grande
by Will Weissert - Jun. 11, 2011 12:00 AM
Associated Press
.

SAN ANTONIO - U.S. law-enforcement officials exchanged about 300 rounds of gunfire with drug runners during a pre-dawn shootout across the Rio Grande, but only about six came from the Mexican side, authorities said Friday.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, whose Rangers were involved in the shootout, said such an overwhelming response is standard given the United States' zero-tolerance policy when guns are pointed at its authorities. Department officials previously said the Americans were under "heavy fire," but they've since backed away from that.

The incident began about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, when U.S. Border Patrol agents spotted a Dodge Durango near the lightly populated border town of Abram, Texas, said Steve McCraw, director of the state DPS. He joined officials from Border Patrol and Texas Fish and Wildlife for a news conference Friday in Weslaco, roughly 250 miles south of San Antonio and just north of the river separating Mexico and the U.S.


Agents who gave chase found the truck abandoned on the banks of the river and a group of people on the Mexican shore unloading bundles of marijuana from rubber rafts, the DPS said.

Border Patrol agents said Mexican smugglers often use small, high-quality rafts to float drugs into U.S. territory, where they load them onto waiting vehicles to be taken farther north.

Of late, however, smugglers wait with the rafts in American territory in case the vehicles are spotted and have to flee back

to the river. There, they quickly put the drugs back onto the rafts and head back to Mexico to keep U.S. authorities from seizing the load.

That's what happened Thursday, the DPS said, except U.S. authorities arrived in time to see a group of people who had already made it back to the Mexican side removing packets of marijuana from rafts.

The group threw rocks and fired "at least six" rounds at American agents, who responded by flooding the area with gunfire, the DPS said.

A Border Patrol boat was the first to arrive on the scene, followed by boats from Texas Parks and Wildlife and one belonging to the Texas Rangers, it said.

Authorities said they are still looking into how many Americans fired shots and what agencies they were from.

Three people on the Mexican side of the river were believed injured or killed, although authorities in that country were still working to confirm that.

Two U.S. game wardens were treated for cuts and scrapes after being struck with rocks

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