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Mexican Soldiers Helped Smugglers Along Border, Lawmakers Told
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican soldiers have illegally entered the U.S. and fired at Border Patrol agents, sometimes in support of drug-smuggling operations, a Texas law enforcement officer and a union official told a congressional panel today.

Armed soldiers have entered the U.S. on at least three occasions in recent years, the officials said, and last month soldiers in military vehicles helped drug smugglers flee back across the border after being chased by deputy sheriffs.

``We have a problem with a wide-open and unsecured border,'' Arvin West, sheriff of Hudspeth County, Texas, said in prepared testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Investigations.

Mexican officials today denied that any Mexican soldiers were involved in violent border-crossing incidents.

Concerns about illegal border crossings have made border security a priority in Washington. The House last year passed a measure to extend a fence along portions of the U.S.-Mexico border and President George W. Bush yesterday in his fiscal 2007 budget proposed adding $1.7 billion in border security funding next year and hiring 1,500 more Border Patrol agents.

``We want to know who is involved,'' said Republican Michael McCaul of Texas, the panel's chairman. ``While it is possible that large drug cartels are using military-like uniforms, vehicles and weapons, the bottom line is that these incidences threaten the safety of law enforcement agents, citizens and the security of our nation.''

Military Vehicles

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Council, a 10,500-member union of Border Patrol agents, told lawmakers of three incursions into the U.S. since 2000 in which Border Patrol agents were chased and fired upon by people wearing Mexican military uniforms, driving military vehicles and carrying assault rifles.

There is a ``growing problem of armed incursions across the southwest border of the United States by current and former Mexican soldiers and law enforcement officers,'' Bonner testified.

David Aguilar, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, said the agency ``does not have proof that recent trafficking incidents we have seen involving individuals dressed in military or law enforcement attire were in fact Mexican government personnel.''

Still, ``we address each of these incidents as the serious criminal acts they are, and these cases are being actively pursued,'' Aguilar said.

Mexican officials have said any border crossings by military or law enforcement have been accidental and that no shots have been fired at U.S. Border Patrol agents.

Two Trucks

In Hudspeth County, east of El Paso along the Mexican border, West said his deputies came across two trucks suspected of smuggling drugs and chased them back to the Mexican border on Jan. 23.

``When the deputies arrived at the border where the drug loads were to cross, the deputies were met with the Mexican military in a military Humvee,'' West said.

When one of the trucks became stuck in the river while trying to enter Mexico, soldiers unloaded its drugs and then set the vehicle on fire, West said. The incident was videotaped by the deputies.

Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs today released a statement saying that Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez had communicated Mexico's official position on the alleged border- crossing incident to the U.S. government.

``The investigation on behalf of the military attorney general's office has determined that the uniforms, insignias, vehicles and weapons that appeared in the original video do not correspond to those used by the Mexican armed forces,'' the statement said. ``It has been determined that no member of the Mexican Army participated in the incident.''

Criminal Gangs

The investigation, carried out by Mexico's secretary of Defense and the federal attorney general's office, determined that the men who appeared in the video are members of criminal drug-trafficking gangs, according to the statement.

``The governments of Mexico and the United States agree that, in the crossings of the last decade, there have been incidents registered on both sides of the border that have not resulted in a single case of aggression or violence,'' the statement said.

The U.S. Department of State has requested an investigation into the incident, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Whitaker said in testimony prepared for the hearing.

``The Mexican government cannot avoid responsibility for the actions of these renegade groups,'' Bonner said. ``A culture of corruption permeates every level of Mexico's military and law enforcement agencies.''

To contact the reporter on this story:
Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 7, 2006 15:56 EST