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DPS director wants more troopers in the region

POSTED: 08:58 PM CST Feb 24, 2015 UPDATED: 09:29 PM CST Feb 24, 2015

MCALLEN -

The crisis on the border may have Rio Grande Valley residents in more danger than they realize, state officials said.

Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw testified before the Texas Senate Finance Committee Monday. He painted a picture of cartels and other dangerous criminals penetrating our border.

McCraw’s testimony is a dark reminder of what CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported in depth in 2011.

“There's people that see you when you leave work … they follow you to your house,” a source told CHANNEL 5 NEWS in 2011.

A police officer admitted the cartels are here and are threatening his family.

“They follow us around the clock. They know we follow the constitution. They know we don't stop anybody unless we have a reason to top them,” McCraw said Monday.

“They use convoys against us. They use decoys against us. They use chase vehicles. They are effective, sometimes,” McCraw told the committee.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported about cartels establishing safe zones along the border.

“We have a Chinese gang working with the Bloods and Crips. We have the Mexican Mafia working with Tango Blast. They are in with Arian Brotherhood. It's all interaction with the Gulf cartel,” McCraw said.

The state senate wants to double the DPS budget. McCraw says it’s needed.

“Texas was never a stronghold for MS-13. It is right now. You have boys in school being murdered based on execution hits ordered out of El Salvador. We're seeing this on multiple occasions,” McCraw said.

DPS sent more troopers to the border last year as a stopgap measure. Immigration numbers are down. McCraw said it’s time to shift the focus to other crimes.

“When we talk about the border crime, it's the home invasions, it's the pseudo-cop stops … extortions,” McCraw said.

A look into recent Hidalgo County jail logs revealed that more than half of DPS arrests were for DWI, not border-related crimes.

“We got in the face of the Gulf cartel,” McCraw said.

McCraw said the surge is yielding results.

“I can put a lot of dope on the table and we can all high-five each other, but at the end of the day, did we really secure it?” McCraw said.

McCraw said the border is far from secure. He said more technology and manpower are necessary.

Many of the senate and DPS request use numbers from the Texas Border Security Dashboard. The numbers show totals of all agencies doing work along the border, not just DPS. The latest numbers were posted in December.

http://www.krgv.com/news/local-news/...dents/31460570