Thread: Texans near border see signs that violence is closing in

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/d ... 2c7b3.html

Texans near border see signs that violence is closing in
09:51 PM CDT on Saturday, June 18, 2005

By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News


ZAPATA, Texas – Just three miles from the Zapata County Courthouse, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez steers his truck off the pavement onto a twisting dirt road lined with mesquite and thorny brush tall as a man. He points to Mexico, shimmering in the heat across a narrow spit of Lake Falcon.


LOUIS DeLUCA/DMN
Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez stares across Lake Falcon to Mexico. "You can cross all day by boat, and no one's going to see you." "You can cross all day by boat, and no one's going to see you. When the lake's down, you can almost drive across," Sheriff Gonzalez said. "Drug loads come through here all the time. If they can boat marijuana bales, they can bring terrorists across the lake.

"It's no longer a question of when the violence is going to bleed over to Zapata. The narco-terrorist culture is already here. We're just worried it's going to get worse."

The explosion of drug killings and kidnappings that has racked Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, 50 miles upriver resonates all too clearly in this sun-baked county of 16,000.

Zapata County residents who have lived all their lives in the shadow of Mexico now refuse to drive over to shop or see doctors because of the violence.

But for some, the threat of violence comes calling.

One Zapata businessman was threatened with kidnapping recently. And an influx of hundreds of Mexican citizens into Zapata over the last few years prompts Sheriff Gonzalez to fear that his town is becoming a haven for drug dealers and their hired guns, including members of the notorious Gulf cartel enforcers, the Zetas.

"We've seen a 35 percent increase in population over the past four or five years, and they're all coming from Mexico," Sheriff Gonzalez said. "They don't have jobs here, but they're building homes and buying new cars. They stay out of trouble, but you drive around and wonder who the hell they are and why they came to Zapata."

In much-larger Laredo, the brutality of the drug gangs is already tangible. Mayor Betty Flores blamed two recent deaths – people gunned down in Laredo businesses in daylight – on spillover violence.

Also Online
Drug wars' long shadow

Texans near border see signs that violence is closing in

Cartel enforcers operate in Dallas

Dallas boxer also implicated

Graphic: Drug trafficking in Dallas area and along I-35

DiscussLive: Chat about the situation with The News' Alfredo Corchado Wednesday
• Submit advance questions
Sheriff Gonzalez's biggest fears are the possibility of terrorists taking refuge in the remote region and the vulnerability of a network of natural gas lines that feeds the 294 billion cubic feet produced in Zapata County each year to facilities in Houston.

"This county is the third-largest producer of natural gas in the state, and it's no secret," he said. "An attack on the lines would be disastrous."

Encroaching violence
At the White House Restaurant, a group of old friends sit at their front table, drinking coffee and passing the morning. This day, their conversation centers on the troubles in Nuevo Laredo after drug gangs assassinated the police chief last week, barely six hours after he was sworn in.

There has always been an air of risk along the border, but the recent violence has upped the ante dramatically.

Mexican authorities account for 60 people killed by drug gangs in Nuevo Laredo since January. The FBI reports that drug gangs have kidnapped 32 Americans.

Even after the Mexican army arrived in Nuevo Laredo to restore order and weed out bad police officers, the drug killings continued with the shooting of two people.

"It's a dangerous time. Over there, the police will stop you for any little thing, especially if you have a Texas license plate," said Hector Lopez, 78, a retired justice of the peace. "If you pay their bribe, your problems go away"

Jorge Gonzalez, 67, agrees.

"People are scared to go across, and I'm one of them," said Jorge Gonzalez, 67. "I've been going over to Mexico all my life, but I won't go there now, not even to pick up medicine.

"When the people who wear uniforms are as bad as the drug dealers, who do you trust? No one's safe."

His brother, Herberto Gonzalez, 73, has a different idea.

"I know a lot of people in town are scared, but I go over there all the time," he said.

"Sometimes I just like to drive around. The problems there are between the police and the mafia [drug gangs]."

But the men at the White House agree that their town isn't exempt. "You do wonder if it's going to happen over here," Jorge Gonzalez said. "Maybe it already has."

'We're so close'
It's a common theme of concern in Zapata, said Peggy Umphres-Moffett, executive director of the Zapata Chamber of Commerce.

"We still feel safer here than in Nuevo Laredo, but there have been some isolated incidents of rock hunters and fishermen encountering groups of men armed with machine guns," she said.

"So this community has a growing sense of fear that the violence will spill over to us because we're so close."

And, she notes, the message is beginning to echo to points beyond the border.

Tourism is an $11 million-a-year business for Zapata County, drawing on a coalition of anglers, hunters, bird watchers and visitors who winter in South Texas.

Falcon Lake, an 87,300-acre reservoir that ranges down river into Starr County, is the second-largest freshwater lake in the state and a big draw for thousands of anglers each year.

In addition, approximately 5,000 winter Texans arrive each fall, drawn by the county's rock formations and one of the most diverse collections of bird life in the country.


LOUIS DeLUCA/DMN
The sheriff sees men making a list: 'They know our names. ... So knowing more about them is a little more urgent.' "My office gets calls all the time now from people wanting to know the situation in Mexico. No one's canceled any trips, but they're concerned. And we're very aware we have to do everything we can to ensure visitors' safety," Ms. Umphres-Moffett said.

She works closely with the sheriff's office, the Border Patrol and the FBI to monitor events in Mexico so she can assure visitors and potential investors.

"This is all very new for us. I grew up here, and visiting Mexico was like going across town to shop," Ms. Umphres-Moffett said. "Now, I won't go over there. But I'm convinced we can keep things on an even keel on the U.S. side. We can't afford to become paralyzed with fear."

'A whole lot of border'
Sheriff Gonzalez is chairman of the 16-member Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, formed this month to lobby the federal government for more help – and money – to deal with cross-border crime.

"I've always said that if I were a terrorist, I'd use the southern border to get just about anything I wanted into the United States," the sheriff said. "The Border Patrol and Customs are all concentrated at the ports of entry, and that leaves a whole lot of border wide open."

The Sheriff's Department has 23 deputies to patrol 997 square miles. There are 60 miles of border. That means about three deputies per shift each day to cover a place nearly three times the size of Dallas. Since the city of Zapata has no police, there are only the deputies.

The sheriffs' coalition will meet July 7 with federal officials in Del Rio to plead for Homeland Security Department funds to hire more deputies and improve communications equipment up and down the border.

"All we're asking the feds is to let us help them by being able to do a better job of protecting the border," Sheriff Gonzalez said. "The drug gangs are for hire. If they'll take money from the cartels, they'd certainly take it from terrorists. And we think that the drug gangs that are running things in Mexico fit the definition of domestic terrorist to a T."

Gov. Rick Perry is already sending state assistance, dispatching about 100 additional state troopers to the border and approving $1.2 million for communications equipment.

For Zapata County, the stakes are getting higher.

Sheriff Gonzalez said his department is receiving information that members of the Zetas have moved into his county. So far, he has found no hard evidence.

"We have our hands full. Last year, this department alone seized 31,000 pounds of marijuana," he said. "We hear stories about groups of heavily armed men in black uniforms walking up through the brush carrying automatic weapons, but we can't confirm it.

"We know that international bridge across the lake at Falcon Heights, you can see SUVs parked along the roadway checking on who is going into Mexico and who's coming out," Sheriff Gonzalez said. "We don't know why."

Another piece of information is a little more chilling.

"We've have pretty good intelligence that these guys are keeping a list," the sheriff said. "They know our names. They know where we live. And they know our kids' names. So knowing more about them is a little more urgent."

Sheriff Gonzalez's biggest fears are the possibility of terrorists taking refuge in the remote region and the vulnerability of a network of natural gas lines that feeds the 294 billion cubic feet produced in Zapata County each year to facilities in Houston.

"This county is the third-largest producer of natural gas in the state, and it's no secret," he said. "An attack on the lines would be disastrous."

Another reason to put the FREAKIN MILITARY ON THE BORDER!!!