Thread: Smuggling Attempt Ends in Shootout

Smuggling Attempt Ends in Shootout

Last Update: 2:58 pm
CHANNEL 5 NEWS

STARR COUNTY - A smuggling attempt escalated into a shootout. We understand Border Patrol agents foiled a smuggling attempt south of the Garceno area around 1:30 p.m. The smugglers were forced to turn back toward Mexico, where they clashed with Mexican military.

Officers on the scene tell us at least one injured gunman managed to swim into the United States. Law enforcement from both Starr and Hidalgo counties responded to the scene.

A CHANNEL 5 NEWS crew is also there. They saw a Starr County ambulance leaving the scene. We learned the man being transferred is now at a Starr County hospital.

We haven't been told if more gunmen managed to make it to U.S. Deputies and Border Patrol agents have set up a perimeter around the area. Authorities on this side tell us they have the area secured.

We have several crews there. We'll have the very latest on CHANNEL 5 NEWS at

http://www.krgv.com/news/local/story/Sm ... Ig32A.cspx

Details still sketchy of gunmen crossing near Escobares

November 08, 2011 10:29 PM
THE MONITOR

ESCOBARES — Gunmen crossed the Rio Grande Tuesday into the United States near where a shootout involving the Mexican military was taking place.

Several area SWAT teams responded at about 1:30 p.m. to a ranch near Escobares, just across the U.S.-Mexico border, where a shootout broke out south of the Rio Grande.

The shootout reportedly began shortly after noon but details were not immediately available. Residents on the U.S. side reported seeing members of the U.S. Border Patrol and Starr County Sheriff’s Office securing the area near the border.

Border Patrol spokeswoman Rosalinda Huey said agents had been tracking a suspected drug load near La Rosita and pushed it back to Mexico.

Border Patrol alerted Mexican authorities of the suspected load and then found an injured Mexican national on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, Huey said. Emergency crews rushed the man to an area hospital. His condition remains unknown.

The man, a suspected cartel gunman, had been shot by Mexican authorities, a separate U.S. law enforcement official said.

The official confirmed a group of as many as 15 gunmen had crossed the Rio Grande, though it remained unclear whether they were Mexican soldiers or cartel gunmen.

“We don’t know who they are,â€