http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=5121955

Criminals Target Border Patrol

July 6, 2006, 05:50 PM


Millie Martinez, KOLD News 13 Reporter

A close call for a southern Arizona Border Patrol Agent. It appears somebody wanted to blow up his unmarked car.

The agent noticed someone had placed a homemade incendiary device near the vehicle parked at his Sierra Vista home. The device, a soda bottle filled with bullet shells did not go off. Sierra Vista Police and FBI Agents are investigating the incident.

It's just the latest in a growing number of attacks targeting border agents.

Gustavo Soto said, "There were several items laying around the vehicle that indicated that the vehicle attempted to be tortured or set fire in some way. In this case who what could have happened. Our agent could have been seriously harmed had this attempt occurred while the vehicle was being started.

It's just the latest in a growing number of attacks targeting border agents. Criminals faced with tougher border enforcement are becoming more desperate to move cargo of drugs and people into this country.

If it isn't rocks, it's gunshots. Assaults against agents are at an all time high. So, when the violence goes up agents don't back down.

"There's always the possibility that narcotic organizations and alien smuggling are going to target officers and their family."

More than 220 national guard troops are expected on the border next week arriving from New York and Kentucky. Many of them expected to be placed in the desert to watch suspicious activity.

Having guard troops on the border is already helping agents. Freeing them up to bust drug runners and immigrant smugglers and with money for thousands of new agents, the Border Patrol hopes it's just a matter of time before they can meet the goal of securing the border.