Suspected Smugglers Caught on Video Scaling US Border Fence
By ASTRID GALVAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS TUCSON, Ariz. — Mar 31, 2016, 8:31 PM ET
A Mexican journalist got some unusual footage when she spotted two suspected drug smugglers scaling a tall border fence from Mexico into the U.S. and then promptly climbing back after they realized they were being filmed.
Journalist Carolina Rocha of Azteca Noticias in Mexico City was in Nogales, Arizona, reporting on the U.S. Border Patrol's use of force March 16 when she spotted two young men in black t-shirts and jeans climbing down the fence in daylight. Footage shows them carrying large backpacks that were likely holding drugs, walking while hunched over and then hiding behind some bushes and talking on what appears to be a phone before realizing the camera was recording.
"Don't record," one of the men says.
But Rocha was already rolling and not willing to stop. She told the men she was just doing her job.
"It was shocking. This is happening in front of me? And we didn't' stop recording," Rocha said in Spanish during an interview with The Associated Press.
The cameras rolled for about three minutes before the men climbed back up the fence and returned to Mexico.
Rocha said she was stunned at how quickly they scaled the fence, which is over 20 feet high. The men were gone within seconds.
She was also struck by the fact that there were three U.S. Border Patrol trucks within yards of the incident. No agents approached the men.
Border Patrol spokesman Mark Landess said it's not uncommon for smugglers to scale the steel fence, especially around Nogales, which is a busy drug smuggling corridor.
Landess said it's impossible to know why the agents didn't respond or whether they even saw the men.
"They might be waiting for something else to happen. There's no way to make an educated comment on that," Landess said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireS...fence-38069432
Border Patrol speaks out after suspected drug smugglers caught on camera
Monday, April 4th 2016, 5:27 pm PDT
Monday, April 4th 2016, 6:16 pm PDT
By Som Lisaius, Reporter
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NOGALES, AZ (Tucson News Now) -
With cameras virtually everywhere and hundreds of Border Patrol agents saturating downtown Nogales, detecting drug smugglers and illegal immigrants in a city environment is very different from doing so in the desert.
That's where Integrated Fixed Towers, or IFTs, come into play.
“It’s called integrated because it has different technologies on it,” said Border Patrol Agent Vicente Paco, pointing at a mammoth tower in a remote desert area north of Nogales.
To most people, it looks like any other communications tower.
But to the U.S. Border Patrol, "It's a great asset, a force multiplier,” Paco said.
First authorized by Customs and Border Protection in 2014, the IFT provides 360-degree surveillance utilizing laser pointers, along with radar and infrared technology to detect virtually anything that moves in the desert.
"If it's a group of armed drug mules or bandits…then we'll respond with the appropriate amount of force,” Paco said.
Seven strategically-placed towers near Nogales are about to expand across the state.
“Now we’re gonna move onto the next phase which is adding up to 52 towers throughout the Tucson Sector,” Paco said. “That’s gonna start at the New Mexico state line all the way to the Yuma County line.”
Plans to expand CBP's $145 million program coincide with controversial video shot last week when a TV crew from Mexico recorded two suspected drug smugglers climbing the border fence in Nogales and entering the United States illegally.
"What happened in that situation? And from CBP's perspective, why were those individuals not brought into custody?" Tucson News Now asked Paco.
"Obviously part of our job is to interdict or deter,” Paco said.
Border Patrol officials said they had eyes on the situation the entire time.
And the decision to stand down, they said, was based on children playing nearby, plus several homes and businesses potentially in harm's way.
"There was multiple things going on at the same time and responding with overwhelming force, going 60 miles per hours on a border road where other vehicles were driving and in this case there were reporters there -- it wasn't the best response at the time,” Paco said.
“We’re not going to overreact to a situation and we’re gonna react with the necessary force in putting our agents at a tactical advantage and also ensuring that the public is not at risk by our actions,” Paco said.
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/3...ught-on-camera
