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  1. #1
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    CA - Tense encounter at border tunnel

    By Greg Moran11 a.m.April 26, 2014
    U-T San Diego


    Federal authorities discovered two cross-border drug smuggling tunnels in Otay Mesa in early April. At one, U.S. agents had a surprise encounter with what some said were armed men in military garb. ICE

    Two nights after a sophisticated smuggling tunnel dug deep beneath the international border was found, federal agents guarding the tunnel’s exit in an Otay Mesa warehouse suddenly became alarmed.

    Surveillance cameras and ground sensors installed inside the tunnel picked up five men, dressed in military fatigues and carrying weapons, coming north from Mexico.

    What happened in the following minutes was a tense encounter with U.S. agents at the tunnel’s exit, and an unnerving coda to the discovery of the latest cross-border tunnel.

    Yet accounts of what precisely happened differ. The union representing Border Patrol agents in San Diego says the men were armed, but officials with the Border Patrol say they aren’t sure if they were.

    A union spokesman characterized the incident, first reported by the San Diego Reader, as an “armed incursion.” But a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency downplayed that, and said the entire matter was a case of miscommunication between authorities on both sides of the border.

    The chief of the Border Patrol sector in San Diego also disagreed with the union’s characterization and said the incident was ultimately a “nonevent.”

    The tunnel was uncovered by federal agents from a special tunnel task force inside a warehouse on Via de la Amistad in Otay Mesa on April 1. The agents had the warehouse under surveillance for five months, after receiving a tip it might be the exit point for a tunnel.

    A small hole in the floor of the building led to a 15-foot walkway, which then connected to a 68-foot-long vertical shaft. At the bottom of the shaft was the tunnel itself, outfitted with lighting and a rail system, ran for 600 yards under the border to Mexico.

    Word of the tunnel’s discovery, and that of a second tunnel nearby, was not made public until April 4, when federal agents announced the discovery and the arrest of a 73-year-old woman who was said to be a caretaker.

    At that time authorities made no mention of the events that occurred the night before.

    Border Patrol Agent Gabe Pacheco, a spokesman for the union, said the incident began around 8:30 p.m. when the sensors and cameras installed inside the tunnel picked up the movement of the five men. Those sensors are routinely installed after tunnels are discovered, according to San Diego Border Patrol Sector Chief Paul Beeson.

    Two homeland security agents then told Border Patrol agents about the men in the tunnel. Those agents then radioed for backup, Pacheco said.

    How many agents responded isn’t clear but at least four bearing automatic weapons showed up. Meanwhile, the men inside the tunnel had climbed up a ladder in the shaft to the exit on the warehouse floor. A heavy steel plate, bolted to the floor with a few air holes drilled in it, covered the opening.

    Pacheco said the men had no identification but told an agent they were part of the Mexican military. They asked for water and to be let out. Agents refused, and told them to return south.

    But the men did not immediately leave, both the union and Beeson said. After about 30 minutes, when told Mexican police were alerted and responding on their side of the tunnel, the men went back south.

    By that time, Beeson said that U.S. officials had contacted their counterparts in Mexico and confirmed the men were in the military.

    They were in the tunnel in order to measure its length, Beeson said. He said U.S officials had been told Mexican authorities would be in the tunnel taking measurements — but had not been told when.

    Pacheco was skeptical. “It’s 8:30 at night,” he said. “Normally, those kinds of things would be done during the daylight hours.”

    Pacheco said agents reported the men were armed, but Beeson said it’s unclear if they were or not. The cameras, which do not record images from the tunnel, could not precisely determine if they were.

    Pacheco said the union is concerned because the incident potentially threatened officer safety. He also noted that it’s not unheard of for cartels to use men dressed in military garb.

    “We have armed men coming into the tunnel at that time of night,” he said. “We’re glad nothing happened. Someone could have gotten hurt. We didn’t know who these people were.”

    Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for ICE, said that the agency knew the Mexicans were going to measure the tunnel but not when. “It was just a miscommunication,” she said. It is not at all unusual for Mexicans to conduct a tunnel investigation on their own, she added.

    Since the incident Beeson said officials have ironed out a new procedure to assure not further miscommunication occur. “The reality is it’s not unusual for them to be in the tunnel,” he said. “It would have been nice of they had called first.”

    http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/...nel-san-diego/
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    DHS Covers Up Another Mexican Military Incursion Into U.S.

    APRIL 29, 2014
    Corruption Chronicles
    Judicial Watch

    Another Mexican military incursion into the United States occurred near San Diego this month and the Obama administration is trying to cover it up, though officials at one Homeland Security agency have come forward with the startling details.

    The infiltration took place a few weeks ago at a cross-border drug tunnel recently discovered by federal authorities. The U.S. Border Patrol was charged with guarding the tunnel, which runs under the U.S.-Mexico border and leads to a warehouse in Otay Mesa. A group of at least five armed Mexican military soldiers came through the tunnel on April 1 and attempted to enter California through the warehouse, according to an account posted on the Border Patrol’s local union website.

    The Mexican soldiers are clearly seen on a tunnel camera carrying military assault rifles, according to Border Patrol Union official Gabe Pacheco, who is also cited in a San Diego-area news story of the incident. The chief of the San Diego Border Patrol sector, Paul Beeson, also confirms in a local news report that the armed men in the tunnel are in fact members of the Mexico’s armed forces, known as SEDENA or Secretaria de la Defensa Nacional.

    The local media outlet seemed to press Beeson to acknowledge that an incursion took place, but he downplayed the event. “We are confident they were Mexican government officials who had reason to be in the tunnel,” Beeson says. He acknowledged, however, that “it’s unfortunate that they didn’t tell us when they were going to be there.” The Border Patrol sector chief proceeded to admit that the violation “triggered a heightened law-enforcement response and appropriately so.”

    The official version from the blanket agency charged with protecting the border, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is that the incursion never happened. In fact, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Joe Garcia, contradicts the Border Patrol report in the news story. “It’s illegal and they would be arrested,” the ICE official said, apparently referring to Mexican military soldiers crossing in the U.S. without permission.

    Who to believe? Here are some facts that might help some decide. Mexican military incursions happen all the time and the U.S. government covers them up or tries to justify them when they become public. In fact, earlier this year a serious incursion occurred in Arizona. Two heavily armed camouflaged soldiers from Mexico actually crossed 50 yards inside Arizona and held American Border Patrol agents at gunpoint in a tense confrontation.

    The Mexican soldiers retreated back south after a 35-minute standoff as if nothing ever happened and the Obama administration just let it slide. The unbelievable foray was made public by a mainstream newspaper that obtained government documents this month with disturbing details of the January 26 incident. Specifically, the paper cites the Border Patrol Foreign Military Incursion report and a separate letter from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske, an Obama appointee who was recently sworn in.

    Kerlikowske admits that the intruders were “confirmed members of the Mexican military” but he asserts that U.S. border officials determined that no further action was necessary involving the matter. Like a loyal Obama lapdog Kerlikowske claims military incursions from Mexico are infrequent though he was apparently forced to admit that there were 23 incidents in the Tucson and Yuma sectors of Arizona since 2010, including three this fiscal year alone.

    Judicial Watch has done a lot of work in this area and has obtained DHS records that show Mexican military incursions occur quite often and go unpunished by the U.S. For instance, the DHS documents reveal 226 incursions by Mexican government personnel into the U.S. occurred between 1996 and 2005. In 2007 alone, 25 incursions occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border involving Mexican military and/or law enforcement. The problem has only gotten worse over the years, according to the records obtained in the course of JW’s ongoing investigation. This week JW initiated public-records requests related to this latest tunnel incursion in Otay Mesa.

    A few years ago police in Phoenix Arizona reported that three members of Mexico’s army conducted a violent home invasion and assassination operation that killed one person and littered a neighborhood with gunfire. The Mexican military officers were hired by one of that country’s renowned drug cartels to carry out the deadly operation, according to Phoenix police officials, who confirmed the soldiers were armed with AR-15 assault rifles and dressed in military tactical gear. An official police memorandum describes it as a “drug rip,” a tactical assault in which approximately 100 rounds were fired.

    http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/20...incursion-u-s/
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