Tucson Region
Border Patrol had hands full with shooting, big pot haul
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.03.2007
advertisementWith another agent-related shooting, the discovery of human remains, the arrest of a convicted sex offender and the seizure of 3,600 pounds of marijuana in two separate incidents, it was busy weekend for the Border Patrol.

About 9 Friday night near Amado south of Tucson, a Border Patrol agent fired several times at the driver of a Chevrolet pickup carrying 10 illegal entrants that was coming at him, said Gustavo Soto, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector. There are no indications that anyone was hit, but agents don't know for sure because the driver and another passenger got out of the truck and ran away.

The incident began when the agent followed a group of people walking.
The agent, who was on foot, saw them get into the pickup truck. He shined his flashlight at the driver in an attempt to get him to stop, but the driver accelerated and was heading toward the agent, who then fired, Soto said.

Agents apprehended 10 illegal entrants, all from Mexico, in the bed of the truck. None of them was injured. They weren't able to find the two who fled, he said. Nine of the 10 illegal entrants will be in Border Patrol custody as witnesses. The other was voluntarily returned to Mexico because he had chicken pox, Soto said.

The Border Patrol has opened an internal investigation into the shooting. The Pima County Sheriff's Department and the FBI also are investigating. It was the fifth Border Patrol agent-related shooting since January in the Tucson Sector.

Woman's remains found
On Saturday evening south of Three Points on Arizona 286 southwest of Tucson, a resident called agents after finding the remains of a Mexican woman in her 40s, Soto said. The woman apparently died from exposure.

The agency has registered 49 known deaths of illegal border crossers in the sector since Oct. 1. That's down from 55 in the same time period in the previous fiscal year, he said.

Sex abuser of child detected
Saturday night at the Nogales, Ariz., detention center, a records check of a 24-year-old Mexican illegal entrant revealed he had been convicted of sexually abusing a child younger than 9 years old in Illinois, Soto said. The man was deported for trying to illegally re-enter the country, Soto said.

$3.6 million in marijuana
Also on Saturday, agents found 1,670 pounds of marijuana inside an abandoned Ford F-350 pickup near San Miguel on the Tohono O'odham Nation just north of the border and 1,953 pounds of marijuana inside an abandoned pickup that caught fire near Sonoita on Arizona 83 southeast of Tucson, Soto said. The 3,623 pounds of marijuana has an estimated value of $3.6 million, according to figures from the National Drug Intelligence Center.

● Contact Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/176552