US Officials Say Binational Response Can Curb Violence EL PASO - Top U.S. law enforcement officials praised Mexico's anti-drug efforts Monday and urged more binational cooperation as an antidote to the drug-fueled violence along the border. FBI Director Robert Mueller, addressing the fifth annual border security conference at the University of Texas at El Paso, said that is concerned with the high level of violence along the border and the drug and human smuggling and gang activity that generates it. [continues 547 words]
Officials Hope to Keep Drug Cartels' Violence From Spilling North of the Border U.S. officials are warily watching Mexico's fierce response to the escalating drug violence plaguing border cities, fearful that the bloody gunbattles erupting in places like Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juarez may soon break out on the U.S. side. Helping Mexico and preventing an outbreak on the U.S. side of the border will require a multidimensional strategy that involves both nations, said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo. [continues 827 words]
Texas Leaders Hope Cartels Will Be Targets DALLAS Mexican President Felipe Calderon talks tough on law and order, and he acted tough in arresting the leaders of a violent protest in the southern state of Oaxaca. Texas leaders hope that the tough-on-crime policies extend to lawlessness along Mexico's northern border, where warring drug cartels battling for trafficking routes into the United States -- through Texas -- have killed hundreds. In his inaugural speech this month, Calderon promised to strictly enforce the rule of law in Mexico, with no tolerance for violence, whether the result of feuding drug cartels or political opposition. [continues 500 words]
Record Amounts of Pot, Cocaine Found, Along With More Potent Meth On a recent muggy Sunday, a Customs and Border Protection inspector at the Lincoln-Juarez Bridge in Laredo noticed something not quite right with the driver of a 1999 Chevy Suburban crossing in from Mexico. Within minutes, a drug-sniffing dog found 40 pounds of heroin hidden in a rear-floor compartment. Less than a mile away -- and just a few hours later -- another inspector at the Gateway Bridge found 60 pounds of cocaine stuffed under the rear seat of a Mini Cooper. [continues 1264 words]
Armed With Millions In State Cash, Police Slow River-Crossing Thieves, But For How Long? DEL RIO, Texas -- From Tommy Vick's back yard, the Rio Grande is a picture postcard of serenity as it cuts through steep limestone bluffs, sunlight catching on dark water. Until recently, it was more a battleground. For more years than anyone remembers, thieves regularly crossed from neighboring Mexico at will, ransacking Mr. Vick's Vega Verde Estates neighborhood, stealing whatever couldn't be tied down and darting back across the river before police could respond. Last November, thieves even made off with Mr. Vick's lawn tractor. [continues 1271 words]
Drug Cartels Cross Into Deadly Territory With Cache Found In Laredo SAN ANTONIO - Customs investigators seized grenades, pipe bombs and material to make improvised explosive devices twice in the last week in Laredo, federal law enforcement agents said Friday, a sign that the violence among warring drug cartels continues to escalate along the U.S.-Mexico border. Laredo law enforcement officials called the weapons' discovery - which apparently marks the first time such explosives have been found in the city - a worrisome development. [continues 1104 words]
Officials Intercept Currency Heading South After Narcotics Go North LAREDO - For Mexican smuggling organizations, the border is a two-way street. Drugs, people and other contraband move north. The money moves south. In the last three years, customs agents have seized more than $20 million in currency at the eight ports of entry from Brownsville to Del Rio - roughly one-fifth of the value of the bulk cash seizures the agency made nationally. While U.S. drug agents have long concentrated their efforts on stopping drugs at the border, they're increasingly going after the money, hitting the drug cartels in the pocketbook and providing invaluable intelligence of the trafficking networks. And with stricter controls on bank accounts and wire transfers, trafficking organizations are running piles of cash into Mexico, in cars, trucks, boats, and airplanes and even strapped to the bodies of couriers, federal officials said. [continues 1230 words]
DEL RIO, Texas - Val Verde County Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan has dealt with smugglers and drug gangs for decades, both as sheriff and as a customs agent. But in the last year, the risks of drug-fueled terrorism have raised the stakes to scary levels. Rifles and handguns have been replaced by rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, and high-caliber machine guns. "Now the bad guys have more sophisticated training and better equipment," Sheriff Jernigan said. "They're better armed and willing to shoot." [continues 1702 words]
David Mclemore knows the road of methamphetamine addiction, and now counsels drug addicts and serves on the county's meth task force. Mclemore, who currently serves as director of public relations for First Things First, said he first used meth 25 years ago "back when drugs were real drugs." He drove a truck for a Johnson City, Tenn., company, and the boss would "give everyone lines of meth before starting work." Mclemore said the drug made him feel like Superman, and gave him self-confidence and a feeling of self-worth. He also seemed to get more work done, pushing himself to work harder. [continues 1074 words]
Critics Call It PR Ploy; Supporters Hope For Better Communication TULIA, Texas - In an effort to turn aside a national reputation for racism and intolerance, the people of this small Panhandle community put their city and county judicial system under citizen review Monday. It was, they said, time to move on. Critics called it a public relations trick. Proponents, including parents of some of the 35 people pardoned last week by Gov. Rick Perry, said citizens' review was a necessary step to attract businesses and remove the taint from Tulia and the rest of Swisher County. [continues 916 words]
As Blacks Celebrate, Whites Deal With Sense Of Frustration Feelings of unfairness linger in Tulia TULIA, Texas - The day of homecoming began simply enough. After a brief courtroom appearance, the Tulia 12 walked out into a jubilant crowd that had waited four years to see them set free. The taste of freedom came in small doses. Kizzie White didn't have to get permission to hold her two children close and walk across the street. Willie Hall appeared almost dazed with the prospect of not wearing prison whites. Chris Jackson hugged his 12-year-old daughter, Brigitte, for the first time in four years, crying, "Four years, too long, too long." [continues 1173 words]
TULIA, Texas - The day of homecoming began simply enough. After a brief courtroom appearance, the Tulia 12 walked out into a jubilant crowd that had waited four years to see them set free. The taste of freedom came in small doses. Kizzie White didn't have to get permission to hold her two children close and walk across the street. Willie Hall appeared almost dazed with the prospect of not wearing prison whites. Chris Jackson hugged his 12-year-old daughter, Brigitte, for the first time in four years, crying, "Four years, too long, too long." [continues 1126 words]
Ex-AG Urges Nonpartisan Effort to Fight Money Laundering SAN ANTONIO - Strengthening state money-laundering laws to attack the nation's multibillion dollar illegal drug market should be a nonpartisan effort, former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales said Tuesday. Mr. Morales, who helped draft the state's money-laundering legislation in the early 1990s while attorney general, was one of 12 presenters during daylong testimony before Gov. Rick Perry's Anti-Crime Commission meeting in San Antonio. But Mr. Morales declined to revive charges made last year that the opposition of Tony Sanchez, his Democratic primary gubernatorial rival, to money-laundering reform had benefited terrorists and drug dealers. [continues 326 words]
Days Of Harmony In Tulia Gone Since '99 Drug Arrests Of 43 Blacks TULIA, Texas - Driving in from the interstate, Tulia is a bump on the horizon, dwarfed by a landscape hard and flat as a skillet. Even at a distance, it's clear that this small Texas Panhandle town has seen better days. The only movie house is closed. The Dairy Queen shut down for lack of business. Tulia's faded neighborhoods and empty storefronts on the town square aren't the only sign of the bad times bedeviling Tulia. [continues 2048 words]
Town Hasn't Forgotten How Marine On Drug Patrol Killed Teen In '97 REDFORD, Texas - The white cross, fashioned by hand, rises behind an old well on a stony hill near the Rio Grande. In the fading light of a winter sky, the cross shines like a beacon. It marks the spot where Esequiel Hernandez Jr., 18, died May 20, 1997, the first American citizen in 30 years to be killed by the military on U.S. soil. A young Marine corporal on clandestine anti-drug patrol shot him. Just why remains a controversy. [continues 1437 words]
Contraband Found During Border Stop A Mexican commercial bus converted to a luxury rolling entertainment center transported more than just the trappings of a successful business trip over the weekend, federal agents in Eagle Pass said Monday. U.S. customs inspectors found nearly 2,700 pounds of marijuana and cocaine with a street value of about $18 million in a hidden compartment in the bus, said John Salazar, customs port director at Eagle Pass. The seizure, the most recent large-volume haul of narcotics made at a port of entry with Mexico this year, is a sign that a dramatic increase in drug trafficking shows no signs of lessening, he said. [continues 729 words]
Family, friends testify to men's good character in San Antonio court Most don't drink or smoke. They coach youth baseball teams. They are praised as the kind of police officers any community could be proud of. According to federal prosecutors, however, they were also willing to protect drug dealers and escort loads of cocaine for a price. During a lengthy detention hearing Monday, federal prosecutors provided samples of video surveillance that showed some of San Antonio's finest offering a drug dealer they knew only as "Ricardo" from Chicago their services as bodyguards and escorts for cocaine shipments and receiving payment for their efforts. [continues 781 words]
SAN ANTONIO - The Frio County sheriff who stole money seized by his department, then tried to cover it up by selling marijuana, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday. Federal investigators praised the sentence given Sheriff Carl Henry Burris, 53, as a sign that no one, particularly a law enforcement officer, is above the law. "The corruption of any law enforcement officer is a tragic day for our criminal justice system, particularly when it represents the corruption of a high-ranking officer," FBI Special Agent in Charge Roderick L. Beverly said in a statement. [continues 300 words]
Federal Officials Don't Expect Sudden Court Jam A state prosecutors' boycott of low-level federal drug cases along the U.S.-Mexican border began its first day Monday quietly enough. Officials at the U.S. attorneys' offices that cover the border areas said there would be no instances of suddenly jammed court dockets because of the boycott. "We anticipate a jump in the number of federal cases along the border," said Mervyn Mosbacker, U.S. attorney for the Houston-based Southern District of Texas, which ranges from Brownsville to Laredo. "However, we don't expect to see an immediate rise in the numbers." [continues 558 words]
SAN ANTONIO For a moment, it appeared that the long-simmering dispute between federal prosecutors and state district attorneys along the border over the cost of referred drug cases might be coming to an end. Bill Blagg, U.S. attorney for the Western District announced Tuesday what was heralded as an agreement in principle with Val Verde County District Attorney Tom Lee for reimbursement for the costs of handling federal cases. It was supposed to be the model for similar agreements with state prosecutors along the U.S. border with Mexico. [continues 651 words]
