The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Hazcat on March 12, 2010, 01:29:34 PM
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By Lynn Brezosky and Gary Martin
- Express-News
BROWNSVILLE — The Zapata County sheriff Thursday was questioning why a Mexican military helicopter was hovering over homes on the Texas side of the Rio Grande.
It was one of the more jarring incidents of the fourth week of border tensions sparked by drug killings, and rumors of such killings, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he'd reviewed photos of the chopper flown by armed personnel Tuesday over a residential area known as Falcon Heights-Falcon Village near the binational Falcon Lake, just south of the Starr-Zapata county line. He said the helicopter appeared to have the insignia of the Mexican navy.
“It's always been said that the Mexican military does in fact ... that there have been incursions,” Gonzalez said. “But this is not New Mexico or Arizona. Here we've got a river; there's a boundary line. And then of course having Falcon Lake, Falcon Dam, it's a lot wider. It's not just a trickle of a river, it's an actual dam. You know where the boundary's at.”
The sighting came amid ongoing fighting between the Gulf Cartel and its former enforcers, Los Zetas. The mounting death toll and crisis of fear in cities across from the Texas border have drawn global attention, as has a news blackout in affected cities due to the kidnappings of eight Mexican journalists, at least one of whom was killed.
As violence continued Thursday with a highway shootout in Tamaulipas, a Senate subcommittee in Washington heard testimony that drug cartels are trying to infiltrate U.S. agencies along the border, with corruption cases among Homeland Security personnel on the rise.
In the past two years, there have been 400 public corruption cases involving federal, state and local law enforcement agents originating from the Southwest border region, Kevin Perkins, FBI assistant director for criminal investigations, told the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee on preparedness.
James Tomsheck, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner, told the panel the drug cartels operating in Mexico are making a concerted effort to infiltrate CBP, and the agency is responding with more screening of job applicants with polygraph tests and background investigations. Corruption cases were opened last year on 576 CBP officers and Border Patrol agents.
In addition to the highway battle, news from Tamaulipas on Thursday included a 25-year-old man found dead on a roadside in Miguel Alemán. On Wednesday, three people died in one or two gun battles in Reynosa.
Four other deaths have been reported since Saturday in the cities of Mier, Camargo and Miguel Alemán.
Wednesday's confirmed confrontations in Reynosa included an evening run-in between elements of the ministry of defense and armed civilians and a battle between drug factions that lasted for hours. One woman was injured during a skirmish Tuesday between federal officials and drug operatives.
A military operation Wednesday in Reynosa reportedly resulted in the wounding and arrest of a man identified by witnesses as a former engineer for Pemex, the government oil monopoly. The witnesses told the Mexican newspaper El Universal that an attempt by army soldiers to stop his late-model white Suburban escalated into a pursuit with gunfire. More than 100 soldiers closed off neighborhood streets as part of the operation.
Gonzalez, the Zapata sheriff, said he couldn't confirm reports that the helicopter was scoping out the home of a drug criminal. He said the incursion about a mile over the border took place over a neighborhood populated by many U.S. Customs officers who work at area border crossings — and that they knew what they were seeing.
“My understanding is the U.S. military were informed,” he said. “I don't know what action was taken, if any.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/state/Mexican_military_helicopter_seen_over_US_home.html
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Not to sound like a broken record, but.....corruption of LEOs, political instability, murders, gang warfare? Damn That Al Capone! If only we had a time tested method to make it stop! ::)
FQ13
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Aim for the tail rotor.
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Aim for the tail rotor.
That's what I was thinking!
If'n I had been there I would have casually walked out into the yard with my binocs and my 30-06 slung over my shoulder.
Do a close check through the binocs and then have a seat with the Savage laying across my lap.
(not that I like to stir things up.... ::) )
;)
;D
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Keep in mind a few items, and some of these I am assuming are correct:
1. Falcon Heights is close to the border, but clearly across the border;
2. The helicopter is clearly in U.S. territory;
3. Helicopter is armed and hovering over residential area;
4. Helicopter appears to be "checking things out;"
5. Helicopter is clearly foreign military with troops at ready;
6. You feel threatened;
7. You dial 911 and report threat and that you are in fear of your safety and life;
8. You are in Texas ;D
Given all the above, and you have played the Haz card of being armed and looking at them with optics ...
What would the response of the United States military, local law and CBP be if you did take out the tail rotor?
What does I think ... The key here is that You are in Texas!
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We have treaties with Mexico allowing pursuit of criminals across each others borders, international treaties have precedence over US law.
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We have treaties with Mexico allowing pursuit of criminals across each others borders, international treaties have precedence over US law.
Damn :'( And, it sounded like so much fun :'(
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Tom, ya buzzkill.
;D
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M58 said: What would the response of the United States military, local law and CBP be if you did take out the tail rotor?
What does I think ... The key here is that You are in Texas!
And the result would probably be that the Governor declares a "Haz the Hero" day, school kids get the day off, grocery stores offer discounts on beer, beef, and briquets, and Haz gets ammo for life from a grateful state. But, then, that's Texas. In Kalifornistan, Haz wouldn't even be allowed visitors...
And we do not have treaties that allow Military Incursions--police are a maybe, but the military is a no-no.
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M58 said: What would the response of the United States military, local law and CBP be if you did take out the tail rotor?
What does I think ... The key here is that You are in Texas!
And the result would probably be that the Governor declares a "Haz the Hero" day, school kids get the day off, grocery stores offer discounts on beer, beef, and briquets, and Haz gets ammo for life from a grateful state. But, then, that's Texas. In Kalifornistan, Haz wouldn't even be allowed visitors...
And we do not have treaties that allow Military Incursions--police are a mayb e, but the military is a no-no.
+1...
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M58 said: What would the response of the United States military, local law and CBP be if you did take out the tail rotor?
What does I think ... The key here is that You are in Texas!
And the result would probably be that the Governor declares a "Haz the Hero" day, school kids get the day off, grocery stores offer discounts on beer, beef, and briquets, and Haz gets ammo for life from a grateful state. But, then, that's Texas. In Kalifornistan, Haz wouldn't even be allowed visitors...
And we do not have treaties that allow Military Incursions--police are a maybe, but the military is a no-no.
Signed under Bush, been in place for a while. It was part of one of the and drug trafficking agreements.
Another victory for the War on Drugs ::)
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Turbine/transmission is a better area with a chance of hitting something vital the first time....just from what I remember tinkering with Bell Rangers and 206's