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Armed standoff on Rio Grande

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Cal

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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47497


Sunday, November 20, 2005


INVASION USA
Armed standoff
on Rio Grande
Uniformed Mexicans with guns, bulldozer
seize drug-bust truck from Border Patrol


Posted: November 20, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
U.S. Border Patrol agents were backed down this week by armed men, dressed in what appeared to be Mexican military uniforms and carrying military weapons, who seized a captured dump truck filled with marijuana from the U.S. agents and dragged it across the border into Mexico with a bulldozer.

The border incident occurred Thursday evening when Border Patrol agents attempted to pull over a dump truck on Interstate 10 in Hudspeth County, Texas. The driver fled from the agents, exiting the freeway and driving toward the Rio Grande which runs within 2 miles of the interstate in this portion of West Texas.

The driver abandoned the truck after it became stuck in the river bed, escaping into Mexico.


Agents called for reinforcement from the Texas state troopers and Hudspeth County sheriff and began unloading the haul – estimated to have been nearly 3 tons – when everything changed.

Officers "started to retrieve the bundles when the armed subjects appeared," said Agent Ramiro Cordero, Border Patrol spokesman.

According to Hudspeth County Chief Deputy Mike Doyal, the dump truck driver returned with armed men, some of whom drove "official looking vehicles with overhead lights." Some of those armed, Doyal told the El Paso Times, appeared to be Mexican soldiers in uniform with military weapons.

"It's a very serious incident," Doyal said. "We are very fortunate ... no one got hurt. Everyone had the presence of mind not to cause an international incident, or start shooting."

As WorldNetDaily has reported, there are widespread reports of U.S.-trained Mexican commandos, called the Zetas, making cross-border runs into U.S. territory in military-style vehicles, armed with automatic weapons.

The Zetas were trained as elite commandos by U.S. forces to combat the drug cartels, but they have switched sides and are working for the drug smugglers in the border area posing a special hazard to American law enforcement and Border Patrol agents, according to a U.S. Justice Department memo. Under the control of reputed drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the Zetas are conducting a bloody war for control of the entire southern border in an effort to secure a monopoly on drug-smuggling and people-smuggling routes.


As both sides faced off, a bulldozer appeared from the Mexico side of the river and was used by the armed men to pull the dump truck – and the two-thirds of the marijuana that had not yet been unloaded – into Mexico. The bulldozer, Doyal said, is believed to be used regularly to make makeshift crossings over the Rio Grande.

The "armed encounter with drug smugglers," as Cordero described it, is under investigation. No confirmation was made as to whether or not the "soldiers" belonged to the Mexican military.

Related stories:

Border sheriff warns: We're overwhelmed

Mexican drug commandos expand ops in 6 U.S. states

It's war between cops in Mexico

The threat from Mexico

'It's a war' along Mexican border

Mexican commandos seek control of border

Mexican commandos new threat on border
 
I thought you were going to tell us that a man armed with a Ruger no.1 came along and said "I made that HAY" and dragged off the dump truck with a little NH garden tractor. :wink:
 
Immigration Raid At Wal-Mart Site Yields Arrests Of 125



Saturday November 19, 4:17 AM EST


SCRANTON, Pa. (AP)--An immigration raid at an under-construction Wal-Mart distribution center yielded the arrests of 125 illegal immigrants, all of whom will be deported, immigration officials said Friday.

Search warrants were executed Thursday at six companies on the job site at the Schuylkill Highridge Business Park outside Pottsville, about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

The illegal workers were from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, according to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Some of them used fake documents to obtain employment, officials said.

"Employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, and those who utilize false documents to gain employment, face significant criminal and administrative charges," John Kelleghan, acting special agent-in-charge for ICE in Pennsylvania, said in a statement.






Agents obtained the search warrants after learning that 10 workers employed by Destin Drywall & Paint were using Social Security numbers that didn't match their names. Another three used Social Security numbers that have never been issued by the government, according to an affidavit unsealed Friday at U.S. District Court in Scranton.

The search warrants sought evidence of "several potential violations, including money laundering as well as harboring, transporting, and encouraging illegal aliens to reside in the United States," according to a statement from ICE.

Houston-based Destin has worked on Wal-Mart projects around the country, including five or six currently, according to office manager Cindy Wyman. She said the 12-year-old company, which employs around 125 people, verifies that employees are permitted to work in the United States.

"As far as I know, their Social Security numbers are good," Wyman said of the Pennsylvania workers.

A Wal-Mart spokesman has said the detained workers were not employed by Wal- Mart, but by the subcontractors. Wal-Mart's contracts with the companies require that they follow local, state and federal employment laws, the company said.

The Pennsylvania job site remains shut down, Wal-Mart spokesman Marty Heires said Friday. He did not know when construction would resume.

The five other companies for which search warrants were obtained were Republic Refrigeration, Mid-States Electric, C.S. Construction Services, Jay-Ton Concrete and Frazier, a drywall company. An ICE spokeswoman said Friday that Mid-States had left the job site so no search could be conducted.

Last month, Wal-Mart shut down work on seven stores under construction in North Dakota to check for illegal aliens after two illegal immigrants working on Wal-Mart projects in Bismarck were charged with molesting two 13-year-old girls. Charges against one of the suspects were dropped after authorities found out he was a juvenile.

Heires, the Wal-Mart spokesman, said he couldn't say whether the company will take similar action to shut down construction sites in Pennsylvania.

"In North Dakota, we were able to take the action ourselves and be proactive on the effort. In this case, we can only cooperate now that the investigation is under way," he said.

In 2003, a raid of 60 Wal-Mart stores (WMT) in 21 states led to the arrests of 245 illegal workers. An affidavit claimed a pair of senior Wal-Mart executives knew cleaning contractors were hiring illegal immigrants. The retailer agreed to pay $11 million in March to settle the case but denied senior executives knew of the hirings.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
 

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